There is absolutely no way for you to read a Laini Taylor book and not fall in love with it. I mentioned this in another article, but I will repeat it – I wish I could spend even five minutes in her head and see all the crazy things happening there.
This young adult trilogy is not an exception either.
The author is not only a fantastic romance writer, but her talent in fantasy and world-building is equally impressive. In Strange the Dreamer, we saw her create a new world, a lost city, and vengeful gods. In Daughter of Smoke and Bone, she made a world torn in half by a war between angels and monsters. This brutal but fantastic world is only one red door away from ours
Reading Order:
Book #1 – Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Book #1.5 – Night of Cake & Puppets
Book #2 – Days of Blood & Starlight
Book #3 – Dreams of Gods & Monsters
Note: I think the author will make a crossover between Strange the Dreamer and the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series since neither series wraps up.
Book #1 – Daughter of Smoke & Bone
“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well.”
The Daughter of Smoke and Bone takes Romeo and Juliet, but instead of Verona, we have a world filled with angels and demons.
Beyond the Red Door in Prague, through the devil’s dark and dusty shop, is another world filled with angels and Chimaera. These two races are at mortal war with each other, a war that is tearing the world apart. The war has even reached the human world. Throughout human countries, mysterious scorched handprints appear in the most random places.
The war will soon catch up to a peculiar art student with blue hair.
The girl is named Karou. She collects teeth for Brimstone, a half-bull and half-human Chimaera, who exchanges them for wishes.
Do you wonder why he needs the teeth? He uses them to create new bodies for the Chimaeras, who were lost in war with angels, and to transfer their gleaned souls there.
But despite Brimstone’s efforts, the war is still hard to win, and the casualties and consequences are brutal.
“Long life is a burden, when it’s spent in misery.”
Aside from her job at Brimstone’s, Karou is also trying to make her way through art school and have all the drama of an ordinary human girl.
As if her schedule wasn’t packed enough, during one of her special errands for Brimstone, she stumbles upon an angel in an alley in Marrakesh, who ends up dragging her into otherworldy trouble, blood, starlight, unveiled secrets, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past.
The secrets take us decades back, and we get a little prequel story—a devastating story of love, jealousy, betrayal, and forbidden romance.
This was the best book of the series and a National Book Award finalist. I read the whole series twice, about ten years ago and again a couple of years back when I was in the mood for a good enemies-to-lovers and forbidden romance book. Both times, I was utterly engrossed in the story.
“Wishes are false, Hope is true. Hope makes it’s own magic.”
From Prague to Marrakesh and Paris and the otherworld city of Loramendi, the adventure won’t let you put the book down.
Book 1.5: Night of Cake & Puppets
Zuzana and Mik, one of our favorite side characters in the series, will get to tell their own story in this wonderful novel. This book is not only romance in fiction but also in real life. As it happens, the book is full of beautiful illustrations designed by the author’s husband, Jim Di Bartolo.
Petite though she may be, Zuzana is not known for timidity. Her best friend, Karou, calls her “rabid fairy,” her “voodoo eyes” are said to freeze blood, and even her older brother fears her wrath. But when it comes to the simple matter of talking to Mik, or “Violin Boy,” her courage deserts her. Now, enough is enough. Zuzana is determined to make the first move, and she has a fistful of magic and a plan. It’s a wonderfully elaborate treasure hunt of a plan that will take Mik all over Prague on a cold winter’s night before leading him to the treasure: herself! Violin Boy is not going to know what hit him.
I personally skipped this book when I was reading the original series, and it won’t effect the main plotline, but it’s a charming and sweet love story, and I would recommend you not to miss it.
Book 2: Days of Blood & Starlight
“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.
This is not that world.”
Karou finally knows who she is, but this knowledge comes with a devastating cost. She lost her family and discovered she fell in love with a traitor and it cost her the ultimate price. With Brimstone gone, she has to take his place, use the knowledge she got from her father figure, and aid the Chimaeras in war from the dusty sandcastles of Marrakesh.
But even on the edge of the world, her friends are there to help and support her as much as they can.
Meanwhile, Akiva is on a journey of his own. Reunited with his people, alongside his friends, he is trying to root out injustice rotten in the ranks of angels.
Karou and Akiva are on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.
Most of Book 2 is set between the desert, Sandcastles of Marrakesh, and Eretz. The author’s descriptions of these places are wondrous and so vivid that you feel like you’re there.
There is also the matter of mixed loyalties and differentiating right from wrong. But these lines get very blurry during the war.
We see more side characters and details about the prequel story through flashbacks.
Book 3: Dreams of Gods & Monsters
From the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond—humans, Chimaera, and Seraphim strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, and friend and enemy.
Karou and Akiva are forced to unite their forces and face the enemy no one has ever faced while trying to work through a once beautiful but now broken relationship.
I’ll be honest: I wasn’t a fan of the last book, but the whole series was so gripping and wholesome that I can’t be partial to it.
The characters’ stories wrap up, and many threads are resolved. But in this last book, the author introduced new characters, villains, and a new potential problem without resolving all the current conflicts in the plot.
Because of this new plotline and leftover threads, I think this is not the last time we will see our beloved characters. The book and its events are obviously leading to a crossover between Daughter of Smoke and Bone and Strange the Dreamer, which is also not entirely concluded.
The author left dangling threads that lead these two different book series to each other, and I can’t wait to revisit these fantastic worlds Laini Taylor has created.
[book_series_ranker include=”2-5″]
