My Selection for Waiting on Wednesday: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Waiting on Wednesday is that yummy meme that gives us all a chance to learn what other bloggers are waiting for and anticipating in the literary realm. It was started by Jill over at Breaking the Spine and I'm so glad she did! This week I'm going for something a little more along the lines of the creepy and horrific. Check this out...

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?



This novel is one of the "big" books being enthusiastically promoted by Little, Brown. I did a little research into the author's earlier books and they're all fantasy and have a rather evil, demonic undertone. Her sensibility is similar to my own, but I've tried to keep the horror aspects not as dark in my own story, but I've debated it. I really wonder what made the author focus on these factors. I know what inspired me.

I can't wait to read this book and I want to check out her earlier works as well. She received star reviews for her prior books and was a National Book finalist. Readers seem to have a uniformly great impression of her writing. I want to check it out for myself.

What say you, fellow book lover. Does her stuff sound too heavy for you, or can you handle it?

Daughter of  SMOKE & BONE by Laini Taylor will be released September 27, 2011 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Toodles!