A review by pageofpentacles
Ćerka magije by Laini Taylor, Jelena Radojičić
5.0
I found this book by accident, while looking for another duology by Laini Taylor, and although I'm still planning on getting my hands on those, I think it'll wait until I'm done with this trilogy.
Paranormal fantasy has been my biggest fascination for years now, but it can be difficult to tackle down and, ever since Twilight, my expectations seem to be high and strict when it comes to that (sub)genre. This book, however, met those expectations pretty quickly.
First off, the story's set in one of my favourite cities, Prague; the atmosphere of that city is magical and mysterious, just like Karou and her past. Descriptions are lyrical and romantic, which can unintentionally come across as cheesy; by mixing with just the right amount of dark and dangerous, the author achieved balance, which I think was also on intention, since one of the messages in the book is surely that light cannot exist without dark.
The stakes seemed to be unusually high for a "book one", it gets me greedy to get my hands on the sequel and see how high can they really go!
If I'm so excited to read the rest of the series, why the four stars? Well, one of the few things I couldn't wrap my head around was this crazy amount of beautiful in characters. Not even pretty, or conventionally attractive, but so profoundly beautiful I couldn't help but roll my eyes on physical descriptions of Karou, Akieva, the angels, heck even her best friend is gifted with fairy-like beauty due to her height and cute looks. Yeah, I get that it might be to show another example of difference between chimeras and angels, and even with all the beauty angels are blood-thirsty warriors who know no love, but it just cuts no ice with me...
Also, the ending is slightly confusing, I mean I saw it coming, but it'll take me some time into second book to get used to it, that's all.
Definitely gonna be checking out Laini's other works and maybe even following her upcoming titles!
---
2nd read: July 2022
I have to say, I missed Taylor's worlds more than I expected. I remember my thoughts when I first read this book in quarantine, thinking that the romance is too fast-paced but now I had time to pay attention to all the Easter eggs and all of the hints in Karou's memory, which made me appreciate every chapter and love this trilogy even more!
I took my precious time annotating and Zuzana might be my favorite in this installment, mainly because she reminds me of a dear friend. Brimstone is also one of the wisest and most fascinating characters I've read about, I kinda got Sazed (The Mistborn trilogy) vibes.
All in all, Love is an element and I don't know how prepared I am for the heartbreak that is book two, since I vividly remember DoBAS being the saddest one.
Paranormal fantasy has been my biggest fascination for years now, but it can be difficult to tackle down and, ever since Twilight, my expectations seem to be high and strict when it comes to that (sub)genre. This book, however, met those expectations pretty quickly.
First off, the story's set in one of my favourite cities, Prague; the atmosphere of that city is magical and mysterious, just like Karou and her past. Descriptions are lyrical and romantic, which can unintentionally come across as cheesy; by mixing with just the right amount of dark and dangerous, the author achieved balance, which I think was also on intention, since one of the messages in the book is surely that light cannot exist without dark.
The stakes seemed to be unusually high for a "book one", it gets me greedy to get my hands on the sequel and see how high can they really go!
If I'm so excited to read the rest of the series, why the four stars? Well, one of the few things I couldn't wrap my head around was this crazy amount of beautiful in characters. Not even pretty, or conventionally attractive, but so profoundly beautiful I couldn't help but roll my eyes on physical descriptions of Karou, Akieva, the angels, heck even her best friend is gifted with fairy-like beauty due to her height and cute looks. Yeah, I get that it might be to show another example of difference between chimeras and angels, and even with all the beauty angels are blood-thirsty warriors who know no love, but it just cuts no ice with me...
Also, the ending is slightly confusing, I mean I saw it coming, but it'll take me some time into second book to get used to it, that's all.
Definitely gonna be checking out Laini's other works and maybe even following her upcoming titles!
---
2nd read: July 2022
I have to say, I missed Taylor's worlds more than I expected. I remember my thoughts when I first read this book in quarantine, thinking that the romance is too fast-paced but now I had time to pay attention to all the Easter eggs and all of the hints in Karou's memory, which made me appreciate every chapter and love this trilogy even more!
I took my precious time annotating and Zuzana might be my favorite in this installment, mainly because she reminds me of a dear friend. Brimstone is also one of the wisest and most fascinating characters I've read about, I kinda got Sazed (The Mistborn trilogy) vibes.
All in all, Love is an element and I don't know how prepared I am for the heartbreak that is book two, since I vividly remember DoBAS being the saddest one.