Title: Days of Blood & Starlight
Author: Laini Taylor
Blurb:
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?
Links:
Days of Blood & Starlight on Goodreads
Kala's Review:
Daughter of Smoke & Bone absolutely blew me away and I've been completely terrified that Days of Blood & Starlight would fall into the usual mediocre second book trap. Instead, the complete opposite. This book surpassed the first, by a LOT. It was different, though. It wasn't what I was expecting. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this definitely was not it.
Once upon a time, an angel and a devil held a wishbone between them.
And its snap split the world in two.
Days of Blood & Starlight starts shortly after Daughter of Smoke & Bone ends. The bridge scene has caused quite a ruckous with the media and civilian people are predicting the apocalypse. Karou is missing. Akiva is devastated by how everything turned out in Smoke & Bone. Akiva is searching for signs that Karou is alive, and her friends are trying to figure it all out as well.
Eventually, we discover Karou is in fact alive and has taken over Brimstone's job as resurrectionist. She's torn, knowing that she's building an army not only to save her people, but also to exterminate Akiva's people. While she hates Akiva, she's still uncomfortable with all of the brutal killing. As Madrigal, she and Akiva had dreamed of peace, and she doesn't have faith that their dream is possible any longer. Akiva is struggling in a similar fashion, being forced to kill innocent chimaera while trying to figure out how to keep his and Madrigal/Karou's dream alive somehow. He knows Karou hates him, and he's trying to figure out a way to atone for all the horrible things he's done.
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.
This book is about way more than the two of them though. While Daughter of Smoke & Bone may have been about their love story, both the most recent and the past, Days of Blood and Starlight is about the aftermath of their lustful decisions. It's about genocide and war and morality and death and life. And still a little about love. But I'd say the Akiva/Karou love story takes a backburner to the bigger story, which is the war between the angels and the chimaera.
I love this book. And this author. And I'm incredibly emo that I have to wait so long for the third book in this series. These two books are, by FAR, some of the most phenominal stuff I've read. EVER.
5 out of 5 stars.
Link to Kala's review on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/451617120
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