Mommy's Reading Break

You can also read this and other reviews on my blog, Mommy's Reading BreakDaughter of Smoke & Bone was another book that I didn’t really know much about. I didn’t know what to expect or what it was really about, but I had seen several people read it and enjoy it, so when I saw that my library had the audio book available for an MP3 download, I decided to give it a chance, and I’m glad I did.Daughter of Smoke & Bone starts off as a fairly normal story, other than the fact that Karou has blue hair. However, that’s easily accomplished with a bottle of hair dye. She’s an art student living in Prague, and has a jerk of an ex-boyfriend, who is still finding ways to annoy her and try to win her back (which is not working). While Karou is in an art class with her friend Zuzanna, we learn a little about the paranormal aspects of the story. You see, Karou was raised by, and runs errands for, chimaera. After being attacked by a winged stranger, Karou starts to learn a little more about the chimaera, and learns more about love and herself in the process.I loved the characters in Daughter of Smoke & Bone. Karou was a kick-ass heroine, though she’s a bit naive sometimes, due to her chimaera “family” keeping her ignorant to a lot of what goes on in their world. Also, Karou doesn’t know where she came from. As far back as she can remember, she’s been with Brimstone and the others, and she considers them family, but obviously, as a human, she had to have come from somewhere. This doesn’t seem to bother her too much during the story, but it definitely makes for interesting reading, as I was dying to know more about who she was and how she came to live with monsters. Her friend Zuzanna is great. She is absolutely hilarious, and the dialogue between the two had me cracking up several times. They really have a great friendship. Then there’s Karou’s ex, Kas. He is unintentionally funny. He’s so full of himself that you can’t help but laugh when Karou turns him down time and time again. And Akiva. He’s really intriguing. He’s an angel, but don’t let that make you complacent. Taylor’s angels are nothing like any other angel I’ve ever read about. And his interactions with Karou were always very interesting.The ending was great, if a bit emotional, and it had me dying for the next book. It definitely wrapped most of the necessary events and questions from Daughter of Smoke & Bone, but also had an open ending that was a perfect set-up for Days of Blood & Starlight.I listened to the audio version of Daughter of Smoke & Bone, and I would highly recommend it. It’s narrated by Khristine Hvam, who also narrated The Iron King, which I listened to not that long ago. Her voices for the characters were great. She did male voices and accents, and they just sounded perfect, not overly done or unrealistic. I don’t have a ton of experience with audio, but she is definitely going up as one of my favorite narrators. In fact, I loved the audio so much that I rejoined Audible to get the sequel, Days of Blood & Starlight, in audio form as well!Overall, I thought that Daughter of Smoke & Bone was a great read and a very interesting take on chimaera and angels, and I would highly recommend it.