Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2)

Author: Laini Taylor
Goodreads Rating: 4.29
Length: 15 Hours, 17 Minutes
Format: Audio book from the Library

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?

I went the audiobook route with the second in this series because I adored the first audiobook. I find that the narrator spins magic with Taylor’s words and she can paint a beautiful image of all those in Karou’s world. I found this one even more heat breaking than the first as the two worlds plunged into war.

I think what made me most sad was that Karou and Akiva were still at odds the way they were at the end of the first book. There is so much more to their lives that we have yet to learn, but this book did a great job of opening up into what the war looked like for both sides. It gave us a glimpse at what the problem was, at who was continuing this battle that seemed to have to no start. Its almost like Romeo and Juliet the way no one knows what started to feud between the different sides.

I think that it was great that we learned more about the different Chimera and the way that they lived and loved. There was no sense to what was happening to villagers as we learned how the battle between the Angels and Chimera was affecting all.

But even better was that we continued to follow Akiva as he went to try to set things straight. He made decisions that were punishable by death, but we learned that he wasn’t alone in his feelings as he joined other’s who felt the same way. This book broke your heart in ways that you didn’t even know it could be broken.

I loved that we got to see both sides from Karou and Akiva. We saw the underlying cruelty of both sides and we saw the kindness and the hope. I cannot wait for the third book to hit shelves so I can see where this is all going to end.

The Courts Decision: