Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke and Bone was a frustrating book to read.

Things I liked about it:

• The locations.
• Karou being an art student (though Karou herself I’m a bit ambivalent about)
• The writing style. This is not usually the type of wiring I like, but it flowed well and added to the magical, otherworldly feeling of the story.
• Zuzana. I wished we saw more her. Hopefully she appears regularly in the next book.
• Karou’s chimera family, especially Brimstone.
• The mystery of the teeth.

Many elements I don’t usually like in other books I enjoyed in this one. However, what I didn’t like (and what the whole story is pretty much based around):

AKIVA. Such a dull love interest. I guessed his and Karou’s connection, and at first it seemed like their insta-love was subverted. However, once their connection is explained it still feels like insta-love.

Reading the summary for the sequel, it sounds like Karou and Akiva will spend some time apart, and we get to see more of Elsewhere. Also Thiago. He’s shown to be a creepy scumbag so far, but he intrigues me. Onto the sequel!