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. For hope.
But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?"
Title: Days of Blood & Starlight
Genre: fantasy, action, romance
Series: Daughter of Smoke & Bone #2
Pages: 513
Ages: 14+
My Rating: 5 stars
One Word: HeartbreakinglyBeautiful
Fave Quote:
"As ever when their eyes meet, it is like a lit fuse smearing past through the air between them. These past days, when this has happened, one or the other would turn quickly away, but this time they rest and let the fuse burn. They are filled with the sight of each other. Here in this cavern, this extraordinary gathering-this seethe of colliding hatreds, tamed temporarily by a shared hate-could be their long ago dream seen through a warped mirror. This is not how it was meant to be. They are not side by side as they once imagined. They are not exultant, and they no longer feel themselves to be the instruments of some great intention. They are creatures gasping at life with stained hands. There is so much between them, all the living and all the dead, but for a moment everything falls away and the fuse burns brighter and nearer, so that Karou and Akiva almost feel as if they are touching" (512-513).
Review
I'm still in that shocked phase one has when they've ended an amazing book; that phase where you are living and breathing, but you're mind is in the world of the book. It's that amazing phase where you're still in the story without reading the actual words on the page. I've never been left this shaken and emotionally distressed before. Do I only get that phase when I read such breathtaking books.
Never in the world had I loved a book so much. This book doesn't even compare to any other book I've read. I even cried at the end for it's beauty (still crying). Everything, I can't put my finger on it, just everything about the book makes me so confused and mixed with emotions, yet I still love it, just as Karou is with Akiva.
How on earth do you make a book this beautiful? I can't even fathom it. I wanted to strangle the book (if I could) when Karou wasn't telling Akiva the truth. I wanted to cry when Karou was being hurt, or when Issa came back. I wanted to do so many things because of this book, but it wasn't until the end did I break.
The end, the end, the end. The end, but not the end. After everything that happened in the book, the end was my salvation. So beautiful because Akiva never gave up on Karou, so amazing because he faced "Thiago" to compromise. All because of Karou. I broke down at the end because the love written on those pages was so real and so unmistakingly perfect.
And as if that wasn't enough, but Zuzana and Mik. I love them so much it hurts. Zuzana's funny but caring personality, and Mik's love for Zuze. Amazing book, amazing. I can't even comprehend words.
This book I can really describe with one word, heartbreaking. More like heartbreakingly beautiful because of just everything, Zuzana, Mik, Issa, Ziri, Liraz, Akiva, and expecially Karou, who has probably faced the limit of pain and loneliness anyone could ever take. My heart broke a thousand times during this book, which only made me love it more. There are times like these where I realize I could never ever write anything as good as this. Now, if only Brimstone were back...well, we have the third book for that matter.
★★★★★
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