Days of Blood and Starlight (#2) by Laini Taylor
Published by: Little Brown Books for Young Readers on November 6th 2012
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance
Pages: 517
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased

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Synopsis: Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.

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?

Review: I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the one before it. There seemed to be less action in this one. I think because the setting was new and there were a lot of new characters introduced. Taylor’s writing is phenomenal. They way she describes characters, worlds and events is so spot on and unique. I also find myself wanting to grab a highlighter and marking every great line/quote I find but then my book would probably be super yellow.

The Characters – It got a little confusing with all the different races. There’s chimera, seraphim, stelian, revenants… I’m probably missing one. Caprine? Anywho, it would’ve been nice to have a little index that I could’ve out a sticky note in to reference. As always I liked Karou and Akiva (I wish there was more scenes with the two of them in it together – but alas). There’s more Mik and Zuzanna. There relationship and storyline is cute. Interested to see if they make it into the last book. They probably will. Mik still has 2 tasks to go ;).

The Plot – It was a very slow beginning. I found myself trying to read it on the subway and I just kept closing the book and choosing to shut my eyes instead. However, once I pushed forward I couldn’t put it down wanting to devour every page as soon as possible. I guess in a way it slightly suffered that second book syndrome in the beginning but the last portion made up for that. It is set up nicely for the third one. I’m excited to see what plot twists will come our way.

The Writing – Like I said above, the writing is fantastic. I will read whatever this woman puts out.

The World Building – This is great too. At times confusing but it makes sense. You can picture each part of the places she writes about.

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