Days of Blood and Starlight / Dreams of Gods and Monsters By Laini Taylor

Goodreads Summary:

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.

This is not that world.

Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. Forhope.

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?

Goodreads Summary:


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 Thoughts:

I read the first in this series for the 9 3/4 Book Club. For some reason I can't start a series without finishing it. So I did.

...

And the thing is that I wanted to like these books. I didn't hate them, but they weren't great. They could have been good, the idea was solid. The execution was middle of the road with sudden swerves to extremely annoying. I don't have much to say about the second book but always whining is not hot. The third book however...

***SPOILER***

OK, seriously? Who introduces a crazy important character in the third book? Eliza the mostly human angel who happens to have the answers for everything ever? Oh yeah let's introduce her and make her the key and then barely explain all the huge crazy shit that has been going on with all the many worlds. What.The.Fuck.Ever.

I feel like the third book was a "just kidding on concluding all the shit I have been writing about for three books, I am really setting up my next series of books."

And really that is all I have to say about that. Sure, the writing was pretty in a lot of ways but I feel like the story was lacking (not Twilight lacking but pretty close).

I would not recommend these books. Sorry to the writer. I know you probably put a lot of work into these and writing is hard, but I just can't recommend these books even to fans of the genre.

While writing this review I was listening to a rerun of Castle.

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

Goodreads Summary:

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 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 hairactually 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?

My Thoughts:

This was the first selection of The 9 3/4 Book Club, which was recently formed by myself and my bestie. We judge books by their covers. Which the cover of this book is pretty. I am such as sucker for blue with black and white.

This was a really fast read for me. I would say the average reader could finish it in a week or two. I finished it in a long weekend. This is not a book I would have selected on my own as I am not a huge fan of fantastical books. This book has a lot of fantasy creatures running around making a mess of things. That being said, over all I liked the book once I suspended my disbelief enough to enjoy it. 

I was creeped out by the whole teeth hunting thing and what the point of the teeth ended up being didn't help with the creep factor. This book was more imaginative than a lot of YA novels. I liked that it was primarily set in Prague, which isn't a city I get to read about very often but have always wanted to visit.

Karou is a better female lead than a lot of YA females. But she still has some of the same annoying qualities that I wish writers would give up on. Vulnerability doesn't always have to take the form of weakness, which is all I am going to say on that.

Akiva could use a little work, which may or may not be addressed in the next book. For a fierce fighting angel he has a lot of growing up to do. I didn't love the overly masculine and immature nature. Those two things don't really balance this character so mostly I wanted to punch him and say "dude, grow some balls." But the end of the story he is all sorts of mean and evil so I am not sure how I feel about that.

Overall, I would say this was a good read. I would recommend it to fantasy folks who love some teen drama but want something better than the Twilight series.

While writing this review I was listening to They by Jem.