A review by librarybonanza
Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

5.0

Age: 9th-12th grade
Part of a series
Read-alikes: Graceling

Book cover synopsis: "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 chimera's supply of teeth grown dangerously low. And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal other-wordly war."

To classmates, friends, and strangers, Karou is a mysterious eccentric with ultramarine blue hair and a smattering of tattoos. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that, with a coy, sarcastic smile, she admits are real. What the outside world doesn't know is that the monsters ARE real and they are the only family she's ever known. As Karou grows older, she grows more and more curious about who her family is and who she really is.

There are four main reasons why I loved this book: unique romance, diverse female characters, well-devised plot, and kick-ass fight scenes. Also, the suspense grabs your life like the Hunger Games but allows you to absorb the storyline, with each chapter ending on a deepening plot line, not an insatiable craving for more (which was masterfully done by Collins).