Reviews with content warning for War - Daughter of Smoke & Bone

The writing was beautiful and engaging. The story took some unexpected twists and turns and I enjoyed the ride. I enjoyed the slow world-building and how it was woven into the character and plot development (although the long flashback chapters took me out of the main story).
The setting made me eager to go back to Prague (which will be happening later this year).

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missgrangerr's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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rafacolog's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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businesswife's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

A twisty fantasy romp that I can't believe I've waited this long to read. Glad the whole series is out so I can read it all now. I like the writting style a lot and the characters. Also this romance trope is a FAV won't say which cuz it's a spoiler!

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savvyrosereads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

If you’ve spoken to me in the last couple weeks, you’ve probably heard me screaming about how much I love this series! I think it’s an absolute CRIME more people aren’t talking about it. I also had the absolute best time buddy reading these with my fave feral five (sorry for imploding the buddy read when I just couldn’t stop reading, whoops).

Mini reviews for each book are below, but the main takeaway: READ THESE BOOKS!

Daughter of Smoke and Bone (4.5 stars): The world building was incredible and the characters pulled me in! Also the ending absolutely BROKE ME into a million pieces.

Days of Blood and Starlight (5 stars): Possibly a hot take but this was my favorite of the series! I absolutely loved it, start to finish, and literally could not put it down.

Dreams of Gods and Monsters (4 stars): An amazing conclusion to an incredible trilogy! It wasn’t my favorite ending and I could probably nitpick a lot of things, but overall SO emotional and captivating!

Night of Cakes and Puppets (5 stars): An absolute DELIGHT of a novella spotlighting Zuzana and Mik, who might be two of my all time favorite secondary characters.

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cosy_armchair_reader's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

A tremendous book. So well written. It was honestly magical. Laini Taylor took her time to write this book and the result displays the incredible penmanship and effort she put into this story.
It is such a mysterious tale which really drew me in and made me want to stay.
The only complaint I have, which really isn't that much of a complaint and more of a personal preference, is that when we take a look back on Akiva and Madrigal's memories it feels very slow and slightly dreary and I would rather get back to the action that had been carved so wondrously in the previous chapter.
I loved the element of magic, love and wishes. And hope.
So beautiful. Top marks for Laini Taylor.

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_persephone_'s review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Is this book perfect? No. Did I still give it 5 stars? Fuck yes. This is definitely a new favorite. The worldbuilding was beautiful, and the way it was introduced was amazing. There wasn't any info-dumping, everything you learn is weaved so neatly and naturally into the plot and dialogue. The writing is amazing too, it was poetic at times, but also blunt when it needed to be. The characters were amazing as well, and the main character, Karou, is a new favorite of mine. She was strong, but could be soft, and though

she's a mythical, knife wielding karate chopping, chimera

, she was painfully relatable. And motherfucking Akiva,

although the the ending had me pissed at him (although i do lowkey already forgive him (almost))

I love him so much. I mean he practically worshiped Karou. Speaking of which, the romance was literally perfect, the love they have for each other is precious.

although for people who are big about enemies staying enemies for a while will probably be disappointed at first, they fell for each other pretty quickly, but they do end up as 'enemies' again at the end anyway, so...

. As for the one thing that might make it less then perfect in people's eyes is the predictability, although I feel like most of it is definitely on purpose, she drops some pretty major hints, and I'm pretty sure you're meant to know some stuff before the characters do. And then there's the lack of diversity, which is sad, but it's also a 2010's book so honestly I didn't expect anything more. Overall though, this will definitely be a book I reread over and over again.

Rep: None really. Though I wouldn't call it representation, most of the human characters are Czech, and apparently one of the side characters are canonically ace, but that is never said or explored, and she is a very minor side character (although it's possible it will be talked about in the other books)

Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, Insta Love, Forbidden Love, Star-Crossed Lovers

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jadehusdanhicks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I love this series already with all my heart and cannot wait to read the rest. Karou and her skills are unmatched and her relationships with zuzana and discovery of Akira are amazing.

I truly didn’t see the twists and turns coming and was sat with my jaw dropped to say the least. Dived into the next one already

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