Days of Blood & Starlight (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #2)

Days of Blood & Starlight (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #2)

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4.31 of 5 stars 4.31  ·  rating details  ·  14,396 ratings  ·  3,086 reviews
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.


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,...more
Hardcover, 517 pages
Published November 6th 2012 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
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Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)
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Cait

A-a whole year until the next book comes out?!

I can't.....I can't........ *snaps*



OHMIGOD I CANT W8 I CANT I REALLY CANT AHHHHH OMGOMGOMG THIS IS GOING 2 TAKE 4EVER ND I WANT IT NOW! I NEED MORE AKIVA AND KAROU! Y DOES THIS HV 2 TAKE SOOOOOOOOOOOO LIKE LONNNGGG!

Woahhhhhhh. Did I just have a total trolly fan-girl rant... over a book? Taylor...



I think....I think I just need to go sit down. I feel so woozy. This series just does such weird things to me *looks at the release date again*

Ooooo...more
Laura The Book Ninja
Right
I mean reading this book was a hell of a ride. Taylor doesn't just like to rip things apart, she bloody well SHREDS them and scatters the remaining pieces into the wind.

Like, I mean this book is really not for the faint of heart. It brings back all the magic of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, but there's more pain involved in this one, both physical and emotional.

AND THAT ENDING
NO
I MEAN COME ON
STOP LEAVING ME HANGING LIKE THIS, TAYLOR.



Giselle
With it's amazing die-worthy gorgeous cover, how can this book be bad at all? Really? It would be a sin!

Days of Blood and Starlight is the fantastic sequel to the very well loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone, where we met the lovely Karou and her unimaginable surroundings. Both the characters and world building in this series are created wonderfully and incredibly vivid--which is surreal for such an imaginative fantasy world. While we are taken on a mind blowing journey when this world unravels i...more
Nataliya
"What are we fighting for? What are we killing for? What do you see when you look into the future?"



Gone are the first book's spunkiness and lightheartedness, and (thankfully!) the annoying romance angle (even though the deceiving and useless cover of this book may wrongly lead you thinking otherwise).

Instead the darkness and dirt and tiredness and betrayals and pain and weariness and hopelessness and violence and vengeance and grim determination set in, and it is so much more realized and grip...more
Kyle
Nov 06, 2012 Kyle marked it as to-read
EDIT #11: I'm actually holding this beautifully book in my hands. I seriously don't know how I didn't spontaneously combust right then and there when the Customer Service lady handed it to me. <3

I'm not allowing myself to read it though until I finish NaNoWriMo. Just a little incentive to get writing.

EDIT #10: OHMAGAWD. NOT EVEN 4 1/2 HOURS LEFT.

EDIT #9: 9 MORE DAYS PEOPLE. 9.

EDIT #8: 24 MORE DAYS. 24 MORE DAYS OF TORTURE. Laini, I am begging you. Let this book be the exception, and n...more
Diane ϟ [ Lestrange ]
Apr 13, 2013 Diane ϟ [ Lestrange ] marked it as to-read
OMiGosh! THE COVER! THE COVER! So.Freaking.Love-It :D
______________________
*sigh September November? for real? you want me death now?


http://www.lainitaylor.com/
Bee
POST READING THE BOOK EDIT:

Me, when finally getting the book:











Me, throughout the whole (yes, whole, there's not a single thing to feel happy about here) reading:













And basically, this is me afterwards:





Seriously, this book is depressing. It's awesome too, Laini Taylor it's a magician or an alien or something, but I'm convinced she's probably not from this planet. She's probably from Eretz, actually.

You know how in most depressing stuff (Doctor Who, Mark of Athena, Doctor Who, a good measure of britis...more
Sparrow
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Keertana
If Daughter of Smoke and Bone was a dream, a mirage, a masterpiece of writing and phrases and words, overlapped and edited and fine-tuned to create a perfection of romance, snark, and pulsating chemistry, all tinged with a palpable undertone of bittersweet, Days of Blood and Starlight is like a hard slap, the cold splash of water, and the startled opening of ones eyes into the bleak, war-ridden, fragile, and bloody reality of life. Unlike most trilogies which follow in a steady rhythm of romance...more
Ariana
Bloody Hell!..

.. this book is unbelievably wonderful, wonderfully amazing, amazingly beautiful, beautifully shocking, shockingly unpredictable.. And I could go on and on, praising it because this book is a masterpiece, a new wonder of the world next to the pyramids and the Great Wall of China and other natural or hand-made beauties.

