Days of Blood and Starlight: The Sunday Times Bestseller. Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy Book 2

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With Karou gone, Akiva feels like he has nothing really left to lose, except his brother and sister, who he finally confesses everything to. These two enemies cannot help but keep coming back to each other, even against so much betrayal and heartbreak! But of course, my favourite instalment in the DOSAB trilogy has the honour of being my 50th Goodreads review! Many seemingly 'righteous' wars, even recently, have been started on this idea, and the results of them have never been satisfying, have never been worth it; instead, only more suffering and pain was dealt to those caught in the middle of the fighting.

Struggled to engage with the characters and feel like Akiva really has no personality at all, even though his siblings did. Ziri's character surprised me as well; his conflict between ingrained prejudice and caring for others is very well-executed.

True, the first book's ending indicated Korou and Akiva might not share a single thread for a while, but that was not all. DoSaB had limited PoV changes that largely existed between Akiva and Karou (I think – my memory is really dodgy) and DoSaB was really more Romantic up until the very end. Not only is she skilled at describing people and places in such a way that they come to life, but her writing, in and of itself, is lyrical and masterful.

Akiva tries to limit the murder by glamouring himself invisible during the night and scaring off nearby chimaera. This one really made it clear that the first book was only a backstory installment, to create the world (which was spectacular) while developing the key characters (some of whom were amazing).Looks like the Misbegotten and the chimaera are going to have to team up to fight bid bad Jael in book three. Unfortunately for me, my ship’s romantic moments were essentially non-existent in this book, as well…mostly because of the revelations that came to pass at the end of the first instalment. Daughter of Smoke and Bone caught elements of both comedic and tragic readings of Romeo and Juliet perfectly.

This frequent shift in perspective gave me a bit of whiplash, as we were constantly jumping from one character’s story to another. I listened to this one, as I did the first, and I think the narrator does a spectacular job bringing this incredible world to life. Firstly the last pages are missing, who knows how many as it finished on page 502 for me as in the picture, not even a finished sentence so very disappointed in the publishing. She lost everything she held dear and permanent in her life, and is barely a shell of her old self, consumed by regret and shame and guilt which, honestly, she really does not deserve (and the frequently annoying in its persistent cheerfullness presence of Zuzana is a painful reminder of how different Karou's life has become). Laini Taylor unflinchingly minimized the wonder and cuteness and romance and instead focused on creating a rich landscape devastated by war, and characters wounded and scarred by it, and yet caught in the relentless cycle of violence which breeds more of the same.At the end of that book, we know how well this turned out (not): Madrigal was killed but eventually resurrected as memory-less Karou. Both the characters and world building in this series are created wonderfully and incredibly vivid--which is surreal for such an imaginative fantasy world.