TITLE: Days Of Blood & Starlight
SERIES: Daughter Of Smoke & Bone #2
AUTHOR: Laini Taylor
PUBLICATION DATE: November 6, 2012
PUBLISHER: Little, Brown, And Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc
PAGES: 513 pages
FORMAT: Hardback
SOURCE: Purchased
RATING: 4 stars
So…I don’t really know how to summarize this story. I’m not even going to try. I’m just going to jump right into the review. This is yet another book that I can’t give 5 stars to. What is it lately with me not being completely satisfied? Am I just becoming too picky? Was it really possible for me to become more picky? Anyway, this one can’t get the top score because the first half was so boring that I had to force myself to read it ****SPOILER****and because Hazael dies, which made me incredibly sad.****END SPOILER*** Considering how well the first one was written and how I couldn’t get enough of it, that’s really saying something. I understand that we are talking about war and that we need to see the different perspectives, but that doesn’t mean I need to read several chapters about a random girl and her sister escaping from their Seraph captors and running to freedom. Seriously? I don’t care. I wanted to read this book because I wanted more of Akiva and Karou (and Zuzana, the best friend a good could have, not to mention amazing comic relief), not the hardships of war. Yeah, I know Akiva fucked up majorly last time and there is no way Karou can forgive him, after all, he did murder the only family she’s ever know, but I at least wanted to see the confrontation between the two!!! Which you do get to see, if you can get through the first half.
Almost literally at the halfway point, everything starts to pickup. Zuzana finally tracks Karou’s ass down and Akiva realizes that Karou isn’t dead and the war on both sides starts to get a little more complicated. Karou’s fiery spirit is finally resurrected and the beautifully lyrical writing returns. It’s everything you imagined the sequel to Daughter Of Smoke & Bone to be. You finally get to see the chimera world, present day, and you learn more about their land in general. Zuzana is by far my favorite character, though Akiva’s siblings, Hazael and Liraz give her a run for the money because they are amazing as well. Then there is Akiva himself who has done so many bad things for reasons so twistedly wrong that they almost seem right. He is definitely in the running for my favorite male angel ever. How can you not love a guy whose nickname is Prince Of Bastards?!?!?
Then there is the cliffhanger ending, which I surprisingly didn’t mind. I think it’s because the main storyline ties itself up nicely and it’s one of those cliffhangers that basically says “tomorrow, there will be doom, but tonight, we are gonna enjoy ourselves a bit while we can.” And I really don’t mind those.
If you enjoyed DOSAB, then this will definitely be something you want to read, if you can just stomach the first 250 pages. Once you get past that, you’re in for the ride of your life!
Bows & Bullets Reviews 