Book Review: Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor

I rated it 5 out of 5 stars.

 

Overview: 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: I really love it when I catch on to a series where I don't have to wait for the next installment! Why, you ask? Because it allows me to binge read in bed all day long! I love lazy reading days. That's what I did on Sunday. I finished the second installement of the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy.

Let me just say, sequels kind of scare me, just because sequels have always been kind of a let down (except the second installment in the Hunger Games, I thought that was the best in the series), but Taylor seriously does not disappoint! I will say that Days of Blood & Starlight is definitely darker, more grim, filled with pain, and man I just f e e l for Karou, you know? You just keep thinking, things can't get any worse, but they do, and you're just clutching this story in your hands holding your breath, just hoping and waiting things will get better.

But of course, they don't.
Which just makes you read on.

Taylor does a good job with tension in her books and the second installment is an excellent example of it. Her talent with characterization is very impressive. Each character is unique and brings something to the story that really makes it come to life.

I don't want to spoil anything, but I rated it 5 out of 5 so just read it, kay? If you love YA fantasy/paranormal with a tragic romance, than this one's for you.

Book Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

I rated it 5 out of 5 stars.

Overview: 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.

When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Review: So remember how I said I was reading this book on this week's RTW post? Well, I literally just finished it like 5 minutes ago during my lunch break, and you can bet your hiney that I'm going to buy the second installment of the series after I post this.

First off, the writing was absolutely amazing and the world-building was just fantastic! It sucked me in right away and I was catapulted into this world figuring out my way just like the main character. The narrative structure was also unique. I didn't feel like the flashbacks were flashbacks, but a parallel story-I was entranced by both.

This story definitely takes everything you think you know about myth, lore, love, and hope and just revamps it in a way that suprises you, but you get completely. It's like Romeo and Juliet as angels and demons, but the demons aren't really demons, and the lore is just so refreshing, and oh my gosh, the characters.

It was a grand time reading it, well except when I came to the ending and my jaw just completely dropped (I guess you gotta readi it to get what I mean).

Laini Taylor, you kind of broke my heart.

RTW: What are you reading right now?

In response to YA Highway's question, I am currently reading Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Just one fourth in, I have a feeling that I'm going to love it. My YA Workshop critique partner suggested the book to me after reading a few chapters of my manuscript. She thought that I would appreciate Taylor's writing style, since it is somewhat similar to my own. Ha! I can only hope I can do as well as Taylor. Her writing is phenomenal! Not to mention her world building!

Can't wait to finish it. Book review to follow!

What are you currently reading? Post your answer on your blog/social media.

My blog is not dead!

I can't believe it's been almost two weeks since my last post, for that I apologize. I just haven't felt quite like myself. Ever go through that? Ever feel like that?

May has been b u s y. It's the busy season at work, which means after I get off I'm pretty much wiped out for the rest of the day. Too wiped out to post, too wiped out to read, and just too wiped out to write.

Which is bad, because May is the start to my YA Workshop classes! A month has gone by without me being remotely involved in my story. I feel a major disconnection, but it's okay. I think I need time away from it and just to get feedback before I dive back in (or at least, that's what I'm telling myself). Overall, this workshop has been quite a different experience compared to my collegiate workshop courses. Still undecided on my opinion of it, though it's interesting to read other people's work; it makes me feel not so alone in my endeavor.

Also, mother's day was yesterday: Cyber love to all the mother's out there! My first time being away from my mother this year :/ so if you're lucky enough to be close to your mom, don't take each day for granted.

The sun is also back in Seattle, so maybe once I soak in some more vitamin D, I'll start feeling like little old California me.

I hope this post cleared up that I am in fact alive, and that my blog is not dead! To make up for my lack of posting, I threw in a Blaire photo. Happy Monday! More posts to come!

Book Review: Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin

I rated it 5 out of 5 stars.

Overview: If Naomi had picked tails, she would have won the coin toss. She wouldn’t have had to go back for the yearbook camera, and she wouldn’t have hit her head on the steps. She wouldn’t have woken up in an ambulance with amnesia. She certainly would have remembered her boyfriend, Ace. She might even have remembered why she fell in love with him in the first place. She would understand why her best friend, Will, keeps calling her “Chief.” She’d know about her mom’s new family. She’d know about her dad’s fiancée. She never would have met James, the boy with the questionable past and the even fuzzier future, who tells her he once wanted to kiss her. She wouldn’t have wanted to kiss him back.

But Naomi picked heads.

Review: This was a reread of one of my high school faves that survived my move to Seattle (I gave away almost about all of my books). Even about 5-6 years later, I still loved this one. I was shocked when I looked it up on Goodreads. How could the rating be 3.71? It was 5 all the way for me.

Here's the thing, you don't know what to expect when you pick up the book. You don't really know how the story's going to turn out. Because of that, I enjoyed it immensely. You get to know this main character as she discovers herself which I found really interesting. Zevin also does an amazing job at characterization and illustrating their flaws. Especially with James. I have to say, he was the pivotal point of the novel for me, even though he was only in one third of the book (Zevin, you should do a book with James as a MC, I'm curious to know how he'd end up).

I didn't agree with the ending, but then again it isn't my story. I still respected the writing and saw the logic of how it came to be. The pacing throughout was excellent. I read it all in one sitting (both times I read it), and I wouldn't mind reading it all over again.

Seattle Japanese Garden Weekend

This past weekend Michael and I kept to ourselves, since the weekend before we were with my family. We spent the weekend doing our favorite things. Brunch on Saturday morning at Tallulah's, then a walk at the Seattle Japanese Gardens. The garden was a first for Michael and I, and it was such a treat! Who knew we had such a gem just less than a mile from our apartment? The garden was so peaceful and relaxing that I could imagine Michael writing poems there.

After, we had to do some gift shopping so we went to the University Village. We ended up having lunch and some afternoon cocktails there too and ended up talking for more than two hours. I love the fact that even though Michael and I spend a lot of time together, we never run out fo things to talk about. He's become a best friend and so much more.

For dinner we went to Nishino for sushi and ended up in some interesting conversations with other customers at the bar. Apparently Michael has such a welcoming aura because anytime someone sat down next to him they would strike up a conversation.

We ended Saturday night with my favorite movie: Moulin Rouge. I couldn't believe it when Michael told me he had never seen it before! I fixed that quickly and he ended up loving it. I still have the songs from the movie stuck in my head.

On Sunday we went to Miro in Ballard for some tea and breakfast crepes then went to the Ballard farmer's market. We ended up at Whole Foods after to finish the rest of our grocery shopping. For the rest of the day we took it easy. Michael had to do a little work and I delved into one of my favorite books that I hadn't read for a long while, Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac (I'll post my review sometime this week!).

For dinner I made butternut squash soup to go along with the baguette we bought and watched Game of Thrones and Silicon Valley.

It was a perfectly relaxing weekend.

Writing Process Blog Chain

Today I am participating in the Writing Process Blog Chain, where writers answer four questions on their writing process, then tag a friend to keep the chain going.

A big thanks to the lovely Karla Gomez for tagging me (click on her name/link to see her part)! Karla is a fellow blogger and graduated with a B.A. in Literature and Writing. She obtained an internship with the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency and shortly thereafter started working at law offices and as a freelance developmental editor for a boutique publishing house. She is currently working on her WIP which she hopes to self-pub later this year.

Alright, now my answers...

1. What am I currently working on?

I'm currently working on a YA fantasy/romance that I've been referring to as M2 on this blog. I've been working on it since the end of October last year and am currently 2/3 done with my third draft. In May I will be sending it out to beta readers and getting feedback via a YA workshop. After that, I'll get my fourth draft of revisions done and start line-edits.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

What differentiates writers from each other are the unique perspectives we all have. My work differs from others of my genre because of the perspective I have and the experiences I have been through; all of that translates into my imagination and I project it in my words, my stories, and above all, my characters. My work is different because it comes from my mind and my heart. That's my unique stamp on it, and there's no duplicating or imitating it, because we as people are all different, and we as writers, write different things. Sure their might be common denominators in our stories, but that's just like life, isn't it? We as people share common interests, may have similar backgrounds, but when it comes down to it, we all look different, we have differnt thumbprints. And words for writers and how we shape them are our own unique thumbprint. Our own unique perspective.

3. Why do I write what I do?

I keep the young adult genre close to my heart because it's shaped who I am. The books were my friends in solitude, the characters showed me it was okay to be different, and the writers that created them made it okay for me to feel instead of hide.

As a child traversing through the unknown, you need something to anchor you. Books were that for me. It gave me an escape when I needed one, but it also kept me grounded. I don't know if that makes sense to you, but that felt like magic to me.

I write young adult, because I think of the little girl that used to be me: scared but brave, hopeful but pessimistic, a romantic yet a cynic, and more than anything I want to reach out to her and say that it's okay. Everything will be alright. Get lost in my story and maybe when you surface things will start to look different.

The thing is, their are probably a lot of young adults who have felt the way I've felt, so writing is really a way of giving back. Like the writers before me, I want to give young adults a place to escape, a place to love, and make them dream up the impossible so that the chain of unexplicaple magic that books give us, continues.

4. How does my writing process work?

There's one quote by Ira Glass that I found extrememly helpful and agree with immensely:

I think I'm still figuring out how my writing process works. I've tried outlines, detailed notes, character and setting sheets, but I never really stick to them. I do, however, keep a notebook just for story ideas and jot them down, list ideas for scenes, and somehow when I've collected my ideas I arrange and rearrange them until a story forms and I just keep writing. And writing. And writing.

Then I revise, and revise, and revise. After, I edit, and edit, and edit (you get the idea, right?).

I highly recommend Scrivener to those working on a large volume of work. It makes it easier to organize your story and jump from one place to the next quickly instead of scrolling through a large document.

I hope you found my answers helpful and interesting. Happy writing all!

I'm passing this chain onto my friend and fellow blogger Monica Mansfield. Tune into her blog next Monday to see her answers!

Monica Mansfield writes for young adults. Her stories lean toward (or submerge themselves shamelessly in) the mythical, magical and otherworldly. She also has a degree in mathematics which she puts to use counting words, calculating discounts, and every week at her day job. She balances her love of words and numbers in and around Boston.