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Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1)

Laini Taylor

Start date: December 11, 2011

Finish date: December 30, 2011

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What Members Thought

Sep 10, 2012 Carrie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult, urban-fantasy, part-of-a-series, re-read, rrrc, 1st-in-a-series, demons, you-want-me-to-read-what, kickass-spirited-strong

Dec 13, 2018:
Just as good as the first time around.

I really liked this book, original and different. The second half dragged a little for me. But over all the story was great. REALLY looking forward to the next book.

Karou isn't a normal teenager, she is talent artist, speaks multiple languages and was raised by what we call "demons". She constantly feels like there is something missing and alone. Until she meets Akiva, a handsome yet deadly angel, a solider, and enemy. As the pieces fall into pl ...more

22 likes · Like · see review

Jan 17, 2013 Amy rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, read-in-2013, young-adult, busy-as-a-bee-books-group, _own-ebook

I had no idea what this one was about when I went into it. Beyond the fact that so many of my bookish friends loved it, I didn't have any context for the story or anything else. I was pleasantly surprised by this one. It's a very well written novel that creates a world and characters that blew me away! It took me a bit of time to really get engaged in the story and the world that Laini Taylor builds here but once I did ... wow! It was fantastic!

The first half of the novel was particularly stron ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Mar 01, 2014 Rebekah rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: series, nbrc-bom-br, genre-fantasy, genre-young-adult, genre-romance, genre-fantasy-paranormal, genre-fantasy-urban-fantasy, genre-fantasy-supernatural, genre-fantasy-magic, mmpbotb

This book started off really strong and promising. I enjoyed the settings of Prague and Morocco and thought the author really brought these places to life. I also liked the main YA female protagonist. Karou was strong, smart, and talented. An art-student who did not know a lot about her past and was living between two worlds. The mythology and world-building was good and interesting and different from others YA books I have read, with religious undertones. Then... the cliched Romeo-and-Juliet st ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Dec 15, 2012 Jessica rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: paranormal-romance, young-adult, urban-fantasy

Nothing makes me more upset than a book that started out promising, only to take a nose-dive in the last half. Daughter of Smoke and Bone was one such novel for me.

In the beginning I loved the story of Kaoru, a blue haired art student living in Prague (my favorite city!) She runs gruesome errands for her adoptive father, a chimera, while trying to lead an ordinary life at the same time. This premise showed great promise - I wanted to find out more about her childhood, and I was interested to se Nothing makes me more upset than a book that started out promising, only to take a nose-dive in the last half. Daughter of Smoke and Bone was one such novel for me.

In the beginning I loved the story of Kaoru, a blue haired art student living in Prague (my favorite city!) She runs gruesome errands for her adoptive father, a chimera, while trying to lead an ordinary life at the same time. This premise showed great promise - I wanted to find out more about her childhood, and I was interested to see her struggle, caught between two worlds.

Unfortunately, halfway through she meets her love interest, Akira, and things take a sharp nosedive. Akira is, to be blunt, a dull character. He's perfect physically, which we are told ad nauseum by the MC and her friends. Oh, but he's also sad and brooding! Basically he's a checklist of YA fiction cliches. Karou, naturally, is irresistibly drawn to him. The minute she meets him, she stops being an awesome kick-ass female character, and instead turns into a clingy, lovesick bore. Yes, there is insta-love. Lots of it.

At this point I was willing to give the novel three stars, but then we got to the end. (view spoiler)

In the end the book feels like a long setup for the series, and ends on a cliffhanger. I'm used to this, I suppose, but I wish authors would't do it. I like books to have endings, even if you are beginning a series (see: Harry Potter for a good example.)

On the plus side, the prose in the book was well written. The Chimera were interesting creatures, and I would have liked more about them, less about romance. A real fantasy novel set in their war would be really interesting. I just don't care about romance, at least not romance that eats the entire book. I can't recommend this one. ...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Shanyn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite-characters

This book starts out a little bit like it's central character. 17. Dithering and silly and a little irritating. But it grows up fast into a gorgeous tale of love and loss and hope.

Laini Taylor's dialogue is smart and sharp and her characters are relatable and honest.

I fell madly in love with the realm I was taken to several times throughout the book and was maddened by it as well.

Highly recommended... ...more

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Aug 17, 2012 Soelo rated it it was amazing

Shelves: series, lovedfantasy, srchallenge, series2010s, nortonaward, locusaward

Wow, this was good. I need to take a break before I start the second book though.

I started listening to the audiobook and was annoyed by the nearly constant sarcasm in the narrator's voice. I picked up reading where I stopped listening and enjoyed it a lot more. ...more

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