Dear World, let me tell you about this book. It has a heroine who is an amazing artist and a hero who is angel. *beams* Does this sound familiar to you or should I cough*Daughter of Smoke and Bone*cough to you? No? I didn't think so either. I read this right after I read Daughter of Smoke and Bone and my mind, it was blown by how similar these two novels were in terms of characters. Of course, media hype for this book was way less than DoS&B so understandably, this one might have slipped under the radar for many YA lovers. That is a pity because I did like it. I really did. I know that you don't think I did because of the three stars I gave it but I honestly might have liked this better than Daughter of Smoke and Bone.Gassssp. Yes, I said it. Better. Than. Stop glaring at me!The reason, I have a reason, okay? The reason I liked it better is that the relationship between Angel Ethan and Caspia is far more realistic (I can hear you snorting, you know. I'll have you know that a relationship between a human and an angel can be plenty realistic). Their relationship had a foundation of genuine er...likeness. Sorry, brain freeze. I mean, there wasn't that whole "omg, angel, I LOVE you!" which is also known (in my circles) as insta-love. They have great conversations, these two. And Caspia also doesn't become putty, mushy putty, with him. She doesn't oscillate between two extreme emotions (extreme love and extreme hate) with Ethan and I don't know, you'll have to read it to figure out what I'm saying because clearly, writing papers has made me as articulate as a piece of boring white chalk. The relationship between Caspia and her brother is plenty touching. The brother's very ill so there's the constant threat that she's going to lose him and he's the last of her family so there is a lot of emotional drama but it's good emotional drama and not melodrama that makes me want to scream a lot. Also, the writing is compelling and the characters are characterized in a way that feels real and not superficial. Now that I have said that, let me tell you why I gave this three stars and not four like I gave DoS&B. First star was lost because I felt that sometimes the writing was circular. But I definitely was going to give it four stars until I reached the end without realizing it was the end. It ends way too abruptly. There is no wave motion going on at all. I wasn't ready for it to end and it did and well, the trajectory of a story is usually is things are introduced, things tense, there's a peak and then things climb down to an (open-ended) ending. In this book? You somehow go from beginning to end with a few semi-peaks thrown in but no real resolution - the potential remains, the anticipation is there but it just isn't fulfilled. So, that took away another star.But I am going to read the second one and, I'll be honest, nowadays, even if the books are series, I only read the first one because that's how long a story holds my attention. Excuse the mess that is this review. Would I recommend this book to you? Yeah, warts and all, read it. You can compare it to the Laini Taylor book and see whether you found the relationship more compelling in this one or not. And then we'll talk and eat cookies and gossip about books.
