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.