Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

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 devil’s supply of human teeth grows 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 actuallygrows 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?

“Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there’s no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic.”

This book is an absolute gem. I read a lot of books, especially in the YA paranormal romance/fantasy genre, and this book blew me away. The writing is so fluid and confident, and the storytelling is brilliantly done. I love how the first three chapters are about Karou and her “normal” life in Prague, just hinting at a strange otherworld that could merely be apart of her imagination, then in the next chapter it hits you in the face with a batch of bizarre. You don’t even meet the romantic interest till at least 1/3 of the way through the book. Karou and Akiva don’t meet till, maybe 1/2 way through. The romance is so well timed, building tension through most of the book until the big reveal near the last quarter.

I love the world Taylor creates; it’s probably my favorite thing about the book. The settings in this novel are fascinating and very much off-the beaten path. Everything teeters on the edge of terrifying and creepy, but keeps you just enough in the safe and comfortable zone to keep you absolutely enthralled. You are never sure quite how far or how weird something is going to get, which really keeps everything quite interesting.  And everything is so inconspicuous. It just creeps up on you like it’s this completely normal thing, when in reality, it’s the most bizarre thing in the world. Taylor so wraps you up in the world that you don’t even realize that what is happening is so abnormal until it’s over. You put the book down, look at that beautiful cover and think “wait…what did I just read??” Complete and utter brilliance, that’s what.