Listening the audiobook of Daughter of smoke and bone made the experience even better because of the beautiful way Laini writes, I’m telling you, it was mesmerizing. Her words are definitely meant to be listened (and is great to hear the correct pronunciation of all those strange names because seriously I don’t think I would have got most of them right on my own).

It felt so fresh and different from a lot of YA urban fantasy (especially the ones that were being published back then). So this are my thoughts about the whole trilogy.

Let's discuss it! (Beware Spoilers)


THE GOOD STUFF

• I fell in love with the characters. Each of them are so peculiar and well developed. I can’t pick a favorite one, is too hard. 
• I knew it was about Chimaeras. But I barely knew what the heck a Chimaera was, so it was fascinating specially reading on Laini’s version of them (and picture them in my head). 
• It had an interesting take on the theme of angels and beast and our general preconception of good and bad. 
• I liked it was set in Prague and Morocco. I always enjoy traveling and learning about new places through books and we all know YA books are too often set only in the US (there’s a whole world out there friends, ready to be discovered). It made the book more unique. 
• I didn’t knew what would happen next. It was unpredictable and I like it so much when the story takes me to unexpected places. Until the very end it got me hooked.

 THE BAD STUFF

• The second book suffers from the second books’ disease: a.k.a. lack of important plot. Most of it is unnecessary, and feels like going in circles.
•  Secondary point of views. Ok, so I did like some of them, they are interesting, you know, they are complementary and let you see the world from different perspectives. But some of them were just filling. Instead of being a way of telling the story, they slow it down, making the rhythm heavy. There were characters showing up here and there that had nothing important to do with the story and that completely disappeared afterward (I’m looking at you random guards, soldiers, and citizens whose name I've already forgotten). It was hard enough following with the amount of characters and their strange names to add a bunch of useless more. My brain couldn’t take it! 
• An instant love in the first book and then in the next two books nothing...until the very end. Are you serious? I feel betrayed. I don’t like either one. The first one is always hard to believe and the second one is just excruciating as a fan. 
• THAT ENDING. I’m cool with the not so happily ever after ending but man, what a way to make things more complicated. It was so weird and tangled and is so hard to wrap my head around it even when I’ve read it twice already! I can’t even describe it, that’s how hard it is!

 MY FINAL VEREDICT 

There was once upon a time an amazing writer called Lainy Taylor who wrote an epic story of love and magic...

She is definitely an amazing writer hands down, these book have everything, a beautiful writing style, an epic world building and vibrant characters. And speaking of characters here's a character guide with the main characters (and the animal features each have), you're welcome.