Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

SynopsisArt 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: Days of Blood and Starlight is absolutely my favorite book in this series. First off, Akiva and Karou are split up between most of the book, so we get to dive deeper into them as individual characters instead of a couple. Karou finds her talent among the chimera and Akiva is honing his skills with the angels. Their separation also allows us to see more of their respective worlds. The worlds of the angels and the chimera are so intricate. Being able to see their similarities, as a reader, was incredible. The characters in this story don't even see how similar they are to their enemies. It's beautiful and heartbreaking all at once. Laini does a wonderful job of portraying this.

As far as stories go, this one was much darker than Daughter of Smoke and Bone. There is quite a lot more death and fighting on the page. Be careful if that's something that bothers you, but it's handled very well in the context of the world. Once again, Zuze and Mik show up in the story which helps to break up the darkness. Their interactions with the chimera was a nice change in tone. Even Karou points out how singularly unique her friend is. Unfortunately, I feel like there isn't much I can say without spoiling important parts of the first 2 books in this series, but these books are wonderful. Laini's writing style isn't for everyone, but I certainly enjoy it and her characters are to die for.

5 howls

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