Days of Blood and Starlight

Happy Weekend my lovelies. I hope everyone has some delightfully bookish plans! Mine consist of continuing this amazing series by Laini Taylor and completing the first two entries into my book journal. Yes we are trying that again, you may take out bets on how long I will succeed in keeping up with it, I failed around April last year, I'm hoping to actually make it through the year by keeping a table of contents in case I fall behind and by spending an hour or two each weekend adding any finished books from that week to it. We'll see how it goes.

Now onto the real reason why you are all here. Yes I did finish another book. "Days of Blood and Starlight" by Laini Taylor. The sequel to "Daughter of Smoke and Bone". I am loving reading this series one after the other, and nothing else, keeping myself fully immersed in the world. I've spent the past few years having an audio book and a couple physical books I've been reading simultaneously and it's been a long time, if ever since I've been a one book girl and I'm honestly loving it. 

"Days of Blood and Starlight" picks up where the first book left off. We follow Karou as her heart is shattered and she returns to the Chimera, becoming a vital part of their war. Zuz proves exactly how incredible, adaptable and fierce of a friend she is. Secrets, lies and betrayal abound and poor Karou, I want her to have a happy life. I really hope the third book (which yes I already started reading yesterday after finishing this one on Thursday) ends with her happy, loved and at peace (not dead at peace, living a peaceful life!). Akiva makes some very bold moves and we lose a beloved support character.

I don't want to give too much away so that is my synopsis. Now if you don't want spoilers, stop reading because I am about to get real about this book and my favorite character Zuzanna.

Zuz proved from the very beginning what a loyal friend she is. From dealing with Karou's ex to immediately accepting her otherworldly explanations, not only accepting but taking in stride. When she appeared at the Kabash I almost burst into happy tears. Here is an example of true friendship, of sisterhood, of love and family. This tiny intense human risking her life, diving into a den of monsters to insure that her best friend was alive and well was nothing short of incredible. It was also incredibly amusing and heartening to see the Chimera amused by her, accepting her, loving her, treating her like she was no different from them and accepting her so easily. 

The Chimera accepting her showed more than a tender moment and Zuz's ability to win people over. It showed their humanity. I feel like through most of the book and the first one as well the majority of the Chimera are shown to be brutal. We see so little of their humanity, probably because there is so little room for joy and peace in their world. Having fought a war of survival for generations. 

Akiva is still doing everything in his power to atone for his failures, for his following orders and being the brutal weapon the Asteri raised him to be. But, I'm not going to lie, I am 50000% rooting for Ziri. I know that in the end Akiva will probably win Karou's heart and live happily ever after, but the alternate version in my head will always end with Ziri getting the girl he's been in love with for his entire life. 

And that ladies and gentlemen is my take on "Days of Blood and Starlight". I'm already halfway through "Dreams of Gods and Monsters" and yes I will be incredibly sad when this journey (aka series) finishes.