Review: Daughter of Smoke & Bone

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

"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 grows dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal other-wordly 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 beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery 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?" -Goodreads
Release Date: September 27, 2011
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Page Count: 418
Buy Link: Amazon.com
Favorite Quotes:
"She was lonely, and she feared the missingness within her as if if might expand and...cancel her. She craved a presence beside her, solid. Fingertips light at the nape of her neck and a voice meeting hers in the dark. Someone who would wait with an umbrella to walk her home in the rain, and smile like sunshine when he saw her coming. Who would dance with her on her balcony, keep his promises and know her secrets, and make a tiny world wherever he was, with just her and his arms and his whisper and her trust."

"It was like stepping into the pages of a book-- a book alive with color and fragrance, filth and chaos-- and the blue-haired girl moved through it all like a fairy through a story, the light treating her differently than it did others, the air seeming to gather around her like held breath. As if this whole place were a story about her."

"The blade of his long sword gleamed white from the incandescence of the wings-- vast shimmering wings, their reach so great they swept the walls on either side of the alley, each feather like the wind-tugged lick of a candle flame."

"It was a remarkable sight, the sky beginning to flush pale at the roots, all the towers bathed in a soft glow, the streets of the city still shadowed and aglitter with fireflies of lamplight and the weaving, winking beam of headlights."

"The sun climbed above the hills and she watched as its glow herded night into the shadows where it gathered, all the darker for its density-- all of night crowded into the slanting places beyond the reach of dawn."

"Happiness. It was the place where passion, with all its dazzle and drumbeat, met something softer: homecoming and safety and pure sunbeam comfort."

Wow, wow, wow. Liani Taylor, you are my new literary hero.

Karou is a normal girl, if you consider normal knocking on doors behind which lie the portal to another world. She has tattooed eyes on her hands, wishes on a magical beads from her necklace, and meets bounty hunters to collect teeth. She was raised by Brimstone, a Wishmonger, and three of his chimaera hybrid friends. She fills her sketchbooks with pictures of her creature companions but feels a void inside. She doesn't know her parents or her past or what Brimstone does with the animal teeth.

Creative and fantastical storyline. The made up mythology blew my mind, especially about the sun and two moons. The connection between characters was electric. Not just between our two main characters who have the hots for each other, but even the friendship between Karou and Zuzana was entirely believable. I absolutely adore Zuzana's patience with Karou. She puts up with her "errands" without explanation, gets really protective when meeting "the new guy," and artistically carries out Karou's semester project idea.

You'll love this book if you like...
- Artists or hobby driven characters (Karou and Zuzana both attend an art school in Prague)
- Exotic locations intrigue you (Did I mention Prague? That's only the tip of the iceberg)
- People leading double lives (Behind door number one is...)
- A good love story that builds in tension
- Creativity
- Mystery (I couldn't guess the twist)
- The non-traditional angel (fiery wings, guys)
- Wishes and/or knives (Be surprised)
-  Writing that sweeps you away

I couldn't put this book down. And even though a ton of the book was flashbacks, they built the world up in such a strong way. I know this has set the second book up to be amazing. I even saw there's a 2.5 volume that goes into Zuzana's love story!

The best thing about discovering a series so late...all the books are already out.  I don't have to wait that agonizing year in between books and forget all the details.

This brings me to my question for you:
What awesome series did you discover after some or all of the books were out?

--BUY DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE HERE--