Review: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

  Days of Blood and Starlight
  Author: Laini Taylor
  Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
  Publication date: 8th November 2012
  My rating: 4 stars

  

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

Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon’s secret temple and dreamed of a world that was a like a jewel-box without a jewel – a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with their happiness.

This was not that world.

Laini Taylor never fails to amaze me with her writing, I remember being stunned by her brilliant story building and magical world she created in Daughter of Smoke and Bone and now she has managed to do it again with Days of Blood and Starlight.

Days of Blood and Starlight is a lot darker than Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Gone is the upbeat energetic and happy Karou we once knew, she’s desolate; she’s lost everything, what’s her purpose now? She sure didn’t expect to find herself in her current situation. I didn’t expect to find her in that situation, after the way things ended in Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I was biting my nails anxiously but Laini again ended up surprising me. Of all the outcomes and of all the people, I felt so enraged I just wanted to thump someone. You’re thinking what the heck am I blathering about, but if I go into too much detail then I’ll probably give the entire plot away. But by the first few chapters you’ll know what I’m referring to.

It’s a hard time for Karou, everything she knew she learned from Brimstone, and now it’s just about getting on with things, what would he have wanted Karou to do? What did he expect? It was tough never knowing if she was on the right track, not having the guidance, feeling as if she’d let everyone down and then on the top of that being forced into an awkward situation.

I’m not sure how I felt about this Karou, she was broken but most of all felt betrayed, I adored her relationship with Akiva as much as it was forbidden, it sent chills up my spine. So from the beginning of this book I wanted to know what was going to happen with these two, would they be able to put everything behind them? Or was it all too late? Days of Blood and Starlight has a big shift in change from Daughter and Smoke and Bone, gone was the forbidden romance, the bigger focus was on bitterness, revenge and violence. I’m not sure how I felt about this shift, it did give off a much darker vibe to the story and moved the story in a completely different direction and yet in a way opened the door for several different possibilities that I never would have considered. Also it allowed more focus on Akiva and Karou as individuals and not as the couple we first fell in love with. It enabled us to understand a little bit more about them and in a way I liked this. It also bought so many new characters into the picture making us take a step back and realise everything that was happening wouldn’t just affect Akiva and Karou but so many others as well.

If I’m to be honest I didn’t enjoy Days of Blood and Starlight as much as Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I think it took me a while to get into and the flips in pov’s could be at times mind boggling. But that’s only my small criticism. Other than I adored this book, I was over the moon to be back in this magical world, back with familiar faces and to meet so many new ones. Again Laini has managed to leave me on tenterhooks in great anticipation of the next book.

Make sure you stop by on the blog next Saturday the 17th, where Rachel will have a extra special post for you guys!