Days of Blood and Starlight - Laini Taylor

Pages: 513

Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton

Release Date: 8^th November 2012

Edition: UK hardback, review copy

Other Titles in this Series: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

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 mother’s arms to take their turn in the killing and dying.

Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon’s secret temples and dreamed of a world that was like a jewel – a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with happiness.

This was not that world.

Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone is hands down one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read so Days of Blood and Starlight had a lot to live up to. Once again, Taylor nailed it.

I didn’t even get to the second sentence of Days of Blood and Starlight before I stopped and just went ‘oh’ to myself, completely awed by Laini Taylor’s stunning prose. I would give several limbs to be able to write like her. Honestly, if there was ever a manifestation of painting with words, this series is it. I lingered over the language and the imagery which made Days of Blood and Starlight a slow burner for me and I loved every second of it.

It has been a long time since I read the first book and not having time to re-read it, I went in with a patchy recollection of what had come before. Even in having to piece things together I got lost in Karou and Akiva’s story once again. As I came to each new chapter I was dying for them to be reunited. However, saying that, I loved that Akiva and Karou’s reactions to each other based on what they had seen and heard of the other were kept wary and realistic. They was no eye meet, everything falls away and they’re back where they were before they snapped the wishbone. It was realistic and in tune with their characters and annoying rare in paranormal YA. Well done, Laini Taylor.

Karou and Akiva both broke my heart in Days of Blood and Starlight. Karou was broken and shamed and I just wanted to shake her out of it and Akiva seemed utterly defeated and it was horrible! While those two were breaking my heart and making me pull my heart out, I was also falling in love with Akiva’s brother and sister, Hazael and Liraz. There was so much more to Liraz that I ever thought there could be: the fear that nobody thinks she feels and the love and loyalty she has for her brothers. I got to like her far more than I ever thought I would.

I loved every beautiful constructed sentence of Days of Blood and Starlight and I can’t wait for what I’m sure is going to be a truly epic finale. If only I didn’t have to wait until 2014 (according to Goodreads) to read it...

Thank you to Hodder for sending me a copy to review.

Sophie