Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke & Bone Series

Daughter of Smoke & Bone * Days of Blood & Starlight * Night of Cake & Puppets *
Dreams of Gods & Monsters

Publish Date: April 8th, 2014
Publisher: Hachette Audio, Audible Audio | Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Format Reviewed: Audiobook
Series: Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Author: Laini Taylor
Narrated By: Khristine Hvam
Author’s Goodreads
Author's Website
My Review on Goodreads

Introduction

The chimaera and seraphim war spills over into the human world, causing chaos on earth. An unsteady alliance is formed, and Karou and Akiva's long-ago dream of peace is rekindled. Meanwhile on earth, Eliza, a 24-year-old researcher, has dreams of monsters flooding the sky. Her occupation entangles her in the chimaera/seraphim conflict, but her past threatens to complicate her involvement. 

Side Story 

This book also starts out with new characters and a story that does intersect with the main story eventually. Until the first "twist" of Eliza's story, I didn't care too much. She does become very important later on, which has a bigger payoff to the side story than the second book's side story. Overall though, it weighted down on the main story. Listening to the audiobook in my car as I drove, I can't fast-forward through it (a sin, I know. If I was reading it I would have skimmed).

Audiobook

The narrator of the audiobook, Khristine Hvam, is fabulous. Liraz was previously pronounced "lah-ratz" and now it's more like "lee-raz", which is probably more accurate, but I listened to two books with the first pronunciation and now it's jarring. Other than that, I'm going to miss hearing this amazing narrator.

Ending

Ouch, that ending. I feel like it cut off when an even BIGGER conflict was introduced. I expected there to be another series about this mega scary terrible threat but...not as of now. That was disappointing.

Final Verdict

The end of the trilogy still held me as did the other books, though I wasn't too interested in Eliza's story until maybe about half-way. The writing is still beautiful, though it gets a bit repetitious with the constant reminds that Zuzana looks like a doll. I was also hoping to learn more about the Stelians, especially after they come off as some kind of nefarious force. The ending also cut off by introducing a great threat and leaving the reader hanging, so that was not very cool. But overall, we got to see the ending to the big plot points and we got to see the conclusions to a lot of characters, and it was great.

Odriel's Heirs by Hayley Reese Chow

Publish Date: March 1st, 2020
Format Reviewed: ebook
Series: Odriel's Heirs
Author: Hayley Reese Chow
Author’s Goodreads
Author's Website
My Review on Goodreads

I received an advanced review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Introduction

Kaia is the Dragon Heir, as was her father before her, and yields flame to protect the land of Okarria. A necromancer's undead army is threatening the world and she, along with the Time Heir and the Shadow Heir, must defeat him and his hordes of the undead. But they are missing an Heir and must continue on, hoping to find him along the way. They meet a large cast of characters, including a talking cat and a magus, and they gather allies and head to the final showdown.

Characters 

This book sports a vast cast of characters, my favourites being Shad (a talking cat) and Gus (her loyal fire-proof canine). There are some interesting fantasy creatures who become allies, plus Kaia's infuriating twin brother Bram, a magus, and more humans. I usually dislike large casts of characters but I managed here easily, perhaps because everyone had their own personalities and it was easy to remember who everyone is. 

Protagonist 

The main character wasn't perfect, and I can see exactly why she is a bit abrasive. She has been hated since she was a child, and then she was expected to sacrifice everything and go save them? I also like characters with faults, because you know...everyone has faults. No one is perfect. In real life, we don't toss a person in the bin if they have a flaw. People are complex and that's awesome. She has the power of fire that is linked to her emotions. At seventeen, that's a lot to handle, and there's a war going on.

War

It's war. People die. Characters that you have grown attached to die. And stay dead. And I very much like that this story didn't shy away from that. I appreciated that when they fight, they hare injured and exhausted and need a lot of time to recover. It drives me bananas when characters go through so much and go directly into the next battle like it's nothing, even when they suffer huge injuries. We also get to see Kaia's grief at a few points in the story, and that was great. She's young and in her first battles, you don't walk away from that all sunshine and rainbows.

Final Thoughts

I loved this book and I highly recommend it. It was an engaging read that held my interest. If you like fantasy with life-or-death battles with consequences, I think you will enjoy this book.

*~*Below is a spoiler, so don't read it if you haven't read it!*~* 

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Ending Spoiler:

I was nearing the end of this book, cuddling my dog, when the scene with Gus happened. I gasped "Nooo!" AND THEY DID IT BECAUSE THEY HAD TO AND I COULDN'T EVEN.

If Gus didn't get a good ending I would have lost it. I was afraid this book was going to do me dirty, but it saved me right at the end. All is well in the world now, I'm fine.