Daughter of Smoke & Bone

Group read with Mitsu, Joyce, and Nikki.

I absolutely love Laini Taylor's writing. This book is beautiful with vivid descriptions that bring everything to life, and needless to say the world-building is simply amazing. The plot twist and the reveal might be predictable for some (myself included), but the execution is just so well-done that it turns into a very engaging story—even if you see the secrets coming from a mile away.

Another thing that I adore from this book is the grey characters. Even though the story takes on the theme of angels and demons, the characters are never 100% black or white. Both sides have their own legends that justify their perspectives, and the romance that serves as the beginning of this story shows that things are not as simple as “good and evil”. The way Brimstone and his group take care of Karou and Madrigal is very touching, and the same goes for the love between her and Akiva. It happened really fast and at first left me wondering if it's another love at the first sight, but the second half of the book really gives depth to their story.

That being said, I didn't give this book 5 stars because some parts are written so vaguely it feels like something is missing. Mainly the time skips, the brief flashbacks, and especially the epilogue. The first two didn't bother me that much, mostly because we get the full version of the flashbacks later on, but I feel that the epilogue killed the tension built by the last chapter. As much as I dislike cliffhangers, I believe the book would've ended in a more intriguing note that way... Then again, it's a finished series so thankfully I can just grab the next volume and marathon them all.