Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Jun 16, 2012 Lisa Kay rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: zzcover-blue, genre-ya-young-adult, m-audible-dot-com, 2012-in-2012-group-challenge, well-narrated, vocation-artist, all-time-favorites, genre-urban-fantasy, genre-paranormal, has-a-movie-in-the-works

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★★★★★ (This is a review of the audiobook.) Whoa. Babe. Khristine Hvam elevated this book – which started out very much a Young Adult Paranormal – to a sophisticated, thought-provoking Fantasy with mythological and religious overtones. Her narration is Exceptional, with a capital “E.” She delivers Ms. Taylor’s lyrical prose effortlessly while infusing the voices of human, seraphim, chimaera, and other magical creatures with distinct characteristics and a variety of multicultural accents. Each ha ...more

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May 13, 2017 Colleen Scidmore rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, drama, part-of-a-series, paranormal-romance, young-adult, romance, books-read-in-2017, paranormal, audio-books, not-a-happy-ending-kind-of-book

I have had this book in my TBR pile for forever, well if you've seen my TBR shelf you know I have a ton of books in that pile! So I really wasn't quite sure when I was going to be able to read this, but fate would have it this book fit in perfectly within a challenge for one of my books groups. And I am so glad I finally got to read this!
It is an amazing story of a teenage girl, Karou, who has been raised by "monsters" since she was an infant as far as she knows. She does not know who she truly I have had this book in my TBR pile for forever, well if you've seen my TBR shelf you know I have a ton of books in that pile! So I really wasn't quite sure when I was going to be able to read this, but fate would have it this book fit in perfectly within a challenge for one of my books groups. And I am so glad I finally got to read this!
It is an amazing story of a teenage girl, Karou, who has been raised by "monsters" since she was an infant as far as she knows. She does not know who she truly is or where she comes from. She only knows these creatures are her family. She lives two lives, one in the human world where she lives a normal life going to school and has a talent and passion for art. She spends most of her "human" time with her one true friend Zuzana, who is described as a tiny rabid fairy.
She spends the other half of her life running errands and collecting teeth for her father figure Brimstone.
One day after one of Karou's errands her two lives collide after she follows Brimstone down a portal she is not allowed to enter and into a world where there are more creatures than just the four who raise her. She is discovered and thrown out on her ear by Brimstone and forced to live in the human world. But an Angel, Akiva can't get Karou out of his mind after she had fought him on her last mission for Brimstone. There is something that is drawing them both together and Karou into an age old battle between the Sereph (the Angels) and the Kymera (the Monsters). And questions of who she really is come to light.

This was an amazing book, so imaginative and heartfelt. The "monsters" came to life and a brilliant story was told about why the Sereph and Kymera were such vast enemies. And why Karou and Akiva were so drawn together, that was such an emotional part of the story. There were good guys and bad guys on both sides of the war which made it that much more life like and interesting. All of the characters had such a strong voice and each one had a intricate part to play in the story of the war between Angels & Monsters. Even Zuzana was such a strong character, although Karou's human world took second place, and one of my favorites. I loved her biting, sarcastic nature and her total loyalty to a kind of whack friend.
The ending was so powerful that I could not wait to start the second book Days of Blood & Starlight. There is a bit of a cliffhanger and still lots of unanswered questions that I'm dying to find out about.
The only complaint I have is that I'm listening to this series on Audio. I love Audio when I work around the house but to really enjoy certain books I just have to read them instead of listen to them. But that's OK, this just gives me an excuse to go back and re read the series at a later date! ...more

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Feb 14, 2013 Bri rated it it was amazing

Shelves: recommendations

What an incredible, complex and imaginative story! Such a breath of fresh air. I was looking for something fun after the slump I was in from all the long, wordy, epic fantasy I've filled my brain with recently, and this did more than hit the spot. I was expecting a YA kind of paranormal romance blah blah junk food for the brain type read... but it was so much more than that. The writing style is impressive and smart. The plot is fast paced and still intricate. The characters are all so unique an ...more

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