Release Date: November 8th, 2012
Published By: Hatchette Books
Pages: 528
Goodreads: Add it to your reading list

Rating: 5 out of 5

Synopsis: Once upon a time, an angel and a devil held a wishbone between them.

And its snap split the world in two.

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 a 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.

Review: WOW. Laini Taylor, you have done it again! You have amazed me with your amazing superpowers! Thank you for this wonderful, torturous, beautiful book!

It has to be said, I had really high expectations for this book – and that actually made me a little scared! I loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone so much that I was stressed out in anticipation to read this sequel. What if I had put this sequel on a pedestal so high that it had no way of actually ever reaching? What if I had built up the anticipation so much in my mind that there was no writer out there actually able to meet my massive expectations? What if I didn’t like it because of those unrealistic expectations??? OH MY GOD!?!?!?!? And then, what if it had middle book syndrome? Could I handle that? I love this series so much – what would happen if it did suffer from the same thing so many other middle books do? OH MY GOD!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am a huge fan of Laini’s and I have never doubted her ability to write an amazing book – just my own ability to keep my own expectations realistic. So basically, I had stressed myself out so much, when, I didn’t have to at all! Laini delivers! DEL.IV.ERS. (of course). There is no second book syndrome – so much happens in this book, continuations from the first book, new storylines, answers, questions, it is clearly a build up to the final, not a “filler”.

This book has a different tone from Daughter, and it is a lot darker. The tone is darker, the storyline is darker, and there are some practically dark moments within that darkness! All exquisitely written and there is always underlying hope that ensures that it does not cross over that line of being too dark.

The story is told from multiple perspectives, which whilst I found hard at first due to my own anticipation, I actually loved seeing what was happening with other people. One (and there are many) of the things that amazes me about Laini is her ability to pull you in. I found myself multiple times at the end of chapter, on the edge of my seat, turning the page so quickly to continue reading and groaning when I find it was another perspective – I wanted to know what happens next with X! But within a microsecond, I am sucked into Y’s story, I temporarily forget about X and get committed to Ys journey! It is amazing skill, especially to do that to an impatient person like myself!

Laini introduces many new characters in this book, which is very interesting to see (or wonder) what role they have to play in this and the next book. But whilst there are new characters around, the old favourites are still there – true to themselves (well mostly). I won’t discuss the journeys that they went on (spoiler free) but I will say that most of them didn’t disappoint. Some surprised me, some grew, some remained stubbornly the same, some frustrated me to no end, some disgusted me, some made me believe in humanity (whether that be a human, angel or devil). The constant intrigue of who is really friend, who is really enemy – or who will become the other. The story is a journey within itself, but so much can be taken from it. Mainly – hope.

There was some heartbreaking moments in this book – but I cannot say anything about them and keep this spoiler free. There are also some bitter-sweet moments. But it did not lack in its comical moments either – all I will say about them is that they mostly involved Zuzana – I so love her!

Laini’s writing once again is superb!!! Her descriptions are absolutely amazing, mesmerising really. I could go on and on about how much I love her ability to put words together and make a wonderful stream of lyrical genius – but anyone who knows me has already heard it (probably multiple times).

I went into this book with wanting one thing – and many people know what that is, I cannot say whether I actually got it…. But I will say I CANNOT wait until the next book! My only regret about reading Days of Blood and Starlight is that there such a long wait until Dreams of Gods and Monsters (what an awesome title!!). The final in this trilogy is not out until April 2014 – which makes me extremely sad and I am literally am wishing my life away until then, but I just know it will be worth the wait!

There are only 3 things that would make my life complete right now:

1. For Jim (Laini’s husband) to do a graphic novel version of this series – well not even a graphic novel – just a book with illustrations of all the characters, key locations, key scenes etc. Karou’s artbook even. Anything!!

2. For Laini to come to Australia to do a tour.

3. The final book in this wonderful series!!!

Quotes:

“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil held a wishbone between them.
And its snap split the world in two.”

“And yet… the only hope is hope.”

“Light coursed through Karou and darkness chased it-burning through her, chilling her, shimmer and shadow, ice and fire, blood and starlight, rushing, roaring, filling her.”

“As long as he had life, who deserved it so little, he would use it, wield it, and do whatever he could in its name, even if it was not, was never, enough”

“A dream dirty and bruised is better than no dream at all.”

“The pair of them were again in the eye of a storm of misery - their world was a storm of misery and they were caught in its center, in the deceptive stillness that had allowed them to forget, once upon a time, that all around them was a stinging whirl of hatred that would catch them - it was everywhere and everything and they’d been fools to think they could leave their small safe place and not be caught in that vortex like every other living creature in Eretz.”