Book Review: Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2) by Laini Taylor

Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2) by Laini Taylor
Release Date: 6th November 2012

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Format: Paperback 
Pages: 513
Rating: 5.0/5.0

This book was read as part of the 2013 ODY and 2013 BSR

Summary from Amazon:

"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?"

Review:

**This review has spoilers! (Sorry, I couldn't help myself). Read at your own risk!**

Ahh this series. It just gets better and better - which means I'm super excited for the final instalment next year (I mean, who isn't?!?). It's just soooo good guys.

Right, so onto the book. Now that Karou knows all about her past, she's travelled to Eretz to help the chimaera with their new rebellion against the seraphim. On the other side, we've got Akiva grieving over the loss of Karou, and as punishment for everything he's done, he forces himself to continue fighting the seraphim's battles. 

From there, a range of events occur, ranging from the terribly sad, to the downright awesome, to crazy moments where shit goes down. And every single thing that happened in this book, I absolutely loved. The story went places that I wasn't expecting, this occurred that I could never have predicted, and I absolutely love that. These days, predictability in books can be an issue, so it's always refreshing to come across a book that doesn't fail to surprise you. 

There were a multitude of POV's in this book, which I'm always a fan of since they usually keep me extra interested in the story. We got to hear from Zuzanna, Akiva, various chimaera and seraphim, but I particularly liked reading about Karou and her POV, now that she has her chimaera memories. It was interesting to see how Madrigal influenced her personality and decisions - how she had this fierce need to redeem herself with the chimaera because of Madrigal's actions, and also this overwhelming desire to do Brimstone proud because of what he did for her, in both her Madrigal and Karou life. It was interesting to see how she managed her chimaera and human sides.

Overall, everything I loved about the first book was carried through in the second. I absolutely love this series, and I couldn't recommend it enough.