Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor: Book Review

Is it possible to be in love with paper? To pat a book on it's spine and say good job? I truly hope so because this book deserves a million gold stars. There are not many books that have me thinking about the characters as if they were my friends, but Daughter of Smoke and Bone had me doing just that. This book, folks, is how you do fantasy fiction the right way.

We are introduced to tattooed and peacock-blue haired Karou. Not your typical heroine, but by the end of the book she had me wanting blue hair. Karou is seemingly normal, living in Prague, going to art school, you know, no biggie. After seeing Karou's "day job" we are introduced to her equally if not more interesting dark side. She is a page of the chimaera. Chimaera are creatures made up of a few different creatures, for example, one could be half serpent half woman while another could be half bat half ram. Karou is 100% human but was raised by one of the chimaera, Brimstone, a wish dealer. She is sent all over the world dealing with seedy people and even seedier places. Karou doesn't know much about the reasons behind her errands of how she, a human, came to be in the care of the chimaera. Soon, she begins to notice black handprints on the portals to the world of the chimaera and is one day faced with the cause, the seraphim, mortal enemy to the chimaera. To the chimaera's dark, the seraphim are light, winged warriors on a mission to all worlds of chimaera. As Karou becomes deeper entrenched in the world of chimaera and seraphim, she will become aware of an ancient battle between the two races that has been going on for centuries. Karou will not only learn the origins of her mysterious past, but discover things about herself she may have had reason to forget.

Laini Taylor gives us an utterly original storyline with breathtaking characters and plot twists that left my stomach in knots. With the beautiful background of Prague and a killer ending, this book is sure to stay on your shelves.

Sites of Interest: Author's Site
Publisher: Little, Brown Books | Published: September 27, 2011
Paperback | 432 pages | ISBN: 978-0316134026
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Many thanks to the publisher for the complimentary copy for purposes of review.