Warning: Spoilers! (duh.)

She’s more gunpowder than girl—and the fate of the desert lies in her hands.

Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mystical beasts still roam the wild and barren wastes, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinni still practice their magic. But there's nothing mystical or magical about Dustwalk, the dead-end town that Amani can't wait to escape from.

Destined to wind up "wed or dead," Amani’s counting on her sharpshooting skills to get her out of Dustwalk. When she meets Jin, a mysterious and devastatingly handsome foreigner, in a shooting contest, she figures he’s the perfect escape route. But in all her years spent dreaming of leaving home, she never imagined she'd gallop away on a mythical horse, fleeing the murderous Sultan's army, with a fugitive who's wanted for treason. And she'd never have predicted she'd fall in love with him...or that he'd help her unlock the powerful truth of who she really is. 

Image from booknerd

How can I describe this book. Some books are given this hype that they don't deserve (in my opinion, I am only one person) - this is not one of them books. I bought this simply because the cover was beautiful, you can't blame me because DAMN! How pretty is that!?  The girl behind the counter told me 'This is great, it's like a spaghetti western mixed with Arabian nights.' I shrugged her off and plopped this beauty on my TBR shelf. Well, aren't I the idiot?!

I'm maybe a few weeks late to the party, but was this book good? YES! It literally was Aladdin mixed with Clint Eastwood mixed with awesome powers and the journey was amazing. Hamilton, Girl you can write!

I'm going to start with the ending, because I'm weird like that. Hamilton knows she can write because she ended this badboy at the perfect moment. Big battle won, look off into distance thinking about the uncertain future aaaand curtain fall. She knows the reader has enough closure not to throw the book across the room, she knows your buying the next one, her mama didn't raise no fool.

There is only really one relationship that follows us through the entire book, Amani (our protagonist) and Jin. Of course there is this underlying romance just bubbly beneath the surface, but it takes a step back. It is important so it isn't fully developed, yet. Amani and Jin meet in the first chapter and they end up rather inseparable, first by circumstance and then just by want. I adore when a first book isn't rushing itself to get into the main plot, this book develops that relationship so we don't suffer from an instant connection - meets him one night, bares her soul to him the next, married by the weekend - No thanks! Instead we follow Amani, I learn her voice, the way she thinks, every ounce of her character until anyone could write about her because she is well written. It is so important for writers to know their characters inside and out and Hamilton has hers locked in.

There is also a vibrant supporting cast of characters who flitter in and out and some will stay for sequels but some maybe won't. She manages to create a large cast of supporting characters, of people who interact with Amani and Jin and share parts of their journey and making them connectable, whilst also being able to ditch them on the next page. That is hard, usually books just make these carbon copies for supporting cast and add distinctions to the ones they are going to keep around, but all the supporting characters are distinct and different and we are not pandered to think we can't keep up because we can. We just can't tell who's important enough to keep around. That is why Hamilton can write the dramatic parts of this book, because I don't know who or what is next. This is the first book in a long time that has not followed some pre-set YA formula and that is really refreshing.

There are also these feminist undertones. Amani lives in a world where all the feminist issues of our world are heightened. She is dressed like a boy for the majority of the novel (which is just delicious and hilarious for Amani and Jin's relationship). It is always important, especially in YA fantasy for me, that a book is saying something, like it has a foundation of what it is wanting to say, otherwise, why tell the story?

This book was everything I wished The Assassin's Curse had been. It had drama and these beautiful quiet moments that made me feel like I too was sat in the desert and looking up at the stars. It was stunning, just stunning. Best book I have read in a really long time.

Happy Reading.

Warning: Spoilers (duh)

 We are the Liars.

We are beautiful, privileged and live a life of carefree luxury.

We are cracked and broken.

A story of love and romance.

A tale of tragedy.

Which are lies?

Which is truth?

 I literally just finished this book and was going to do this review tomorrow but my oh my, I could not wait.  I cannot express the need for you to know nothing about this book. If you haven't read it, go away, read it and come back and we can talk about it. If you spoil the ending for yourself it will not be the same.

THERE ARE SPOILERS! DON'T RUIN IT FOR YOURSELF!

Okay now we have that out of the way. OH MY GOD! That ending right. I got a feeling a few chapters before because it was getting pretty morbid and I just got that feeling I tend to get before people die in books.

