Karou has blue hair, tattoos and her wishes often come true but that's not the only thing that's a bit strange about her. Karou has no human family and was raised by a monstrous species of fantastical creatures called chimaera in a shop that can create portals to anywhere in the world. When Karou is working for her foster father Brimstone, she meets a terrifying angel who may know the truth about who she really is but it means she ends up stuck in a war between everyone she cares about.

I'm so glad that this book was my first read of 2018 but I'm also mad that I took so long to read it because it was beautiful, glorious, fantastical and everything magical I could wish for. I absolutely loved it. I feel like this book is a really hard one to actually explain to people (so I apologize for the truly terrible blurb above) and it's one of those books that you have to read to really understand the story - there's so much strange magical concepts in this but it just all clicks when you're reading. It was so creative, and unusual and I loved it.

I very much enjoyed Karou as a character. She's spunky, and fun plus she's able to hold her own in a fight but at the same time, she's still a teenager who longs to feel properly at home, and taken care of. She's a sucker for a handsome smile and dashing eyes, and as made a fool of herself in front of a guy just like many of us. I really liked her journey in this book.

Normally, I don't always like that sudden burning love in books like we saw in Akiva and Karou (or almost) but in this story, it just made so much sense. I liked that there wasn't only love but a lot of lust - and that Karou isn't a blushing virginal girl - and the chemistry between them was just so hot. I felt like the descriptions in this were just so vivid, I could really see everything in my mind's eye as I read it. The air battle literally made me feel like I was watching TV because I could see it all.

I loved the setting and this book made me want to visit Prague more than ever. Laini Taylor's writing is so beautiful, I just wanted to wrap the words around me and breathe them in. The magic in this book is complex but so cleverly created.

The one thing I didn't like in this book is something Karou does state her displeasure at and it's Brimstone's collection of teeth, bones and ivory etc. It just made me so angry and my stomach curl a bit at the thoughts of all these beautiful. dead animals and some of them being endangered.

I can't wait to read the rest of the trilogy because the end of this one was seriously heartbreaking and I need to find out what happened, and find out if what I hope didn't happened, happened!