Daughters of Smoke and Bone was never really on my radar before the Pages and Prose Book Club announced it as one of our August reads. Yes, I'd heard of it in passing, but no one I knew had ever read it (to my knowledge) or recommended it, so it was just one of those books that I came across and shrugged off on goodreads. Overall, I'd say it wasn't a bad read. I do want to know what happens in the sequel and I do think that it was beautifully written.

Karou seems to be a fearless heroine. While she doesn't have everything figured out, she has lived such a life of adventure that there's very few things in life that seem to give her pause. Akiva wasn't as intriguing to me as Karou was. In fact....for most of the story, I didn't really find myself connecting with Akiva or Karou's attraction to him. Yes we know he's insanely attractive because he's an angel and he's a warrior, but beyond that there's not much to his personality. We as readers eventually discover why Karou is so drawn to him but, I had a hard time buying into it because I just didn't get anything from him as a character.

I did love the setting of the story. The descriptions of the locations in Prague and Marrakesh were amazing and just set up the scenes in a gorgeous way. I think this is a testament to the author's writing style, which I wholly appreciate. I just wish I was left longing for more Akiva and the angels as I was left longing for the locations themselves. All in all, while there may have been some things lacking character development wise, I think that may be fixed in the next book. I say this because some of the other character questions that I had, about Karou, Brimstone, and the world of the chimera in general, were eventually answered, so here's to hoping that happens in the second installment.