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Book Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, #1)

Author: Laini Taylor

Publisher: Little, Brown

Rating: 4.5/5

Synopsis (taken from the series' official site):
Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well.
Meet Karou. A young art student from Prague. She has bright blue hair, an ear for languages… and a haunted past she can’t quite remember.
When a mysterious stranger — the beautiful, haunted Akiva — fixes his fire-colored eyes on Karou 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? And will this newfound love survive the threat of a brutal otherworldly war?

Cover:


Review:
The first thing that struck me about Daughter of Smoke and Bone was the beauty of Laini Taylor's prose. While reading this book, I told my mother that I wanted to take Taylor's words, fashion them into a blanket and wrap myself in them. I meant it and I still stand by that statement. Laini Taylor's gorgeous descriptions of Prague will fill you with wanderlust no matter the amount of satisfaction you feel with your current location.

Each time I read this book and read about the art Karou creates, I'm filled with a desire to pick up my sketchbook and draw portraits, or landscapes, or really anything I can think of. It's less that I wish I could draw as well as Karou, though I do, and more that I want to have a collection of sketchbooks to rival hers. Karou has an expansive series of numbered sketchbooks that are filled to the brim with things from the expected sketches of her friends to drawings of monsters to fake mustaches adhered to the pages. Karou's sketchbooks are what I wish my writing notebooks were like, but I fear they are nowhere near as enchanting.

This book also contains one of my female friendships which is the friendship between Zuzana and Karou. Zuzana is the truest friend Karou has ever had and the two girls share an intense bond despite the fact that Zuzana doesn't know much about Karou's origins, mostly owing to the fact that Karou isn't entirely sure what her origins are. Every one should have a friend as loyal as Zuzana.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a gorgeous book with astoundingly beautiful fight scenes. It is also a book that will make you fall in love. With the book itself, with Prague, with the characters, or maybe with all three.

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