Book review - Days of Blood & Starlight

Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor
Series: Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2
Published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers on November 6th, 2012
Format: Hardcover
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal Romance,Young Adult
Pages: 513
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(★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★)

Reading Days of Blood & Starlight was hard. Not in the oh-god-this-book-is-bad-how-am-I-gonna-get-through kind of way, but in the ouch-my-heart kind of way. It was exhausting and life-giving, breathtaking and heart-throbbing, tears and joy--blood and starlight.


As a result, it feels like I've been moving the entire time, struggling alongside the characters, feeling what they felt, doing what they did and I have this strange notion that my breath should be ragged, my legs and arms heavy and throbbing from exhaust--except the only muscle in my body that is aching is my heart.


Oh, the deep-felt pain I had to endure...one character in particular, the last of the Kirin, had my heart in his scarred hands and crushed it until it bled several times - not that he's to blame. I cried inconsolably each time and I am not ashamed for they were well-earned tears.


And then there's the other stab to my heart, that I'm not going to mention because I'm still healing from its sting. And this review is supposed to be spoiler-free.


Having read this book I feel like I've been part of something magical and secret and sacred, although I'm all-too-aware that I am far, far from the only person to have read this and even farther away from being the first.


If I thought Daughter of Smoke & Bone was fantastic, I don't even know how to describe this sequel in one word. Can I just give it a gazillion stars out of five?