Review: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

Days of Blood and Starlight

(Daughter of Smoke and Bone 2)

Author: Laini Taylor

Publisher: Little Brown Books, 2012

Genre: YA Paranormal

Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD

Overview

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.

          Karou has found out the truth about the elusive emptiness inside her. She is a revenant, a reincarnation of the chimera once known as Madrigal. Now that the Seraphim have destroyed the chimera capital, killing hundreds of her kin including her family, Karou searches for the best way to help the chimera get their vengeance. But what if revenge isn’t the answer? What if the world she and Akiva once dreamt of is still a possibility? Will she ever be able to forgive him?

Laini Taylor’s Days of Blood and Starlight has without a doubt been the best sequel I’ve ever read. Ever.

I gave Daughter of Smoke and Bone a rating of five. I want to give a 10 to this one! This is not improvement, it is evolution into something made of undiluted awesomesauce. If you loved Karou and the chimera, we get more. If you loved Akiva and the seraphim, we get more. If you loved the funny humans Zuzana and Mik, we get more! More, more, more!

          Karou has made some decisions based on the goal of saving the chimera race, but she’s put herself in the position of following order from the White Wolf. Oh yes, be prepared for some major Thiago hating. There are few villains who manage to push my buttons, but he does! That dude deserves to die a slow and painful death, seriously. In the first book, Karou learned the price of magic and now in her new role as resurrectionist, she’s paying it the hard way. I get it that she thought this was the only way to help her people, but I just wanted Karou to have more spine, to snap and stop Thiago’s injustices and cruelties. She doesn’t and I just wanted to slap some sense into that blue-haired head of hers. I guess I was so annoyed because we got strong, fighter Karou at the end of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, then we get weak, lets-herself-be-manipulated Karou here. It didn’t make sense.

          On the other hand, we have Akiva being all heroic and stuff. If you weren’t convinced of his ultimate goodness and loveableness, then you sure will now!

His ultimate battle was beautiful! And his brother and sister were just perfect. OMG. Like, I can still close my eyes and visualize it. This deserves a small quote of the scene:

Hazael and Liraz wielded their longswords two-handed, such power in their strikes as had rent the armor and hide of countless revenants. Decades of battle, hands black with their terrible tally, and their onslaught caught the guards like a force of nature.

They weren’t two fighting off eight. They were two cutting through eight.

          I loved that Taylor didn’t leave Zuzana and Mik behind. They are the comic relief amid all the blood and death, and I couldn’t have read this story in one sitting if it wasn’t for them. We also get a few new POVs and characters. There’s Kiri, a chimera from Madrigal’s tribe. I thought he was very sweet and brave. I’m sure he’ll play a bigger role in the next book and I can’t wait! Akiva’s sister and brother, Liraz and Hazael, aren’t POVs but I grew to like them a lot. I know right? They’re totally hateable in the first book, but wait ‘till you meet them here. The last POV belonged to Svevas, a chimera. I didn’t care for her scenes or her, and mostly skimmed the parts. Don’t know if she and her sister will play a more interesting part later on.

           If you loved the first book or if you didn’t love the first book, read this sequel. I urge you.

Favorite Quotes:

~Delicious Humans~

          Mik spoke in a hoarse stage whisper. “Let’s just get this out of the way so I can relax. Karou, your friends aren’t going to eat us, are they?”

          No, Karou thought. They are not. She whispered back, “I don’t think so. But try not to look delicious, okay?”

          She was rewarded with a snort from Zuzana. “That poses a problem, seeing as how we are totally delicious.” A half beat later, anxiously: “Wait. They don’t understand Czech, right?”