Daughter of Smoke & Bone Series
Publish Date: November 06th, 2012
Publisher: Hachette Audio, Audible Audio | Little, Brown Books for Young ReadersFormat 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
Now that Karou knows who she is, she joins the chimaera fight against the angels, just as she had in her previous life. As their resurrectionist, she follows in Brimstone's footsteps and fights for peace. However, as hard as she works and as valuable as her services are, not all the chimaera are to be trusted. Not all the chimaera have forgiven Madgril for falling in love with an angel. Akiva, meanwhile, is with the angels again, but not completely. He too is fighting for a way to end the war without more bloodshed.
Trigger Warning (Sexual Assault)
Before I go further, there is a long scene of (attempted) sexual assault. If this isn't for you, you might want to skip this book, or skip the pages/times spans of it. While this event does influence the story directly after it, I didn't like that it was so detailed and it went on forever. Personally, I would have liked it to have been written so that the reader knows what's happening without all the details.
But, there was an awful lot of implied rape in other parts of the book. So if this is something that truly bothers a reader, this might be hard to read.
Love
The love here was...complicated. With good reason. I personally like revenge more, but that wouldn't make an intriguing book because Karou can't just kill Akiva. Did her sad internal monologue go on too long? Yes. Did the other potential love interest replace him? No. It was awkward and I didn't want to hear about how much he liked her as a young boy. But this other love interest did some amazing things otherwise and is an awesome character.
Ressurection/Magic
This book gives you some more information on how resurrection and their magic works. I still have way too many questions about how resurrection works (making a body for a soul, and then the body isn't right anyway and the original form takes over anyway?). At least we can learn what teeth are for. Although, again, Karou's inner monologue about the monstrosities she is creating got very old.
Final Verdict
With the exception of the trigger warning, I did enjoy this book. It is just as beautifully written as the first book. I feel that it is needlessly padded with repeated thoughts of uncertainty regarding Akiva, how war is bad, etc. There are also some more characters that are introduced and some of them (the ones introduced in the beginning) just don't really go anywhere. Once they run away to safety, that's it. It bogs down the story quite a bit. However, the core story is still great. The ending is absolutely crazy and I can't wait to listen to the next book.
This book gives you some more information on how resurrection and their magic works. I still have way too many questions about how resurrection works (making a body for a soul, and then the body isn't right anyway and the original form takes over anyway?). At least we can learn what teeth are for. Although, again, Karou's inner monologue about the monstrosities she is creating got very old.
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| I know, it's weird, Karou, but he's battle-ready. |
Final Verdict
With the exception of the trigger warning, I did enjoy this book. It is just as beautifully written as the first book. I feel that it is needlessly padded with repeated thoughts of uncertainty regarding Akiva, how war is bad, etc. There are also some more characters that are introduced and some of them (the ones introduced in the beginning) just don't really go anywhere. Once they run away to safety, that's it. It bogs down the story quite a bit. However, the core story is still great. The ending is absolutely crazy and I can't wait to listen to the next book.
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