Book Review: Days Of Blood & Starlight; Laini Taylor

Goodness me, I took much longer than I wanted to getting through this one! But wow, I'm so glad I got into this one. It was such a great book! I wanted to finish it today before posting my April Round-Up, so that I could have a totally fresh start for May! I may as well enter this for the 'Key Words' challenge seeing as both 'Star' and 'Light' are in the title. I won this one in a Goodreads Giveaway, and I was so excited when I got it!

SOURCE: Goodreads Giveaway
TYPE: Paperback

TITLE: Days Of Blood & Starlight
AUTHOR: Laini Taylor
SERIES: Daughter Of Smoke & Bone (#2)
PUBLISHER: Hodder Paperbacks
PAGES: 518
GENRE: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy

RATING: 5/5 Stars

Blurb:
Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a new way of living - one without massacres and torn throats and bonfires of the fallen, without revenants or bastard armies or children ripped from their mothers' arms to take their turn in the killing and dying.

Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon's secret temple and dreamed of a world that was like a jewel-box without a jewel - a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with their happiness.

This was not that world.

What I Liked:

• Where to start? I really liked the pacing of this book, I felt like Taylor was a lot more comfortable with her writing style in this book. It flowed well, wasn't too slow that I got bored but wasn't so quick that I felt confused or lost at any point. Just right! It was broken up nicely so I felt like I was making good progress despite the length of the book! The plot-line was great and filled with some great twists and turns which kept me on the edge of my seat!
• The characters were beautifully written! So complex, deep every single one seemed to have a back-story and no-one faded into the background at all. I just loved reading each one, understanding their motives for their sometimes horrific actions. Taylor did a great job! My favourites were Zuzana and Mik. There isn't an awful lot of Karou/Akiva time in this installment (they spend most of the story apart) but Zuzana and Mik were more than worthy substitutes for the romantic in me! I  think in some aspects I even prefer them! At the same time, they didn't dominate the story and I liked that a lot! Another perfect example? I didn't really like Liraz and Hazael last book, but Taylor developed them so well and really sold them to me as good characters in this one! I won't spoil, but I will say my heart broke a little at the end. That is all.
• Again I must applaud Taylor's imagination and attention to detail in her world building. She's got it all figured out and everything she described, I could see it in my mind's eye! This was one of my main loves from the other book, and she did it even better this time (which I didn't think was possible). 

What I Disliked:

• Okay so in the last book I mentioned there wasn't enough Karou and Akiva development. I said I really wanted to see more from them in this one and I didn't get that, they spent a good majority of the book separated. At first I quite liked this development. There was a series of misunderstandings and a lot of understandable anger that lead to their separation and I felt that some time apart developed them more fully as individual character's in my mind. But I began to get a bit frustrated after a while. A lot of their problems could have been resolved if they (Karou in particular) could just stop being so secretive and stubborn. I think it was a necessary plot device but it began to grate a little. I really hope they completely come clean with each other in the beginning of the final book because otherwise I'm going to go mad!

Overall Conclusion:

Well I didn't quite get what I asked for after reading the first book, but this was such an amazing read that I couldn't not love it. Yes the lack of Karou/Akiva was frustrating but I still got my fill of romance with Zuzana and Mik (if anything happens to them I will not be happy...) and I was too busy focusing on the great story-line, characterisation, detail, and imagery to care. Thank you Laini Taylor for writing such an awesome series, I'm so glad I've got round to reading this one!