Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor

Smoke and Bone #3

"By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her, if there can even be a future for the chimaera in war-ravaged Eretz.

     Common enemy, common cause.

When Jael's brutal seraph army trespasses into the human world, the unthinkable becomes essential, and Karou and Akiva must ally their enemy armies against the threat. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people.

     And, perhaps, for themselves. Toward a new way of living, and maybe even love.

But there are bigger threats than Jael in the offing. A vicious queen is hunting Akiva, and, in the skies of Eretz ... something is happening. Massive stains are spreading like bruises from horizon to horizon; the great winged stormhunters are gathering as if summoned, ceaselessly circling, and a deep sense of wrong pervades the world.

     What power can bruise the sky?

From the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond, humans, chimaera and seraphim will fight, strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy. 

     At the very barriers of space and time, what do gods and monsters dream of? And does anything else matter?"

So, yeah I just had an adventure.

This book, this series is such an adventure to read. I don't know how else to describe it.

With this being the final book in Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy, comes the conclusion to Karou and Akiva's dream. This book was full of suspense, romance, humor, despair, longing.. all the emotions.  The good, the bad, and the wonderful.

The start of the book was a little strange for me, since it has been a while since I read the second book. Even though the events were still fresh enough in my mind that I didn't really need a reminder the addition of a couple story lines were a little confusing at first, but rest assured they are important story lines, as well as interesting.

I would have finished this book a lot sooner had it not been such an intense story. I kept putting it down, and I didn't pick it up right away because I didn't want to leave this world yet. The world she has created is so wonderful and magical you can't help but to want to be apart of it. She makes it seem like it can exist and want to be apart of it.

The added characters were interesting, although one character I wanted to neck punch, as Zuzanna would say, Toth... what a twat. (That's all I'm going to say about him). The first few chapters were slightly confusing, but only because I didn't know where these new characters we were being introduced to fit into the big picture.

My heart hurt for Akiva and Karou in the fist half of the book, but I am so happy for the ending we were given, and I am so glad that the lingering fear in the back of my mind didn't happen. We got a wonderful happyending. Now all I want to do is read all of Laini Taylor's work and just fall into every world she creates. You all must read this series, it is amazing and wonderful and magical.