Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

my rating: 5/5 stars

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 grows 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 one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored 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?

My Review: THIS BOOK. Oh, sweet Jesus. Brb, going to go weep uncontrollably while I wait for the second book to come out!!! Gahhh!!

*controls sudden burst of emotion* WHEW. Alright, where do I even begin? This book for me was unlike anything I've read before! Between the magical, splendorus world Lani Taylor created, to the exquisite writing, I was awed from page one. Some authors have this amazing ability to wrap their readers into the story and make them believe they are a part of it, and boy does Ms. Taylor have a talent for that! I can't even put into words how magical this story was. it's just....I was so....this story....gahh!

I will have you know though, I almost gave up on it. Yeah. Cray, right? It was about right in the middle of the book. The fist 160 pages were amazing! I was reading, it was all good, and then BANG. The romantic interest appears. Enter, Akiva. He's tall, incredibly handsome, and oh yeah--he's an angel. As soon as he and Karou met, it was like, sudden insta-love. If there was ever a person to represent all hate for insta-love in literature, it would be this girl. I can't stand it! So naturally, I muttered profane words of dislike at my book and didn't pick it up until a couple days later. After I simmered down a bit, I decided the first half of the book was just too good to give up on. Thank goodness I did because after a few more moments of gag-me romance, the story got exceedingly better! We figure out the missing pieces of the story and the whole insta-love thing is explained and the masqueade ball happens and ohmigod its just all too good! Oh, I wish I could say more, but I can't spoil this book. No siree! Fellow reader, you MUST read this. That is an order.

Now excuse me while I go bow down to Laini Taylor because SHE IS A FREAKING GOD.