Daughter of smoke and bone by Laini Taylor

Rating : 3 / 5

Goodreads : 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 one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored 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?

My review : Everyone was talking (and still is) about this book a few months ago. It's for a lot of people their favorite book of 2011 but... it wasn't the same for me. I understand all the love around this book but... I wasn't hooked... Well I still have mixed feeling about this book. My love for this book was gradually changing through the book. From the beginning of the book to Karou's meeting Akiva I was really into it and I would have given Daughter of smoke and bone 5 stars. I loved discovering everything about this world and the characters. It's unique, original Laini Taylor's writing is truly brilliant and poetic. Karou is a great heroine I love her gift for art and her link with the chimera world. The setting was also what makes me fall in love with the story from the beginning. Prague ! It seems like such a beautiful city I really want to go there one day ! But then when she starts being with Akiva it's just... I don't know I wans't into their romance. And the whole thing between their relationship was really predictable and I figured it out quickly... And then there was a part about... a previous life. A kind of mythological one. I know it doesn't mean anything but I can't really tell you it's kind of the point of the book. And I didn't like this part. It reminded me of PC Cast books La prophétie maudite (don't know the title in english sorry). So yeah at the end I was reading pretty fast because I wanted to finish the book so I don't think i'm going to read the next one.