Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor [Review]

Info:

• Title: Days of Blood and Starlight
• Author: Laini Taylor
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• ISBN: 9781444722673

Rating:

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Days of Blood and Starlight, continues soon after the end of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and I quite quickly fell back into Karou’s world again. Only this time it’s a much darker world than the one we found in the first book.

The fun that marked Karou and Zuzana’s days in Prague in Daughter of Smoke and Bone, is mostly absent in Day’s of Blood and Starlight (although Zuzana will always bring a lighter note to the proceedings ) Karou is locked in a spiral of mourning and a desire to avenge her people, and even working with Thiago the Chimera who once killed her.

When I say it is darker than Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I mean it is really, really darker, both sides are in a full war footing and are prepared to, (and do) commit atrocious acts to gain the upper hand, Laini Taylor doesn’t pull any punches, and especially in the fight scenes the book is quite violent at times.

It could make for a difficult read, and at times it is harrowing, but Laini Taylor’s writing is of such a such a high quality that is also beautiful and compelling at the same time.

It might not be as attractive a place as Prague, but Karou’s temporary new home, is just as fully realised. Liani Taylor, seems to have a real sense-of-place. Her worlds both big and small, are always wonderfully drawn and just feel ‘real’, and then she goes and populates them with such great characters, even the ones we are meant to hate!

Because the first book was so full of life, (for much of it anyway) and I loved the spunkiness of Karou and Zuzana in it, and this one, quite rightly is the mirror opposite, I can’t say I ‘enjoyed’ it quite as much.

Saying that, I would like to make it clear, because I’m not sure my talk of it being darker, more harrowing etc, makes it sound that attractive a prospect to spend several hours of your life reading. Days of Blood and Starlight is a bloody brilliant book! and a cracking second part of the trilogy.

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Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.

This is not that world.

Art 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?[/tab]

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Buy: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

My copy of Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor was provided by the publisher (Hodder & Stoughton) for review purposes.