Muse of Nightmares - Laini Taylor

Hardcover, UK Edition, 522 pages

Published October 2nd 2018 by Hodder & Stoughton

Series: Strange the Dreamer #2

YA fantasy

Library

My Thoughts

Wow. Just Wow. This was so freaking boring!

She is a great writer, her words flow and are beautiful, and then it falls apart in one freaking mess with melted lava on top.

The book is 500 pages. Most of the book takes place in the same palace and people talk and whine. Ugh, wtf! The world could have been so great! Gods who took every woman in the city and made them bare children, and some of the men was taken too to impregnate goddesses.  And then everyone was slaughtered in that Godly Palace. Until they realise some did not die. Epic! But she failed to deliver, instead it was a boring book where the story went nowhere and the end sucked and I felt let down.

This was the filler of fillers. And now the series has ended. Waste of time.

Blurb:

Sarai has lived and breathed nightmares since she was six years old.

She believed she knew every horror, and was beyond surprise.

She was wrong.

In the wake of tragedy, neither Lazlo nor Sarai are who they were before. One a god, the other a ghost, they struggle to grasp the new boundaries of their selves as dark-minded Minya holds them hostage, intent on vengeance against Weep.

Lazlo faces an unthinkable choice--save the woman he loves, or everyone else?--while Sarai feels more helpless than ever. But is she? Sometimes, only the direst need can teach us our own depths, and Sarai, the muse of nightmares, has not yet discovered what she's capable of.

As humans and godspawn reel in the aftermath of the citadel's near fall, a new foe shatters their fragile hopes, and the mysteries of the Mesarthim are resurrected: Where did the gods come from, and why? What was done with thousands of children born in the citadel nursery? And most important of all, as forgotten doors are opened and new worlds revealed: Must heroes always slay monsters, or is it possible to save them instead?

Strange the dreamer - Laini Taylor

The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around—and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he’s been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance or lose his dream forever.

What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god? And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving?

The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries—including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo’s dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed? And if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real?

Welcome to Weep. 

My thoughts:
I really do like her style. It was well written, it flowed like a fairytale and I truly enjoyed this book. The only part that came across as YA was this silly teenage angst from the Golden boy who seemed to dislike Lazlo just cos Lazlo was helpful. But luckily that little shite was not around much, and I was grateful for it cos it did take away from the otherwise great story.

Lazlo works as a librarian and loves books. Come on, you have to love him for just that. And he is a dreamer and spends his time reading and thinking about a lost city.

Weep was fascinating and I wanted to know more. Slowly the story unravels but still there are questions as the citizens just do not know. As those closest to the source just do not know. But after that epic ending I hope we get even more answers in book 2. Because the ending was good and threw quite the surprise. It did make me want to read more at once.

But I do worry. I really liked book 1 in her other series, and sure the next 2 were good but they were not as awesome as book 1 so I do worry that this series will fare the same thing.

Still, as it stands now this was a great start to a new series. There are questions, quests and gods and monsters.

Conclusion:
I can't wait to read more.

Cover
I do like how it looks in rl

Hardcover, 536 pages
Published March 28th 2017 by Hodder & Stoughton
Strange the Dreamer #1
Fantasy YA
Library

Dreams of Gods and Monsters - Laini Taylor

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? 

My thoughts:

Yes I enjoyed this book, but did I love it like book 1? No. But I enjoyed it, and I liked the beauty of the words, and the quotes at some chapter beginnings. I finished it, almost in a day. I could not put it down. But, yes it had its share of shortcomings that did not make it as awesome as book 1.

And now I will try to see why it was not as great. Good, but not great. Made me want more, but not great.

I think it was because of Eliza, was she in book 2? I have no idea, but she showed up and I was all confused, was I supposed to know her? Or was she just suddenly thrown in?

The love between Akiva and Karou lacked some of that passion from earlier books. Now it felt lukewarm.

I expected more from Angels showing up on earth. Just more craziness.

Stuff happened, but at the same time stuff did not happen. It felt like there was too much of nothing, a filler book. It could have been shorter.

Conclusion:

But, it was still a good book. I was not disappointed, though, the end...that was rather ominous. Will there be more?

Cover 

So dull

Paperback, UK, 613 pages
Published April 17th 2014 by Hodder & Stoughton
Daughter of Smoke & Bone #3
YA, Paranormal
Library

Days of Blood and Starlight - Laini Taylor

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? 

My thoughts:

I really like this series, it's so bleak and awesome. But I was reeeeally worried when I started book 2, I have read enough books suffering from book 2 syndrome to last me a lifetime. But I still love this world, I still want more. Awesome.

Karou is, well Karou. The whole dual thing was a bit..ok, eh, but I got over it. it was mostly the romance part that bothered me in book 1. But their souls reached out so why would he not fall for her new face.

Akiva grew a bit darker, totally needed btw. The world showed more of it's ugly face. Mass genocide, creepy emperor with thousands of kids. And what about that other mythical country? I want to know more.

Oh the book was awesome. I read it in two sittings, I am sorry but I had to take a sleeping break. BF was getting up in 4 hours. Damn it!

What I like about the book is the feeling of it. It does not try to be more than it is, it does not take in unnecessary things to make it better (and fails). 

Conclusion:

Recommending this series. 

Cover

Boring.

Paperback, 518 pages
Published August 15th 2013 by Hodder Paperbacks
Daughter of Smoke & Bone #2
Fantasy romance paranormal
Library

Daughter of Smoke and Bone - Laini Taylor

In general, Karou has managed to keep her two lives in balance. On the one hand, she's a seventeen-year-old art student in Prague; on the other, errand-girl to a monstrous creature who is the closest thing she has to family. Raised half in our world, half in 'Elsewhere', she has never understood Brimstone's dark work - buying teeth from hunters and murderers - nor how she came into his keeping. She is a secret even to herself, plagued by the sensation that she isn't whole.

Now the doors to Elsewhere are closing, and Karou must choose between the safety of her human life and the dangers of a war-ravaged world that may hold the answers she has always sought.

My thoughts:

Did I think I would like it? HA, no. It was YA, come on. You know me. Did I like it anyway? YES!!! I am sorry YA, but most of the time you are angst filled love triangle stuff that makes me want to bang my head against the wall. But then once in a while I like YA, and once upon a blue moon I actually really like one. Yes it surprised me. But then it had nothing of those things I do not like, and everything of what I do like.

It was set in Prague, at once a win win. I have been to Prague, it's a beautiful city and a perfect setting for this book.

Karou is an art student. Her family consists of  monsters and she is sent all over the world to get things. She has seen a lot, she has made mistakes but most of all she is lonely. She does not belong here or there. Whatever there is. She was different, she was sad, lonely, angry. I liked her.

The world was great. I am not gonna go into details but I liked Elsewhere. I really liked the Elsewhere aspect.

There is also some romance coming, and that, well at first I was unsure but ok it works, and it worked even better when I understood.

I want book 2 now. I need more and I hope, hope! that it will be good too. Because when I finally liked a YA book then the rest is meh. Oh I am such a pessimist. 

Conclusion:

I just really enjoyed this book, I do not know what more to say. Everything fell into place and worked for me. I could not stop reading. So yes I recommend it.

Cover

 Beyond boring

Hardcover, UK, 418 pages
Published September 29th 2011 by Hodder & Stoughton
Daughter of Smoke & Bone #1
YA, Paranormal
Library