Review:~ Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor



5 stars


Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Author: Laini Taylor
Published: September 2011 by Hodder
Source: Hodder

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 grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Featuring necklaces made of wishes; an underground shop dealing in teeth; magical tattoos; a wishbone on a cord, DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE is a thrilling story about Karou and her secret life as an apprentice to a wishmonger. Karou manages to keep her two lives in balance. On the one hand, she is a seventeen-year-old art student in Prague; on the other, errand-girl to an inhuman creature who deals in wishes and is the closest thing she has to family. Her life is surrounded by mysteries she is desperate to unveil.


Opening line: Walking to school over the snow-muffled cobbles, Karou had no sinister premonitions about the day.

Closing line: This was not the end.

Favourite quote: "You were true to her, even if she was not to you. Never repent of your own goodness, child. To stay true in the face of evil is a feat of strength"
~Brimstone~

I loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone and I have read other reviewers state their review of the book won't do the story justice and I can totally understand where they are coming from!!

Laini Taylor's book is one of those kind of story's that stays with you long after you have finished reading. Taylor creates a world, that as a reader you never want to leave. You are sucked in from the first page and taken on an emotional roller-coaster ride. I love to read books and get lost in another world but it's not often I feel a tug at my heart (I'm emotionally hard) but this year there have been several books that do just that and Daughter of Smoke and Bone is one of them.

Living in Prague Karou is no ordinary 17 year old. She is living half her life as a normal teenager and amazing art student and the other half as a 'tooth-runner' for Brimstone, yes you read right, a tooth-runner. And what does she receive as payment for her trouble, wishes of course! In all her 17 years with Brimstone Karou has never really understood his work or why the teeth are needed, but all that is about to change as she notices black handprints are appearing on the magical doorways she uses to travel the world.

The book is set in four parts in which we see Karou's story unfold in the present and the past. I will admit this threw me a little at first but Taylor knows what she is doing and shes teases by giving us a little insight into each section. And although we might think we know what will happen it is often different.
Several different stories are told throughout Daughter of Smoke and Bone as we switch between the past and present and angels and devils. Much of the story is told through Karou but we also get to see things from Akiva's point of view, he being an angel with wings and eyes like that of fire.

At times the flashback sequences almost felt like reading a different book but overall for me this was a good thing because of what we discover. I'm sorry, I can't say much more than that otherwise it will spoil the whole book. I will say that I had a feeling about what was to happen and who a certain person was early on in the story and I was right :)

I loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone!! I loved how Taylor made her characters strong even in the face of death. Karou is the kind of female I like in a book, she's strong, determined and she doesn't take crap from anyone! As for Akiva, his tormented soul has a place in my heart. And of all the characters I was shocked as I grew to love Brimstone. He starts of as the kind of character you love to hate but in the end you will totally come full circle and like me, I think you will love him.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a story which revolves around a long ancient war and a love story that should never have been allowed to happen. It will tug at even the hardest of hearts and leave you wanting more.