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

Libby audiobook
This was YA with closed door sex. It didn't bother me because the world building and storyline kept me interested. I sped through the first 60-70%. It was super obvious from early in the book that Karou was Madrigal reincarnated. There were 50-60 pages in the middle that were slow and could have been skipped to go straight to the reveal.

The use of the teeth was so cool once it was revealed. Brimstone and his colleagues were my favorite parts of the book. I wish Karou had been a little older. Even college would have been better than 17. The cliffhanger was annoying. </ spoiler>

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scarlett_f's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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doodeedoda's review

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

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kayelina's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful relaxing medium-paced

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

4.25

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le3713's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Unevenly paced story that nevertheless pulled me into an imaginative and richly described world. The last section left me needing more!

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ashley_elizabeth's review

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

Color me pleasantly surprised. I've been hesitant to go back and read all these 2010s YA fantasy series (many by cis white women) as I worried they wouldn't age well. This is my first foray into those waters - since reading some of them back in the day - and it's not bad!
Yes there's an insta-love* plot, and yes we have some pretty gross violence for the sake of "war" but I thought the setting was fun and the characters aren't half bad. I'll be picking up the next book, for sure.

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donatio's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

So... overall I liked the book.
I liked the characters as well as the world-building but some things didn't sit right with me.

I'm a big animal friend and I'm intrigued by the concept of opposites, how something cannot exist without an opposite, but the depiction here failed sometimes. The fact that the angels basically colonised the world of the chimaera often fades into the background and the chimaera are still often described as the villain(monsters) because the angels make no appearance except for Akiva's "rightness" and so on; the balance it was probably supposed to be... Is just not there. Even though it is said that the chimaera are intelligent and feeling beings this behavior isn't shown, there is no tender love in Eretz in the chimaera capital described. That makes them seem cruel even though the angels are the "real" enemies.
Furthermore I had a problem with some comments made in the book I can't recall specifically now and the fact that everyone seems to be beautiful (ly thin) in some way upsets me.

Still the story managed to draw me in, to care about the characters.

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