Quick review: after TFIOS this may be my favourite book ever. I devoured it. I just couldn't put it down. I even met one of my best friends new boyfriend and had the book under my nose. I was just carrying it around for 2 days in case I got a chance to read it. As you can tell, I am pretty character based when I read a book. I like narrative and style but generally I am characters driven. That's what pushes a book over the top from good to great for me. And my god was this book great.

Cady is delightful. She is so real and flawed and I am just pulled into her voice. She's privileged and quite frank a little selfish. The journey of the novel is basically based around an accident she had 2 years prior. She remembers nothing from that summer 'Summer Fifteen' and has suffered from terrible migraines and pain ever since. Her journey to discover what happened and why her friends 'The Liars' ignored her ever since is tragic and beautiful. Gat and Cady have a very complex and not remotely typical love story going on. Each member of The Liars was enchanting and heart-wrenching. They were all so funny and bounced so well off each other. And they felt real. Like I could bump into them in the street. Much like Cady I was dying to know the truth and my mind was buzzing with theories relating to Gat's girlfriend and drowning. But I never truly saw the twist end coming. Yet it made so much sense.



My favourite part of the book by far was after she remembered. The guilt and the way she told the story of the left behind princesses was a thing of beauty. Lockhart uses  these fairytale-esque retelling throughout and they escalate and escalate until that final one. In the end I loved 'The Liars' as much as Cady did. I felt her pain, the family politics, the confusion and angst. I felt it all.

Lockhart also has this incredible way with words. She could utter beautiful paragraphs and phrases, tragically lovely metaphors that just swept me up and make me want to turn my body into a book so I can wear the words upon my skin. I cannot recommend this book more.

The first book in this series A Daughter of Smoke and Bone was a beautifully written book, if not heavy on the set up. Of course everyone who read this book fell in love with Akiva and Karou/Madrigal. The flashback scenes of there past lives was a thing of beauty and with the bombshell ending  of Akiva killing Karou's 'family.

Safe to say, I had no idea what to expect from the second book in the trilogy, Days of Blood and Starlight.

Admittedly I got into this series a little too late. The final book Dreams of Gods and Monsters has been released  and I am desperately trying not to find spoilers. Days of Blood and Starlight was one emotional journey. Karou and Akiva are over and for the first 40 pages Karou is nowhere to be found. And the reader feels her loss. By the time we hear from her again I was bouncing around, jumping up and down excited for it. She is by far one of my favourite protagonists, she's strong-willed and yet still retains emotional depth and vulnerability. In this book we find her siding with the Chimaera and most shockingly Thiago (The white wolf who executed her past self).

The most refreshing thing about this series is that the love story is very minor, at its core this series is about war, the loss, darkness and sacrifices in thee name of war.  This is where Thiago comes in. Karou works for her murderer, sacrificing her safety and putting up with harassment and even an attempted rape scene in order to protect her people in the name of Brimstone. I mean, can this girl get any more awesome. We start to feel her gentleness in this book, within Daughter of Smoke and Bone Karou was a badass, martial arts, blue haired flying goddess and in Days of Blood and Starlight we see all of this stripped away. She is still a badass but more in the internal strength to go on and protect her people everyday. I had a lot of respect for Karou in this book.

With Karou's struggle we luckily have Zuze to give us a little comic relief and to reignite the hope (Karou!) that we slowly lose watching Karou struggle. Zuze and Mik remind us that even in this world at war that people still retain the ability to surprise, enchant and adore. There love story is so refreshing, the trust and banter is a wonderful antithesis to Karou and Akiva's.

I want more Zuze and Mik.

This book is a lot heavier on Akiva than it's predecessor. Taylor somehow gives us the information that Akiva killed Karou's 'family' and yet we feel his guilt and struggle so hard that we still root for him. Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl style we are rooting for him. We are rooting for forgiveness, for accepting mistakes (even though it was an colossal one) and we are rooting for the ability of love to conquer all. To unite worlds, mend hearts and end suffering. Taylor manages to do all of this without Akiva coming across as pius, preachy or more loquaciously 'douche-y' and that is a feat most authors struggle to do so successfully.

Days of Blood and Starlight is not as quirky and charming as its mischief-filled predecessor,  but it's a novel that encourages you to contemplate the consequences of war for both winners and losers and futility of revenge. It discusses the ugly face of war in which nobody wins and everybody suffers. It is heart wrenching and this series has turned into something very special and very unexpected.