Book review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

I get super-excited when a book I expect nothing from makes it right into my favorites! Suggested by a friend, Daughter of Smoke and Bone was one of those books, and it was a great surprise. When I saw that it belonged in the YA genre, I hesitated for a minute, but I'm glad I didn't let my prejudgement get in the way.
 I really liked how author Laini Taylor brought together her imagination, mythology and reality, and very vividly passed that onto the reader. In addition, I loved that the book takes in a magical place like Prague instead of a forgotten town in the US. The main character even goes to Morocco and Istanbul is also mentioned as one of the places she visited.

The main character is a blue-haired girl called Karou. She goes to art school in Prague. One of the things that makes her different from her peers is that she has to disappear once in a while to take care of mysterious errands. I don't want to ruin the surprises of the book, which is why I'm having a hard time summarizing what happens. In short: chimera (in mythology, they're monsters that have the body parts of different animals) and seraphim (the meaning of the word is 'burning ones') have been in war for a very long time. As the war gets to yet another boiling point, the angel names Akiva whom Karou meets in a deadly situation follows and finds her.

In the first part of the book, we read about Karou discovering herself and her powers. Later, we find out her past as she does, and we learn about why the chimera and seraphim went to war in the first place, and why Akiva is so obsessed with Karou. Even though a certain amount of light is shed to certain events, the war still continues as the book ends, and we'll be reading more about Karou and Akiva's adventures in the upcoming books. I'm going to be very impatient waiting for this one, but Taylor's imagination tells me it will be worth it.

You can visit author Laini Taylor's website here. After I read the book, I was very curious about the person behind it, and I checked her out online. Going through her website and blog, I wasn't surprised that she has such an amazing imagination. She looks very sweet and kinda crazy. This I liked a lot, and it made me get more excited about the rest of the series.

The second book of the series Days of Blood and Starlight will be out in 6 November 2012, published by Little Brown & Company. The book covers are very pretty, no?