Quick Review: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

Series: Daughter of Smoke & Bone 2
Format: Hardcover
Excerpt
Release Date: November 6, 2012
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Source: Public library
Genre: YA-Fantasy
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository 

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?

Transition book? Say what now?

There is no such thing as far as DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT by Laini Taylor is concerned. I never thought it possible, given how Daughter of Smoke and Bone was so brilliant, but this managed to top its predecessor. I will no longer bore you with the details because being one of the few people who haven't read this book yet, I'm sure our other friends have already given you the down low on the story and I don't want to be redundant.  I actually wasn't planning on posting a review here on the blog but because I LOVE this series so much I have to convince some of you to READ the series. This is one of those elite sort of tomes where it doesn't just get you invested, it permeates your reality.

• The world building is MASTERFUL. Everything is so vivid if magic were real I won't be surprised if the pages suck me in a la Ink Heart.
• The flow is steady and IMHO DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT is more emotional than Daughter of Smoke and Bone as Karou deals with the death of Brimstone and her friends, the loss of Akiva and the raging war going on between the seraphs and the chimera. 
• Gotta love Zuzanna! That girl reminds me so much of a Harajuku doll
• There is a chapter called The Deception and my jaw got unhinged until I have to pick it up from the floor. I think I underestimated Karou and her cunning mind. Not only did Brimstone train her well as a Resurrectionist but her quick thinking will change the course of this war. 
• I know I'm supposed to root for the seraphs but I can't help but cheer for the Chimeras. There's no black and white anymore, morality just became a relative term and every line has been blurred.
• Lastly, I was weeping like a baby on two separate occasions. One was when Akiva and Karou finally saw each other again (quote below) and the death that happened on page 451 which dragged on til the end. OMG! I never saw that coming, I felt like I've been gutted and my entrails fed to rabid dogs! My heart went out to Akiva, Liraz, Hazael and Karou. 

Even if you don't read Fantasy or are fond of reading YA (like my dear cousin, Debbie), MAKE AN EXCEPTION for this series! Laini Taylor is in a class of her own and SPECTACULAR isn't enough to give Daughter of Smoke and Bone and DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT justice.

I lost my soul. "I lost our dream. Vengeance eclipsed everything. I barely remember the weeks and months after..." After I watched you die, and part of me died, too. "I can't account for what I've done, let alone atone for it. I would bring them all back if I could. I would die a death for every single Chimera. I would do anything. I will do anything, and everything, and I know... I know it will never be enough..." {Akiva}