Words I Write Crazy: Week 20 Reviews: Days of Blood & Starlight, Night of Cake & Puppets, Dreams of Gods & Monsters

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Week 20 Reviews: Days of Blood & Starlight, Night of Cake & Puppets, Dreams of Gods & Monsters

From Goodreads:
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.

Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?

From Goodreads:
In Night of Cake & Puppets, Taylor brings to life a night only hinted at in the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy—the magical first date of fan-favorites Zuzana and Mik. Told in alternating perspectives, it's the perfect love story for fans of the series and new readers alike. 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 meet him, 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 finally leading him to the treasure: herself! Violin Boy’s not going to know what hit him.

From Goodreads:
By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her, if there can even be a future for the chimaera in war-ravaged Eretz.

Common enemy, common cause.

When Jael's brutal seraph army trespasses into the human world, the unthinkable becomes essential, and Karou and Akiva must ally their enemy armies against the threat. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people.

And, perhaps, for themselves. Toward a new way of living, and maybe even love.

But there are bigger threats than Jael in the offing. A vicious queen is hunting Akiva, and, in the skies of Eretz ... something is happening. Massive stains are spreading like bruises from horizon to horizon; the great winged stormhunters are gathering as if summoned, ceaselessly circling, and a deep sense of wrong pervades the world.

What power can bruise the sky?

From the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond, humans, chimaera and seraphim will fight, strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy.

At the very barriers of space and time, what do gods and monsters dream of? And does anything else matter?

My first review of Days of Blood & Starlight
My Review:
Oh, man, what great books! I mean, I knew that I loved Days of Blood & Starlight, but I hadn't read the next 2, so while I was pretty sure I'd love them, I wasn't 100% sure, there was the possibility, and yeah, I did love these books, and I can't wait to actually get a physical cope of Dreams of Gods & Monsters when it comes out in paperback to go with my copies of the first 2!!!

I absolutely enjoyed reading these books, they were so hilarious, and odd, and just fun to wonder at what directions things could go, though there were some tense situations, like when Akiva killed his dad, or when the chimeras may or may not have used their hands on the Misbegotten, and the Misbegotten shot at Thiago, yeah, that was a pretty tense moment!

Though I was a bit confused at Starlight ended with the 2 groups in the Kirin caves, but that Monsters first 100 or so pages when they were in their world, was getting to that point, so that epilogue felt a bit like a spoiler for Monsters. But that was just a random thought.

I loved Puppets, it was nice and sweet, whey they have their first face to face meeting/date, and how she uses the 5 wishes, ending with 1 to remember the occasion, and the random conversation tangents, and how they both wanted to be with each other, but were shy! And how we got a glimpse of Karou while she was finding high powered wishes. Yeah, that was great!

I loved their plan of how to get the angels out of Earth, it was pretty awesome, and graceful in it's simplicity. Just asking for him to leave, by putting a hand print on his chest, a hand print like from Bone, and yeah, they just left, and that was pretty great!

Or the fact that they were the godstars, and that they'd go back in time and fight the monsters, that was a pretty big revelation, and I wonder if we might get the story (s) of how they do that, but my breath isn't held, because they did end on a positive note, so while I'd love to read that, yeah.

I loved these books, they were so freaking good, and I know I'll reread the whole series one day!

Author: Laini Taylor
Series: Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2, 2.5, 3
First Read: December 22nd, 2012
Read: May 12th, 12th, 12th, 2014
Source: Own, Tuebl
Reason Why: Rereading! And they're Prequle & Sequel Challenge 2014 Books, and it's a WoW Book, and a End of Series 2014 Book!
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: November 6th 2012, November 26th 2013, April 8th 2014

Days of Blood & Starlight: