Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Synopsis
Karou, raised by chimera under mysterious circumstances, is forced into a reckoning with her unknown past when seraphim attack her family.

My thoughts
Karou lives in the human world, except when her chimera family calls—and they're increasingly under threat from vengeful seraphim. Karou's chimera are loving and complex creatures, and the seraphim they're fighting are caricatures of evil. But Karou finds herself strangely drawn to one of the seraphim whenever they cross paths. It's an unthinkable relationship because of the blind hatred between seraphim and chimera, and it's an interesting way to reflect on the biases in our own world. Love, evil, and magic intertwine in this story, and it makes a good combination.

Laini Taylor created an intricate world with a lot of moving parts and a layered plot with a full backstory for her characters. The storytelling doesn't come off without a few hiccups. It took me a little while to get into the book, but at least it started in Prague. Once Taylor found her rhythm, the book hummed along nicely. And then the action came to a screeching halt while we drifted back in time to explore the characters' backstories—necessary and fine once I got myself oriented in the new story, but jarring all the same, especially since the flashbacks aren't in chronological order. But I was more than willing to forgive Taylor a few bumps in the story because I enjoyed her writing. Part of the spark of the book is in the details, and Taylor expertly evokes the sounds, smells, and sensations of the real cities of Prague and Marrakesh and her own imagined underworld.

I needed a bit of an escape read, and I got it. This was one of the most enjoyable reads I've had in a long time. I steered clear of Twilight and I haven't read much YA paranormal fantasy at all, so I didn't even realize that there's a whole sub-genre of angel/daemon romances. Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a well-crafted story with well-drawn characters. It's the first in a trilogy and I plan to continue with it.

Bottom line
Kept me turning the pages.

Fine print
Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor
Genre: YA, fiction, paranormal, romance, fantasy
Photo from Goodreads
I borrowed this book from my library