Days of Blood & Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2) by, Laini Taylor

 

 

Summary: 

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? (Via Goodreads)

Release Date: November 6th 2012

 

Pages: 513

 

Review: 

     Days of Blood & Starlight starts off with Zuzana and Mik watching Kaz, Karou's ex-boyfriend, having a live interview with a Television newscaster and Zuzana wants to drop a balloon full of pee on Kaz. He ends up getting hit with a perfume-paste but it was hysterical. Zuzana and Mik are an adorable couple, with the fairy tale tasks, the marriage talk, and Zuzana saying she will have to tell her Grandchildren about the time she turned invisible, then having to  turn invisible so she is not thought of as crazy. During the beginning portion of the book, Zuzana  writes e-mails that are exceptionally hysterical to Karou, being that Karou disappeared off the edge of the Earth. When she and Mik go to the kasbah to find Karou it is daring, and also happens to be one of the fairy tale tasks, but Zuzana is exactly what Karou needs, her friends.
     The reason Zuzana was able to know that Karou was still on Earth instead of in Eretz was because Karou was stealing teeth from different animals exhibits in various museums all over the world. The reason she needed the teeth was because she took over Brimstone's job as the chimaera's resurrections and was creating more bodies for the chimaera's army against the seraphim's.
     Days of Blood & Starlight is written in various point of views.  Being in other characters point of view gave me a better understanding of them and viewed most of them differently than I did before. With the various point of views, there was an increasing number of new characters, as well as a a high level of character development. For example, Liraz is not just a killing machine that I had previously viewed her as.  After Hazael's death, Liraz shows vulnerability and a mix of other emotions, unlike her usually stone wall face where nothing would discourage her. Like I stated above, Hazeal died and it was rather sad because he had developed as a character and I had grown fond and attached to him.
     For the first several chapters, twelve to be exact, there is no sign of Karou anywhere. During those chapters, the point of view switched between Akiva and Zuzana. They were both concerned that Karou was dead.  Akiva was almost positive when he found a vessel with Karou's name on it in the Kirin Cave. The soul in the vessel actually turned out to be Issa.   Akiva and Zuzana's concern regarding  Karou's whereabouts made me antsy to know whether she was or was not. Thankfully, she was still alive and well, at-least as well as you could possibly be for being stuck with Thiago.
     I despised Thiago in Daughter of Smoke & Bone and the feeling increased and intensified over the course of Days of Blood & Starlight. Thiago is a liar, cold-blooded killer, rapist, power-hungry, arrogant, and self-absorbed. I was proud of Karou for killing Thiago when he tried to rape her, but when Thiago came waltzing in a couple chapters later, I was confused and frustrated that Karou killed Thiago and then resurrected him back to life. The Thiago that came waltzing in turned out to be Ziri because Karou resurrected Ziri's soul into Thiago's body. Not only did she place Ziri's soul in Thiago, Karou put Haxaya's soul into Ten's body, who died from a fight with Issa. I thought that was a brilliant plan on the authors part, I never in a million years would have expected that to happen.
       It broke my heart when Akiva came to Karou with dead Hazael and a distraught Liraz. They hoped that Karou could resurrect Hazael but instead saw a tender moment between Karou and Thiago, who was Ziri at the time. I wish Karou would tell Akiva that Thiago is actually Ziri because I want Akiva and Karou together in the end. Akiva is heart-broken and believes Karou does not love him anymore. I also want Ziri to be happy because he deserves to be happy after everything he has been through, but Ziri also has a crush on Karou so I hope Ziri finds someone else to love.
        I wish Karou would have gotten over what Akiva had done sooner.  If it was reversed, I believe Karou would have done what Akiva did to the chimeras.  Anyway, it is in the past, and it turns out that there are a thousand souls of chimeras in the Cathedral so not as many souls are lost as expected.
       Akiva's powers are beyond amazing, for example, when he blew up the tower it was astonishing! I  wonder what he is capable of?  Hopefully in the next book his powers are explained more in depth.  
       When the angels started to invade Earth, I knew right then that the humans were on the way to being extinct unless the chimaera and the Misbegotten armies got together and led their armies together, which they did.
       Overall, Days of Blood & Starlight was action-packed, thrilling, heart-racing, brilliantly written, and includes a beautiful cover. After finishing, I can not wait for the release of the last book in the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy, Dreams of Gods & Monsters which is expected to be released on April, 1st of 2014.