Title: Dreams of Gods & Monsters
Author: Laini Taylor
Series: Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Published: April 2014
SYNOPSIS:
By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her, if there can even be a future for the chimaera in war-ravaged Eretz.
Common enemy, common cause.
When Jael's brutal seraph army trespasses into the human world, the unthinkable becomes essential, and Karou and Akiva must ally their enemy armies against the threat. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people.
And, perhaps, for themselves. Toward a new way of living, and maybe even love.
But there are bigger threats than Jael in the offing. A vicious queen is hunting Akiva, and, in the skies of Eretz ... something is happening. Massive stains are spreading like bruises from horizon to horizon; the great winged stormhunters are gathering as if summoned, ceaselessly circling, and a deep sense of wrong pervades the world.
What power can bruise the sky?
From the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond, humans, chimaera and seraphim will fight, strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy.
At the very barriers of space and time, what do gods and monsters dream of? And does anything else matter?
MY REVIEW:
This book was like an exquisite, rich dessert. I could only read small bits of it at a time, needing to digest and appreciate the beautiful writing in small amounts.
Dreams of Gods & Monsters is not a book to be devoured, it's a book to be savored. Every sentence, every event, every moment is carefully orchestrated and written in a way that sucks you into the world of Karou and Akiva.
The characters are vivid and the story is so realistic, it's hard to accept the possibility that Eretz, chimaera, seraphim, godstars and nithilam don't actually exist. (At the very least, let there actually be Zuzana because I love the hell out of her!)
There is just the right amount of humor, romance, suspense, action, mystery, and soul to make this a story you will never forget. This book is heavy (literally since it's over 600 pages and figuratively since the language is so gorgeous). I would recommend the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy to all lovers of fantasy.
SUM IT UP:
Follow me on Goodreads to see all of my reviews.
Visit my website for information on my books, giveaways, and other fun stuff.
www.christinemanzari.com
Title: Days of Blood & Starlight
Author: Laini Taylor
Series: Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Published: 2012
SYNOPSIS:
Once upon a time, an angel and a devil held a wishbone between them.
And its snap split the world in two.
Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a new way of living – one without massacres and torn throats and bonfires of the fallen, without revenants or bastard armies or children ripped from their mothers’ arms to take their turn in the killing and dying.
Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon’s secret temple and dreamed of a world that was a like a jewel-box without a jewel – a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with their happiness.
This was not that world
MY REVIEW:
This book was incredible. Written in different points of view, the writing is poetic and enthralling. I was worried I wouldn't know what was going on since it had been a while since I had read Daughter of Smoke & Bone, but I got right back into the story quickly and loved every page of it.
I loved Mik and Zuzana in the first book and am so glad they were in this story to bring their sweet humor to lighten up the darkness of the world Karou is thrown into. She has discovered her past and knows that she fell in love with the enemy. Now Akiva and Karou have to discover where their loyalty lies—with each other or their individual races. Through Taylor's amazing writing, I can feel Karou's turmoil as she tries to decide if love has any place in her new reality or if some betrayals and histories are too deep to ever overcome.
I didn't think Laini Taylor could top the writing in her first book...but she did. She DID!
SUM IT UP:
Follow me on Goodreads to see all of my reviews.
Visit my website for information on my books, giveaways, and other fun stuff.
www.christinemanzari.com
Title: Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Author: Laini Taylor
Series: Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Published: September 27, 2011
SYNOPSIS:
Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, sorched 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 grow dangerously low.
And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly 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?
MY REVIEW:
A....Mazing. Beautifully written and well done through and through.
Laini creates an amazing world of angels and devils (chimaera) unlike anything I've ever seen or read about before. She flips the tables on the reader, taking the myths and legends we're so familiar with, smashing them to bits, and piecing them back together in monstrous perfection like they were something from Brimstone's resurrectionist table. Because sometimes the good guys aren't as good as they'd like us to think. And sometimes things that are horrifying, are really quite beautiful and lovely if we have the patience and strength to look deeper.
Akiva and Karou are a modern day Romeo and Juliet with a twist and this story was gripping and fantastic. Can't wait for the next one.
SUM IT UP:
Follow me on Goodreads to see all of my reviews.
Visit my website for information on my books, giveaways, and other fun stuff.
www.christinemanzari.com
