A worthy sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I really enjoyed this book and found it hard to put down. The author has a fantastic imagination, and I look forward to her next book.

Share/Like this Review?

The first book in this series was awesome and this one is as well. It picks up soon after the first book ends and from there it is a wild ride.
Karou and Akiva have went their separate ways to join up with their own people. As the battle between old enemies start up again, they find that there is good and bad in everyone no matter who side you are fighting for. Sometimes you just have to decide for yourself what is right and what is wrong.
Even though I noticed a lot of reviewers upset about how Karou treated Akiva, I personally can understand it. What he did was horrific no matter what. Even though we the readers can see how sorry he is, it doesn't mean that Karou can or even cares right now. He help cause the deaths of ones she loved and that can leave a big hole in your heart.
As usual, Laini's writing is superb! She hasn't written a book yet that I haven't loved. Can't wait for the 3rd installment on this one!

Share/Like this Review?

This is the second book in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series. A third book is scheduled to be published in 2013. I really did not enjoy this book as much as the first book in the series, it was just so scattered and depressing. Definitely dont start with this book, start with The Daughter of Smoke and Bone or you will be totally lost.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was decent. The narrator captured different character voices well and was easy to follow. It wasnt a spectacular audiobook but it was good enough.

Karou is still in shock from events in the last book and is using her resurrection skills to help the White Wolf, Thiago, rebuild a new and more gruesome army of Chimera to battle the angels and seek revenge. Akiva believes Karou is dead and is doing his best to atone for all the damage he did to the Chimera by diverting and undercutting some of the Angelic attacks he leads.

I had a lot of problems with this book. The constant POV switching kind of gave me whiplash and really broke up the story. The other thing that fractures the story is the erratic time changes and jumping around. Taylor will leave an event hanging and then come back some time in the future to resume that character's POV, then she'll have them go back to explain what happened in the gap after they've been telling the story in the current time. It makes for kind of a fractured mess.

The descriptions are still beautifully written at points and the world very detailed and creative. This world has become epic and massive. We end up reading about a lot of politics in both the Chimera and Angelic regions.

I still am having trouble enjoying Karou and Akiva as characters. Karou is so passive and makes the glaring error of never trying to leverage the service only she can provide to bargain with Thiago. She spends a good 3/4s of the book whining and being inactive; when she does take action it is to destroy and distance those around her.

Akiva is a bit better, at least he is trying to help save lives throughout the book. Still it takes him a good 3/4s of the way through the book to actually take decisive action. He is still way too emotional and angsty for me.

The two characters that really lighten, and at times made, the story for me were Zusana and Mik. Zusana and Mik do bring some light and fun to the story. They are both way more interesting than Akiva and Karou and a lot more fun to read about. I am still not entirely sure what the purpose of them being in the story was, but I do think the story was better for their presence in it.

Things are so dark and so violent in the story that at times I felt like the violence was more than actually necessary. This is one bleak story, so don't come to this book looking for anything even remotely uplifting. It is truly the most depressing book I have read this year. Some scenes are so violent and emotionally wrenching that they actually made my stomach turn. There is also an attempted rape scene that is very violent, so just a heads up.

Taylor over explains a lot of the characters emotions as well. It comes off as patronizing at points. As a reader we understand that the tears a character is shedding means they are sad; we dont need the fact that they are sad spelled out in multiple sentences following the fact. There are a number of places in the book where I felt like things were over-explained and ended up rolling my eyes and thinking okay I get it already. lets get on with the story.

The book ends on a cliffhanger, like the last one. Again I am not a fan of cliffhangers...I think books should have some sort of resolution so that readers come back to read a series because they enjoy the authors writing and the story.

Overall I did not enjoy this book nearly as much as The Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I guess I didnt realize how much I disliked this book until I sat down to write the review. I really dont have much positive to say about it. I do think Taylors writing is beautiful at points and I think the world she has created is incredibly creative. I have problems with the bleakness of the story, the inactivity of the lead characters, and the way the multiple POVs and jumps in time fracture the story. By the end of the book I thought the whole thing was kind of a mess and really didnt care at all what happened to these characters. Given all of my problems with this story I probably wont read the final installment in this series.

Share/Like this Review?

I found this book to be just as page turning as the last. The guilt and shame Karou feels is all too human, and really brings her character together. We are shown more of Eretz and the struggles within; no longer is our heroine some fumbling girl who doesn't understand what Brimstone is doing. The dynamic between Mik and Zuzanna is the most adorable thing ever. And everything that starts happening left me screaming and unable to put this down. I have to read the last book.

Share/Like this Review?