Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Synopsis: "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.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands", she speaks many languages - not all of them human - and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?"

Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Series: DoSaB #1
Genre: Romantic Fantasy, YA
Pages: 418
Ages: 14+
My Rating: 5 Stars
My Word: Perfect Romance
My Fave Quote: "Snap.
Rushing, like wind through a door, and Karou was the door, and the wind was coming home, and she was also the wind.
She was all: wind and home and door.
         She rushed into herself and was filled.
         She let herself in and was full.
         She closed again. The wind settled. It was as simple as that.

         She was whole" (307).

Review
So I got this book at the library, right when I walked in I saw it on the "staff picks" shelf, and while checking it out, I sort of made friends with the librarian. She picked the book as her "staff pick" and since I picked it out, we were instant friends. She told me how good it was, and that there were two more books in the series.

So, taking the advice from a librarian, I had contradicting feelings about the book before reading. Will it be a good read? Did she over exaggerate? And yes, these are the kind of thoughts that go through my head when I think of a book.

You can never understand how much you hate a good book that says "to be continued..." At the end until you've read one.

I'm still processing... My mind is screaming from everything that I just read. This book was amazing beyond words. Everything that Karou felt I felt, the anguish, the fear, the love, the hatred.

I'm laying in my bed here with the book on my lap while my brain is still recuperating from a roller coaster of emotions. This book was one of the few that felt like I was actually there as Madrigal or as Karou instead of reading the journey.

The ONLY thing I have to critique is that the book was left into two story lines, with Karou's life in the beginning and madrigal flashbacks towards the end. I really wanted to know more about Suzanna and Kazmir, but I will hopefully get more of them in the upcoming books.

What else is there to say? Laini Taylor made this book a whole other world, so pure, emotional, and real with the most simplistic, yet meaningful writing. The romance was so beautiful and real between Akiva and Madrigal that I felt like I was there. Brimstone, Chiro, Suzanna, and all of the other characters flavored the book with a twisting and juicy storyline.

I'm so happy for making friends with the librarian and for picking out this book. Maybe it was meant to be for me and this book since it was right there when I walked into the library, just like Akiva and Madrigal were meant to be ;D no? Not funny?
★★★★★