Review: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: November 6, 2012
Purchase: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

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, and a world suffered for it.

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?

My Thoughts:
Stand back people Ms.Taylor has totally blown Daughter of Smoke and Bone out of the water!  I never in a million years thought that she could top the first book in this amazing trilogy and not only did she do that, but she made me realize that sequels can be just as badarse as their predecessors.

Days of Blood and Starlight takes off a few months after Karou takes off to find the other portal.  She left Akiva because of what was brought to light at the end of Daughter of Smoke and Bone to try and find her people the chimaera.  What is finds is devastation and war.  Thiago one of the only living survivors finds Karou and together they build an army.  Not knowing what else to do Karou follows Thiago, the White Wolf, and so begins her journey into a world she never wanted to be in.  With the weight of so many on her shoulders she just assumes that the army she isbuilding willl help her people, when she finds out that the war has turned far uglier than she could have ever imagined she starts thinking what is it all for.

We not only get to see what Karou is going through but also Akiva.  His heart is broken but don't think for one second that his side if the story is all whining and crying.  Akiva is a Misbegotten soldier and their one and only duty is to kill.  Faced with rebel chimaera he is told to fight and bring down the monsters that are hunting the seraphim, but to what cost?  Akiva realizes that the war will never stop unless one side stops killing.  With his brother and sister behind him they try and find a way to unite both sides before all is lost. 

This story was about war and consequence.  I wasn't expecting that at all.  I knew things were going to get rough after the way the first one ended but oh my this book is ugly and raw and just filled with desperation.  Karou and Akiva are by far my favorite couple ever even though I have no idea if they will ever be a couple.  They are strong and passionate and brilliant.  I absolutely fell in love with the world that Laini Taylor created and even though it is ugly and scary it is one of the most beautifully created worlds I have ever read about.  I can see why Karous friends wanted to stay in it.  I am havign a very hard time trying to get my words out because I just have no words for the brilliance that has just sunk into me.  Days of Blood and Starlight was filler but the best possible filler I have ever read.  Some books you read and you know the author could have left out the second book and just finished everything up with two books, but not this one.  I devoured every word on every page.  There isn't one single thing that I would want changed or left out and what is so amazing is that most of the story takes place in a sand castle.   I am just amazed at this book.  This is fantasy at its finest and I cannot wait for the third installment.  Ms.Taylor you are my hero.

 5 Snowflakes

*ARC copy provided by the Publisher*