Review (Becky): Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Title: The Daughter of Smoke and Bone Author: Laini Taylor Pages: 417 Audience: Young Adult Genre: Fantasy (urban, paranormal) Rating: 4-I'd take this book for coffee in Prague!

Goodreads Summary

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

My Thoughts
***spoiler alert-please don't read this review unless you've already read the book!***  I really liked this book, and thank goodness for that because If I didn't like it I knew hoards of fangirls would come and destroy me. It's a variant of the Romeo and Juliet tale, so it is focused like a laser-beam on romance, which really is not my thing. I managed to swallow it, however, because it was wrapped so delightfully. 
The details about Prague were amazing and I felt like I was actually there. I wouldn't have minded even more of that, really. About 75 percent of this book is imagery, and most of that focused on how flawlessly beautiful the main characters were. That can get tiresome, at least for me, but there were some creeptastic creatures as well. 
I also loved the descriptions of the chimera and their magic, namely how it used teeth and pain to create new bodies for the dead. THAT WAS AWESOME. I also liked Karou's character development. She felt like a real girl, and was also awesomely kick-ass. I didn't really care for Akiva, though. He was the typically hopelessly and helplessly in love male protagonist that keeps cropping up in teen lit these days.  His attachment to Karou felt very insta-lovey to me and even with the explanation I wanted more substance and reason for the initial attraction.  Hopefully he'll be developed more in book two, which I cannot wait for. 
For another view of this book, check out Randi's review!

FTC Disclaimer

All reviews are solely the opinions of Becky and/or Randi. We are not paid in any way for our reviews, and all opinions are 100% honest.