Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor (Hodder & Stoughton, 2012; 513 pp)

“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.

This is not that world.”

When I did a “Just Arrived” for this book in November (and you will find the back cover synopsis there), I confessed to having read and enjoyed the first book Daughter of Smoke and Bone last year but forgotten to blog about it: mea culpa indeed!

When you read the second in a series, especially when you have really liked the first book, there is always this niggling fear that you will be disappointed, even horribly disappointed. So I was very pleased to find this was not the case with Days of Blood and Starlight. I liked the way the story developed overall and will definitely be reading the next book.

I did have one major concern, which was that the character of  Karou (‘our heroine’) had changed in quite major ways from the previous book, but not in a way that I felt the action satisfactorily explained. In other words, I felt her character was changing to make the plot work, rather than being true to who she had been and her experiences. The development of Akiva, the other central character, was more consistent in this respect.

The concern around the character of Karou did not spoil the book for me overall, but I definitely felt it as a ‘niggling uneasiness’ after I had finished reading.

Nonetheless, if you like a paranormal fantasy and/or paranormal romance that is beautifully written and has a deeper story to tell, then I think you will enjoy Days of Blood and Starlight a lot—just as I did.