Review of Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

Title: Daughter of Smoke & Bone

Author: Laini Taylor
Published by: Hachette Audio
Length: 12hrs., 33min
Source: Library
Format: Audiobook
Rating: 

Summary from Goodreads: Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

This novel had a bunch of hype to live up to.  It made almost every "Best of 2011" that I read.  So the question is was it that wonderful of a read...of course it was.  I loved the fantasy component.  I'm not a huge fantasy reader, but as story described the Chimera and their lore I was awestruck. 

Karou is my favorite type of action heroine.  She's fierce, feisty, completely dominates in a fight and yet has a heart the size of Texas.  She is loyal and will stop at nothing to find her adopted family of Chimera.  She also had great chemistry with Akiva.  I wish their romance would have developed a little slower.  I felt they went from hating each other and mortal enemies to instantly falling for each other.  Though I have to admit, this made more since once I got near the end of the novel and figured out exactly who Karou was. 

The narrator of this audiobook was Khristine Hvam.  I thought she did a wonderful job.  She kept me intrigued and very invested in the story.  She brought life to characters, giving them emotion and making me truly care for them as people.  The one thing that was confusing for me was when the story would go back in time.  I had some trouble keeping the present and past parts of the story straight, but otherwise the audio was stunning. 

This is an amazing story full of adventure and heartbreak and really convinced me to give fantasy novels another look.