book review: daughter of smoke and bone

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is the first book in an urban fantasy/paranormal trilogy. I'm rating this book 4.4 out of 5 stars!

The story and plot

Holy crap. This book had fantastic plot twists pretty much every few chapters beginning from the second half of the book! The first third or so was slowly paced, but with really great character-building. That ending was just the cherry on top of a fantastic book. I literally went "NO NOOOO SHIT NOOOO" for the last page before the epilogue!

The writing
I am most impressed with Laini Taylor's writing. Not only are her sentences elegant and beautifully crafted, but the way she arranged the chapters and the clues she provides earlier were just so well placed. It really worked to build up suspense and make you think you know what's going to happen. I loved the way she played with our minds like that. There was this one chapter with that seemed like random sentences from the upcoming chapters and where nothing made sense, and it was so thrilling to uncover the mystery of it.

 The first few chapters were hilarious, i actually found myself literally laughing aloud! Karou is such a great character and her thoughts are so interesting to observe.

 The romance was quite beautiful. It was insta-love yes, but it really worked for this book. Although i wish it didn't seem like physical beauty mattered that much, i still love the exhilaration of forbidden love and tragedy.

I love the whole idea of hopes and wishes, of how in actuality wishes are just words, and it is hope that does the magic.

The characters
I procrastinated in writing this part and now its 9 days after i finished reading so i can't remember much except that i loved Karou as a main character(she made me literally laugh for the first few chapters) and her best friend, Zuzana, is also pretty awesome. I have mixed feelings about Akiva, but it's leaning more towards liking him rather than the opposite.

I'm currently reading the second book and tbh its a bit slow but i'm hoping i'll get into it soon! :)