Daughter of Smoke and Bone-Laini Taylor

  This is quite clearly a five out of five, bring on book 2!!!!

This book was by far the literary highlight of last year. It was given to me for my birthday and ended up being read over a day and a half (which as a dyslexic tells you something about the quality of the book!). The skilful interweaving of two different worlds, neither of which is entirely normal, is effortlessly done making it a pleasure to read. The story itself will keep you grasped from the first chapter, in fact it is the kind of book that makes you want to go and hide in a locked room to avoid interruptions. It certainly lead to a few late nights for both me and my room mate due to our inability to put the book down.

At first it seems like the book is a classic battle between good and evil but the more you read the more confused the concepts of good and evil become. It seems impossible that the quirky family we are drawn into at the beginning of the book could truly be evil and similarly the good guys just don't seem to hold up to their angelic nature.

My biggest complaint about this book is the point towards the end where you realise that there is no possibility of a satisfying resolution, in fact it leaves you with the mother of all cliffhangers which will keep you on tenterhooks until you can get hold of the next instalment which I believe will be entitles Days of Blood and Starlight and looks like it will be released around September this year. If it is even half as good as the first book it will be well worth the wait!!!