Review - Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #1)

Author: Laini Taylor

Pages: 448

Publisher: Hodder

Release date: 29th September 2011

Blurb from Goodreads:

Errand requiring immediate attention. Come.
 
The note was on vellum, pierced by the talons of the almost-crow that delivered it. Karou read the message. 'He never says please', she sighed, but she gathered up her things. When Brimstone called, she always came.

In general, Karou has managed to keep her two lives in balance. On the one hand, she's a seventeen-year-old art student in Prague; on the other, errand-girl to a monstrous creature who is the closest thing she has to family. Raised half in our world, half in 'Elsewhere', she has never understood Brimstone's dark work - buying teeth from hunters and murderers - nor how she came into his keeping. She is a secret even to herself, plagued by the sensation that she isn't whole.

Now the doors to Elsewhere are closing, and Karou must choose between the safety of her human life and the dangers of a war-ravaged world that may hold the answers she has always sought.

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My Review:

*I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley*

3.5/5 stars

Karou lives two lives. In one she is an art student in Prague and in the other she runs errands for a creature that we would consider monstrous. For Karou, Brimstone and his workshop in Elsewhere are home but she has always felt like something is missing, that part of her is missing.

But what will Karou do when the doors to Elsewhere start burning down?

This is a unique, creative and fantastical book. I loved the whole wish system and I liked Brimstone, Issa and the other chimera that lived in Brimstone's workshop. I liked Karou and really enjoyed her banter with her best friend Zuzanna.

The first half of this book was gripping, intriguing and brilliant but the second half, which focuses more on Karou's past and who she really is, was a bit of a letdown - I often found my attention wandering and I just didn't find it that interesting. The romance for me was okay but the insta-love kind of annoyed me. 

Overall while this was a unique and very creative book I lost interest in places.