I couldn’t stop reading it.. Really.
In fact, after finishing it, I needed to read Daughter of Smoke and Bone again (which I did and I loved it even more than before,...more
Kirstine
Usually, after a day of fumbling and thinking and writing and re-writing, I'm able to put my thoughts and feelings into something that resembles a review. And sometimes I fail, and end up with this.

I love Daughter of Smoke & Bone for very personal reasons. It hit me in a way I was not expecting and was so in tune with my tastes and my person that falling in love with it was inevitable. So naturally I've been excited about the sequel, and it was with no small amount of anticipation and trepi...more
Idunsses
First I was like: Who the hell am I supposed to root for here??
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Then I was like: Shit, this is intense.
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Then I was like: Why can't everybody just get along?!
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Then I was like: DAYUM! Shit just got real interesting!
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And in the end I was like: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MOAR!!!
description

Days of Blood and Starlight is over 500 pages long, but I swear, it felt more like 300, the pages just flew out of my hands. Taylor's writing is still spectacular, poetic and magical and her imagination still baffles the shit out of me...more
Paul Beimers
Oct 20, 2012 Paul Beimers marked it as to-read
Shelves: series, magic, fantasy, fiction
Pre-ordered this and the first book in hardcover from Barnes & Noble for $23. If you sign up for the two-month membership trial, you get free shipping at no extra charge.

This means that you can get this lovely book for around $12, or both for the above price. Check it out.


Gah! Does Taylor know how to name a book or what!? Seriously, that title is just gorgeous. Can't wait to see the official cover artwork!

EDIT: Oh my GOD. That cover is beautiful. Here I was, absentmindedly browsing my to-rea...more
Trudi

Blistering, savage, dark and complex -- this sequel lives on the very hinterlands of YA fantasy -- a rare jewel of flawless intensity. It is a mature read dealing with very adult themes -- war, vengeance, brutality, racism. We have seraphim and chimaera slaughtering each other for a millennium. Their hatred of each other knows no end. Their children are born into it, are raised on it, are sent out into the world willing to kill and die for it.

There is an unrelenting, gripping reality to this wa...more
Ian
If you haven't read Daughter of Smoke & Bone do not go any further. This review contains spoilers

An imagined conversation with Laini Taylor

Ian:  "Stop!!!  I can't take any more!"
Laini Taylor: "OK."
Ian: "Don't stop now! You can't stop now!"


The war is over, the angels have won. The chimaera have been decimated. What follows war isn't peace but lawlessness and the angels are hunting down refugees and killing them. All that remains of the armies of chimaera is a small band of warriors, not nearly...more
Steph Sinclair

This was good and different. Definitely NOT what I was expecting and easily one of the most depressing stories I've ever read. GLASS CASE OF EMOTIONS.

Review to come.

---------------------

Edit 5/27: That is an awesome cover! Look at the pretty!

Oh, my sweet... that title is perfect. :D
Kilikina
I hate yet love how the description gives nothing away....I won't know what to expect now.

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Oceana Fern {Assorted Insanity}
*tears*

Excuse me while I go dangle my legs off the edge of a cliff and ponder the meaning of life and love.

This was a really, really depressing read.
Dija
Nov 15, 2012 Dija marked it as sequels-to-read
Shelves: sep-2012
Not in the mood for this right now. To be read later...
karen
war.

just... war.

i have read plenty of books about war before. fiction, yeah, but fiction about wars that actually happened: conflicts in europe, america, africa... but i have never read another book that did what this one did for me - i have never felt the horror of war as much as i felt in this one. and that's a little messed-up, right? that it would take a YA fantasy novel about imaginary battles between imaginary beings to bring the horrors of war and genocide into my emotional sphere?

in my...more
Wendy Darling
*deep breath* Here goes nothin'.

(I liked, but didn't love Smoke & Bone, for those of you just joining the broadcast...)
fяσzєη
This review is also available over at my blog.

_______________________

You know, I can be so damn stupid sometimes.

I feel so stupid that I didn't realize how breathtaking this series truly is. When I read book one for the first time, I was very detached from it. I thought the writing was gorgeous, yes, but I didn't connect with the characters or plot at all, and then the insta-love came and I was like "Oh great" and became even more detached.

But then.

Then, I re-read it. And that second time I real...more
Stephanie
“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a new way of living—one without massacres and torn throats and bonfires of the fallen, without revenants or bastard armies or children ripped from their mothers’ arms to take their turn in the killing and dying.

Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon’s secret temple and dreamed of a world that was a like a jewel-box without a jewel—a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with their happiness.

This was not tha
...more
AJ
WOW... just... WOW! Absolutely incredible!

I gushed like an idiot over Laini Taylor’s first installment in this series, Daughter of Smoke & Bone, and there’s literally nothing more I can say. This book is STUNNING! Taylor’s writing remains beautifully descriptive, and absolutely captivating, although the story this time around is a lot darker, and heartbreakingly tragic in places.

“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a new way of living — one without massa...more
Ela
Jan 28, 2012 Ela marked it as to-read


Exactly what I felt like after reading the publication date.

...EDIT...

Ooh. Days of Blood and Starlight. Nice title.
jess♥
5 stunning stars

description

This book was utterly stunning. There's no other way to fully encapsulate how Taylor's carefully crafted lyrical prose affects the most sombre and stoic of us. Days of Blood and Starlight was so much more powerful than its predecessor. Discovering this series was such a rarity that I feel as though merely reading it is an honour. The way the entire plot is so cleverly weaved and the attention to detail so profound is a gift. Laini Taylor,as well as having an exotic name that put...more
Stacia ~ Mistress of Mediocrity
Nov 06, 2012 Stacia ~ Mistress of Mediocrity marked it as return-to-later
Have to put this on the shelf for a few weeks. I'm loving the book so far, but want to be able to wait to read it until I can devote the time to really absorb myself in the world and not feel like I have to rush through because of limited holiday time.
Experiment BL626
CAUTION: Long Review, Spoilers, Rant

"Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well."

And the story sucked. The story was like a trash can full of children’s thrown-away arts and crafts topped with their snotty tissues and moldy, forgotten lunches.

The Writing

The writing was lyrical but it had the tendency to be verbose which induced skimming. I wish the book spent more time telling the story instead of waxing poetic. The writing wasn’t much of an issue for me in book 1 b...more
Misty
Initially:

HOLY HELL I LIKED THIS EVEN MORE THAN THE FIRST.




AND THEN:
Y'all, why is it so hard to write reviews about the ones you love?

Okay - Last year after I read Daughter of Smoke & Bone, I asked Laini Taylor to marry me. She had to decline, partly because she's already married, but mostly because she doesn't know me, and both of us are straight. ( Every relationship has its issues, Laini .)
So, fine. We'll take it slow.

Days of Blood & Starlightis maybe less lyrical and beautiful than Da...more
Winnie


HOPE, such a small word yet it can build or destroy nations. Is having HOPE truly enough to fight for what you believe in? When everything seemed to be at a standstill or at a loss? I wonder, I forget, I just don't know. And then there is forgiveness...

"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".
Indeed!

In 2011, I proclaimed Daughter of Smoke and Bones to be the best book of the year 2011 and I still stand by...more
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Why is no one talking about these books? So good! 52 225 May 15, 2013 05:49am  
Better than the first book? 16 74 May 13, 2013 03:39pm  
COVER!!! 4 47 May 07, 2013 10:10pm  
Paranormal Addict...: Days of Blood & Starlight - Laini Taylor 3 39 May 04, 2013 09:29pm  
Vaginal Fantasy H...: Days of Blood & Starlight 5 28 May 01, 2013 05:48pm  
♥!The Young Adult...: Days of Blood & Starlight 19 69 Apr 28, 2013 04:58pm  
Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #2)
Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #2)
Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #2)
Días de sangre y resplandor (Hija de humo y hueso, #2)
Days of Blood & Starlight (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #2)

324620
Hi there! I'm a writer of fantasy books for young people, but my books can be enjoyed by adults as well. My 'Dreamdark' books, Blackbringer (2007) and Silksinger (2009) are about faeries -- not dainty little flowery things, but warrior-faeries who battle devils. My first young adult book, Lips Touch, is a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award! It's creepy, sensual supernatural romance. . . abo...more
More about Laini Taylor...
Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1) Lips Touch: Three Times Blackbringer (Dreamdark, #1) Silksinger (Dreamdark, #2) Dreams of Gods & Monsters (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #3)

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“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a new way of living—one without massacres and torn throats and bonfires of the fallen, without revenants or bastard armies or children ripped from their mothers’ arms to take their turn in the killing and dying.

Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon’s secret temple and dreamed of a world that was a like a jewel-box without a jewel—a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with their happiness.

This was not that world.”
206 people liked it
“A dream dirty and bruised is better than no dream at all.” 152 people liked it
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