Up Late With Kate: Days of Blood and Starlight

I've been waiting awhile to bring this new meme out, but it's been awhile since a book literally kept me up and reading into the wee hours.  From time to time I will share what books kept me Up Late With Kate. ;)


Days of Blood and Starlight
by Laini Taylor
Format: Audio and ebook
From Goodreads:

 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.

Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?

Up Late:  I bought the audio for this book the day it came out because I really loved the audio for Daughter of Smoke and Bone.  The narrator is simply amazing, helped no doubt by Taylor's flawless prose, and the audio book definitely kept me in the car, circling the block in order to finish just a bit more of the book... and then a bit more again.  I loved the first book.  And now the second book has blown me away!

     I got to the point yesterday, about 60% into the audio, where I just couldn't wait anymore.  So I bought the ebook and tore into the ending last night.  For the first time in awhile a book had me living up to my blog name and beyond!  Every time I thought things couldn't get more tense, they did!  And then Taylor would pull back, just a little, before tightening the choke hold on my heart again. 

     The love story of Karou and Akiva feels epic.  It's like if Romeo and Juliet weren't complete idiots and there were beasts and angels involved.  After the end of Daughter and Smoke and Bones, I felt gutted.   I couldn't possibly imagine what would happen to Karou and Akiva.  But the book opens with humor- Zuzana and Mik messing with Karou's ex-boyfriend.  And it goes to a broken hearted Akiva.   I'm glad it opened up with humor though, in the hands of a lesser writer this story could be all gloom and doom and tragedy.  Taylor knows how to inject hope even in the darkest moments. 

     There are so many edge of your seat moments in this book.  Taylor just keeps you guessing.  There are plenty of new characters and old ones to love.  And Razgut makes an appearance, which is of course a bad sign because his name pretty much guarantees that he's going to bring down some unhappy shenanigans. Think about it, similarly crappy named characters and the havoc they have wreaked: Wormtail from the Harry Potter books, Wormtonuge from LotR, Littlefinger from the Game of Thrones series.  Razgut totally belongs in the league of slimy, creepy, supporting characters.

      Taylor is going to make me do something I pretty much swore I wouldn't do... read a fairy book.  She has two books featuring fairies, but if she can make them half as appealing as her angels (another paranormal species I tend to avoid like the plague) then she might very well have me owned. 

     Oh, who am I kidding?  Laini Taylor already owns me.  And you know what?  If she writes a book about mermaids, I'll happily gobble that down too.

      What book has recently kept you up late?  Have you read this series yet?  If not, why not?  Seriously, it's totally worth the time.  Forget Christmas and holiday shopping, forget eating and bathing, forget sleeping- just stop everything else and read Daughter of Smoke and Bone and Days of Blood and Starlight.  And then feel free to buy me a present out of your immense feeling of gratitude.  I like bookmarks and gift cards to Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  I also like beach front property, in case several of you want to go in on expressing your thanks. ;) 

Days of Blood and Starlight gets a Midnight Book Rating of: 

That's right... DOUBLE MIDNIGHT READ!!! So nice, I had to rate it twice.