Daughter of Smoke and Bone

In a time when the trend in Young Adult literature was dystopia, there rose a book that's both unique in its setting as it is familiar. Smoke and Bone is a story of love, war, magic, and family.
Daughter of Smoke and Bone, the first book of the series, tells the story of a seventeen year-old Karou against the backdrop of gothic Prague. Karou herself is distinctive – her tresses are aquamarine, and the pimples on her face vanish at the sound of a wish. Her friends are unaware of where she disappears to every few days, where the doors lead to, and what this “Elsewhere” is. Her sketchbooks are filled with pictures of a woman who is a serpent from the waist down, a crow with bat wings, a monster with human eyes and a parrot's beak, and a stern horned monster with golden eyes. And they are her family!
Just as most Young Adult books are built around the coming-of-age theme, amidst the chaos of war and struggle for survival Smoke and Bone is a story of longing and self-actualization. It's Karou's story, but it's also her people's story. And Laini Taylor's lyrical and witty writing style highlights those very aspects. The first book mostly focuses on one or two perspectives, while the last two books focus on multiple – and it is to Taylor's credit that she pulls it off. If anything holds back the story from becoming a magnum opus it's the unrealistic attractiveness of the characters, and various elements in the third book that weaken the plot.
Laini Taylor has a gift for world building and character-writing, and turning a story that should've been another predictable romance – into something so much more. If you are one for love stories, magic, mystery, and poetic prose – this might be for you.