The Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

The summary (from 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 beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery 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?

I didn't like it. But since that's hardly a review, lets go further:

The Positives:
I loved how descriptive Laini Taylor was, especially when it came to describing Prague and Eretz. I want to desparately visit Prague now and see that beauty for myself. If anything I applaude Taylor for a good choice in scenery. I also love the concept of The Chimaera and Madrigals and their separate worlds fighting for so long they couoldn't even tell you why anymore. The improtance of teeth to the Chimaera was fascinating, and I truly feel that the book had a lot of potential based on the set-up of the book.

The Negatives:
Throughout the entire novel, I experienced no emotion whatsoever towards the characters, I just didn't really care what happened. I got hooked slightly at the beginning when Karou gets revenge on her ex, but that didn't even tie into the plot. My only reaction was when Taylor finally reveals Karou's past, where my reaction was "What the F***? How does [spoiler]= Karou? Where does this make sense?"

And though it does get explained, I still find no reason to continue reading the series. Maybe it's because half of the book is about how much Karou and Akiva are falling for each other (Trust me, not a spoiler with the direction the book was going in).

It took 2 tries to finish the book, and the 2nd time around was brutal. I wanted to put the book away so badly, but I finished it only because I promised my best friend I would.


And this is why it is only a one star book