I truly love this series!  The characters are fantastic and the story is thoroughly engrossing.  The world of this series is a wonderful blend of the real and the imagined and they fit together seamlessly.

The cast of characters expands in this series and they are all beautifully developed.  But Akiva and Karou were completely at odds with one another in this book and that was hard as a shipper of that relationship.  But that only made the story that much more of an engrossing read.

I love that this series takes the commonly held ideas of religious mythology and what it means to be good or evil and then turns them around.  Karou and her people are chimera, what most would consider to be demons.  Akiva is an angel, but many of his kind are far from the peace-loving angels that most of us imagine.  The story is told primarily from the point of view of Karou, making you really look at how perspective changes perception.

At it's heart, the story is about two enemies coming together for a common goal, a common mission, a common future.  It is imaginative, exciting, and beautifully written!

Days of Blood and Starlight is the second book in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series. This book has all the ingredients needed for me to love it: impossible love between two enemies, badass female characters (can’t seem to get tired of that) and good against evil where the good is not that good and the evil can also be good. I always love this concept.

In this book, you get to know more chimaeras and their ways of life. But you also meet more seraphim and you see how they live as well. That was great to have an insight on both people. You also get to see more of your favourite humans… Just saying!

This book was a bit darker than the first one; some things were indeed hard to read and gave me the chill. Karou, our strong female protagonist, has some vulnerability and can also experience some real troubles like any other girl. I think that was really clever, even if it was a hard moment (if you’ve read it, I guess you can see what I’m talking about).

The plot, the world building, the characters were great. The best thing about this book though is the writing. I love how the author managed to write in different styles while it seems so fluid and natural. I absolutely adored it!

I already have the next book in the trilogy and I can’t wait to read it (probably next month!)

Of course, we would never…

Because we’ve always been told not to.  Certainly I would never...

Judge a book by its cover? But it’s not judging if it’s obvious.  Right?  Because just look at these covers.

Obviously The Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy is for girls.  It’s nothing but a kissing book.

Sorry, not interested.

Luckily for me I have friends who enjoy shaming me into submission, who swore it wasn’t a kissing book—that it was actually so much more.  My lack of interest evolved into curiosity, and my curiosity cannot be denied.

So, I picked up The Daughter of Smoke and Bone and read it.  Then I read Days of Blood and Starlight.  Then I read Dreams of God and Monsters.  And guess what I found?

I was right. It is totally a kissing book.

But I was wrong too.  There’s a really cool story mixed in with all the brooding, drama, angst and kissing.  War.  Fighting.  Underdogs.  Oppression.  Heroes that rise up.   Bad guys to bring down.  Weak-but-strong good guys.  Strong-but-weak bad guys.  There are characters you want to love and characters you love to hate.

The writing is outstanding, very visual.  I could see everything.  The characters are tangible.  The plot pulls you along.  With out a doubt, there was way more killing than kissing.

That’s how this guy became a fan of these girly kissing books.

And…I suppose the kissing wasn’t so bad.

Content advisory: No language at all, but there is some PG-13 sexual content.  All implied.  Never physical, but lots and Lots and LOTS of gooey, mushy, girly LONGING and WANTING and BROODING and ACHING and PINING and LANGUISHING and…

 ...Barf.

The Value of a Star: Ratings Explained