Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

Jul 29, 2012 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy-and-sci-fi, romance, young-adult, paranormal, angels-and-demons-and-good-and-evil, favorite-series, all-time-favorites, maybe

Once upon a time, before chimaera and seraphim, there was the sun and the moons. The sun was betrothed to Nitid, the bright sister [moon], but it was demure Ellai, always hiding behind her bold sister, who stirred his lust. He contrived to come upon her bathing in the sea, and he took her. She struggled, but he was the sun, and he thought he should have what he wanted. Ellai stabbed him and escaped, and the blood of the sun flew like sparks to earth, where it became seraphim - misbegotten chi ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 30, 2011 mstan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: for-young-adults-or-children, favourite-ya, american, fantasy, src-fall-2011

Laini Taylor must not have been born in the United States. She seems to be some magical being, able to sprinkle fairy dust over the most hackneyed of plots and bring it to new life.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is about Karou, an art student in Prague. Her origins are mysterious and she leads a double life - one, as an ordinary teenager with friends, a favourite hangout restaurant/cafe and an annoying ex; two, as a runner of errands for Brimstone and his chimera - creatures who have brought her up ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Sep 04, 2014 Pam rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya-fiction

AUTHOR: Taylor, Laini
TITLE: Daughter of Smoke & Bone
DATE READ: 08/11/14
RATING: 4/B
GENRE/PUB DATE/PUBLISHER/# OF PGS YA Fantasy/2012/Little Brown/418 pgs
SERIES/STAND-ALONE: 1st in a series
TIME/PLACE: Present/Prague
CHARACTERS: ODD -- there were some that were all-human and some that were part human/part some type of animal
FIRST LINES: " Walking to school over the snow-muffled cobbles, Karou had no sinister premonitions about the day. It seemed like just another Monday, innocent but for its essen ...more

Like · see review

Mar 30, 2014 alana rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: romance, audiobook, making-things, young-adult, urban-fantasy, fantasy, series-in-progress, angels

Daughter of Smoke and Bone would have been 4 stars for me if not for the star-crossed romance (yes, the whole point, but...not my thing) and the feeling it was super long (the flashback could have been its own book). I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of life as an art student in Prague as well as the creative details of the fantastic chimera. All the choices of settings were appealing. Again, the stories of ignornant Karou and englightened Karou could have been their own novels. The abunda ...more

Like · see review

May 16, 2014 Madeleine rated it liked it

Shelves: speculative-fiction, series, kids-ya

I liked this! Quirky girl in Prague, her family of "monsters," mysterious black hand-prints, creepy ex-boyfriend, art school, angels, and doors between worlds. War, peace, forbidden love, memory, wishes, puppets.

However. Some YA lit is just so extremely *teenage*, while other books feel like they just happen to be about young people. This is fairly obviously catering to the adolescent girl audience, what with the PG-13 romance and the gratuitous description of the too-beautiful-to-be-real angels ...more

Like · see review