Review & GIVEAWAY: Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #1) by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #1) by Laini Taylor 

Published: September 27th 2011
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Page Count: Hardback, 420
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal
Find the Author: Website, Good Reads, Twitter, Blog
Buy This Book:  Amazon, Book Depository
Add It To Your Good Reads Shelf

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky. 
In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low. 
And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war. 
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? - Good Reads

This book started out and I thought to myself, "Mmm, this is kind of trippy." and then I thought it was a little weird and then... I fell in love! Laini Taylor, where have you been all my life? I hadn't heard of her before I read this and I definitely want to check more of her novels out, because her writing is stylish and I love it. 

“She moved like a poem and smiled like a sphinx.”

“It is a condition of monsters that they do not perceive themselves as such. The dragon, you know, hunkered in the village devouring maidens, heard the townsfolk cry 'Monster!' and looked behind him.” 

“Yearning for love made her feel like a cat that was always twining around ankles, meowing Pet me, pet me, look at me, love me.” 

The descriptions were rich and I was able to imagine some fantastical creatures that I've never seen before as clear as day. That's a big deal to me: being able to get a clear picture in my mind of what I'm reading. I've been know to put down books that lacked good descriptions because it's hard for me to get lost in a story, because I'll sit and obsess about what I should be seeing while I read. And there were very few parts of the story that dragged and when they did it didn't last very long and I was back in the groove. 


I'm not going to go into too much detail about what the book contains and what the paranormal aspect is, because the summary is vague and I went into it in the dark and that made it all the better! But Laini Taylor has a bright and vivid imagination: she takes something that tends to be cut and dry and fairly similar in each novel I've read and turned it into something elaborate, exciting and different. 


There was a wonderful romance and studly love interest. They were totally starcrossed SOULM8S and I eat that up. And back to the studly love interest: he's just UNSGSDKHGKDFHGHFDKGDKFDHFKGHDKJFGDKJFG - very cool. I'd hit it. I agree with Karou's best friend when she first saw Akiva and said, “Oh, Hell. Must. Mate. Immediately.” 


Please go forth and read this book! It's amazing! 


                                                             5 out 5 Hello Kitties!

GIVEAWAY TIME

I have a hardback copy to giveaway. I am a dummy and completely won two copies on this book. I'll be completely honest... I actually mixed the title up with The Girl of Fire and Thorns. Yeah, point and laugh! Fiiiiiiiiine! I'm stupid! So, I have an extra copy. And I want to share it with you! This is unfortunately for US entrants only though, because I'm too poor to afford international shipping. BUT IF YOU'RE INTERNATIONAL... If you really want this book, go ahead and go over to my 200 Followers Giveaway and enter and if you win you're free to choose a copy of this instead!