Wednesday 22 May 2013

Review: Days of Blood and Starlight

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Title: Days of Blood and Starlight

Author: Laini Taylor

Series: Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton 

Publication date: 08 Nov 2012

Format: Hardback | 528 pages

Genre: YA | Fantasy

Goodreads



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.



My thoughts:


Days of Blood and Starlight basically starts off where Daughter of Smoke and Bone ended. There's not much time in between the books and what was left out was explained pretty well. One thing I did notice was that I fell right back in love with all of the characters at once - the first book was truly that memorable as was Laini's writing - I fell right back into the rhythm of it. Gorgeous, gorgeous writing style.


This book was one that was sad without anything truly upsetting actually happening. I just felt so much for the characters that when they cried I wanted to cry, when they were simply upset I was too and when there was that brief moment of happiness, I dared think that maybe Laini Taylor would make it okay in the end. I've never actually wished so much that an author make everything turn out okay - it just seems to cruel for this series to end in a bad way. Please Laini? PleaseI


I was actually reading this while revising for exams so, naturally, it took me ages. It drove me crazy - I was so close to dropping revision just to find out what happens because the suspense was killing me. The exam was terrible BTW but that's life sometimes :P


The plot was breathtaking. The best word that comes to mind is desperate. I felt the characters desperation the whole way through, even when nothing of great significance was happening - Zuzana's desperation to know Karou is okay, Mik's desperation to keep Zuzana safe, Karou's desperation to find a way out of multiple situations and Akiva's desperation to begin to atone for his mistakes. 


Akiva just broke my heart. His every thought and action and why he was doing what he was doing - it brought tears to my eyes multiple times. Both Akiva and Karou are two of my all time favourite characters in all of the books I've read so far in my life - really beautifully written characters in a beautifully imagined world. 


My rating: 10/10


Laini Taylor:

Goodreads | Blog

 

Daughter of Smoke and Bone:

  1. Daughter of Smoke and Bone
  2. Days of Blood and Starlight
  3. Dreams of Gods and Monsters

1 comment:

Michelle Fluttering Butterflies said...

I have a copy of this waiting to be read, I'm really looking forward to reading it!