Review: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Source: Library

Synopsis from Goodreads:
Once upon a time, an angel and a devil held a wishbone between them.

And its snap split the world in two.

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a new way of living – one without massacres and torn throats and bonfires of the fallen, without revenants or bastard armies or children ripped from their mothers’ arms to take their turn in the killing and dying.

Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon’s secret temple and dreamed of a world that was a like a jewel-box without a jewel – a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with their happiness.

This was not that world.

Book 2 in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series

If you haven't started this series yet- what are you waiting for??! Read it! Daughter of Smoke and Bone was easily the best book I read last year, and reading the new sequel this year has just reminded me why. Definitely darker than the first book, but still, this story- and this unique world pulled me in and gripped me- I couldn't put it down... and even when I did I'd be dreaming of deserts, monsters, and teeth.

So many times I would stop and re-read a page again just because it was so beautiful. There is a very lyrical  quality to the writing that makes you feel like you are in a old fairy story. But I loved the combination of the old-world charm and fantasy of the world of Eretz, and the modern world.

Karou and Akiva's story seems to be the most impossible tragic romance, and their actions have consequences for the whole world. The Angels and the Chimera are now at war and their war is leaking into the modern human world as well. There is a constant sense of doom, and impending disaster, and I loved the building tension and the unravelling of events.

This book is packed with so much tragedy, emotional upheaval and surprises! I don't know how I can be reduced to tears, be hopeful, despairing, terrified, and giggling with laughter all in one chapter- but apparently I can.

Much of the humour of the book comes from Karou's best friends Zuzana and Mik, and can I just say how much I LOVE them! The book would be a darker place without them in it. They are both so sweet, funny and completely supportive of Karou despite everything she drops on them. I adore their relationship, and Mik's attempts to complete Herculean-type tasks to win Zuzana's hand just had me  "aww"-ing and melting in a soppy puddle of goo.

As well as sticking with the familiar characters from the first book we also see a wider cross-section of Eretz and it's peoples, and I really enjoyed getting more deeply emotionally involved in this story and the characters' lives, plus the shifting perspectives between different characters gives us a glimpse into the bigger picture of what is happening across the world.

All I want to say shout from the rooftops to everybody is "read these books!" The story is just epic and incredible, the dialogue and descriptions are sublime, and I swear the pages drip with magic as you read them.