Daughter of Smoke & Bone

Rated 4.3 out of 5 stars
By Laini Taylor
Book 1: Daughter of Smoke & Bone - Book 2: Days of Blood & Starlight - Book 3: Dreams of Gods & Monsters

The first page of the first book states "Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love". In my mind, I'm thinking Heaven, Hell, demons, white winged guardians full of light and what not. It was a wonderful relief to find out that this book has nothing to do with any of that. Taylor has stripped down everything that we believe of angels and rewritten it into a completely different kind of fantasy world. Where the beliefs of humans and their idea of heaven and hell are nothing but an ignorance of what truly is happening. After reading the first book, I really don't know what to do with myself. It is so unlike anything I expected or have ever read before.
The series starts with a teenage art school student named Karou, whose hair grows bright blue out of her head and she has been raised by something other than humans. Karou has felt that there is something missing in her life, that feeling that she should be doing something else other than attending art school in Prague. Apparently her feelings are entirely accurate; there is an entire other world that is mostly unknown and there are two different species in this world, the seraphim and the chimaera. The seraphim are angels, but nothing like humans believe angels to be- created by God with good intentions. They are at war with the "beasts" that live in their world, and now their war is spilling over onto the Earth plain. Karou meets Akiva on a quest from the chimaera that raised her, Brimstone. She immediately feels drawn to this winged stranger, and repelled by him as well. She knows in her soul that he is an enemy, yet she also knows that he is important to her. When the portals between Earth and the Otherworld close unexpectedly, can Karou learn to trust Akiva, and can they stop this war before it destroys both of their worlds? Keep reading for more spoilers....

When Karou discovers that she is a chimaera resurrected into a human body, she also realizes that she fell in love with Akiva in her prior life. A love that defied everything- the angels and beasts have always been at war. She gets beheaded at the hands of the leader of her own people for conspiring with an enemy angel- and Brimstone saved her soul to be reborn into another body. He hid her for 17 years on Earth, yet now she knows the truth.

Follow this beautiful story and find out what happens to Karou and Akiva, Eretz (the Otherworld) and Earth when the angels decide to bring the war to humans.

I really enjoyed this series, it was well written, the world building was amazing. The plot line twisted and turned wonderfully. It was nothing like I expected and everything I could hope for. The only thing I didn't love was the ending. But nothing is perfect..