Review: Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor (Proof) - WARNING! I cannot review this book without spoiling the others in the series. Read no further if you're planning on reading this series and don't want it spoilt for you.

Sarai has lived and breathed nightmares since she was six years old.
She believed she knew every horror, and was beyond surprise.
She was wrong.

In the wake of tragedy, neither Lazlo nor Sarai are who they were before. One a god, the other a ghost, they struggle to grasp the new boundaries of their selves as dark-minded Minya holds them hostage, intent on vengeance against Weep.

Lazlo faces an unthinkable choice--save the woman he loves, or everyone else?--while Sarai feels more helpless than ever. But is she? Sometimes, only the direst need can teach us our own depths, and Sarai, the muse of nightmares, has not yet discovered what she's capable of.

As humans and godspawn reel in the aftermath of the citadel's near fall, a new foe shatters their fragile hopes, and the mysteries of the Mesarthim are resurrected: Where did the gods come from, and why? What was done with thousands of children born in the citadel nursery? And most important of all, as forgotten doors are opened and new worlds revealed: Must heroes always slay monsters, or is it possible to save them instead?

Love and hate, revenge and redemption, destruction and salvation all clash in this gorgeous sequel to the New York Times bestseller, Strange the Dreamer. From Goodreads.

I was sent this proof for free by Hodder & Stoughton for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Trigger Warning: This book features discussion of rape, and graphic, gory violence.

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Review: Lips Touch by Laini Taylor

Lips Touch by Laini Taylor, illustrated by Jim Di Bartolo (bought) - Three tales of supernatural love, each pivoting on a kiss that is no mere kiss, but an action with profound consequences for the kissers' souls:

Goblin Fruit
In Victorian times, goblin men had only to offer young girls sumptuous fruits to tempt them to sell their souls. But what does it take to tempt today's savvy girls?

Spicy Little Curses Such as These
A demon and the ambassador to Hell tussle over the soul of a beautiful English girl in India. Matters become complicated when she falls in love and decides to test her curse.

Hatchling
Six days before Esme's fourteenth birthday, her left eye turns from brown to blue. She little suspects what the change heralds, but her small safe life begins to unravel at once. What does the beautiful, fanged man want with her, and how is her fate connected to a mysterious race of demons? From Goodreads.

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Review: Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor (proof) - The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around — and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he's been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance or lose his dream forever.

What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god? And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving?

The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries—including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo's dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed? And if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real?

In this sweeping and breathtaking new novel by National Book Award finalist Laini Taylor, author of the New York Times bestselling Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy, the shadow of the past is as real as the ghosts who haunt the citadel of murdered gods. Fall into a mythical world of dread and wonder, moths and nightmares, love and carnage.

Welcome to Weep. From Goodreads.

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Review: Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor (#Ad)

Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor (review copy)

I was sent this review copy for free from Hodder & Stoughton in exchange for an honest review.

WARNING! I cannot review this book without spoiling the others in the series. Read no further if you're planning on reading this series and don't want it spoilt for you.

By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her, if there can even be a future for the chimaera in war-ravaged Eretz.

Common enemy, common cause.

When Jael's brutal seraph army trespasses into the human world, the unthinkable becomes essential, and Karou and Akiva must ally their enemy armies against the threat. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people.

And, perhaps, for themselves. Toward a new way of living, and maybe even love.

But there are bigger threats than Jael in the offing. A vicious queen is hunting Akiva, and, in the skies of Eretz ... something is happening. Massive stains are spreading like bruises from horizon to horizon; the great winged stormhunters are gathering as if summoned, ceaselessly circling, and a deep sense of wrong pervades the world.

What power can bruise the sky?

From the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond, humans, chimaera and seraphim will fight, strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy.

At the very barriers of space and time, what do gods and monsters dream of? And does anything else matter? From Goodreads

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Review: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor (#Ad)

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor (review copy)

I was sent this review copy for free from Hodder & Stoughton in exchange for an honest review.

WARNING! I cannot review this book without spoiling the others in the series. Read no further if you're planning on reading this series and don't want it spoilt for you.

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a new way of living - one without massacres and torn throats and bonfires of the fallen, without revenants or bastard armies or children ripped from their mothers' arms to take their turn in the killing and dying.

Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon's secret temple and dreamed of a world that was a like a jewel-box without a jewel - a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with their happiness.

This was not that world. From Amazon UK

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Weekly Gossip

Here's your bookish news from the past week.

First up, cover reveals!

The cover - and the name I believe, as I hadn't heard it before, for the sequel to Tom Clempson's One Seriously Messed-Up Week in the Otherwise Mundane and Uneventful Life of Jack Samsonite has been revealed! It's called - wait for it... *takes a deep breath* One Seriously Messed-Up Weekend in the Otherwise Un-Messed-Up Life of Jack Samsonite!

Continue reading Weekly Gossip

Weekly Gossip

Here is your bookish news from the past week.

Cover reveals! Hodder and Stoughton have released a few covers! Firstly, here's the UK paperback cover for Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver, which was released on the UK Delirium Facebook Page:


What do you think? I think it's gorgeous! So pretty and summery! So much better than the orange of the hardback!

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Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor - Published in Paperback Today!

Today is 5th July. And you know what that means - paperback publication day for Laini Taylor's DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE!
And we have lots of exciting news to share...

Laini will be doing a live twitter interview for UK readers at 5.30pm TODAY so do get online at this time to ask her questions - and it would be great if you could encourage your followers to do the same! Laini will be taking over Hodder & Stoughton's official twitter feed @SmokeAndBone so that's where it's at.

Also, VERY excitingly, we are offering the chance to win an early proof copy of the next book in the trilogy DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT (which we're publishing in November). All you have to do is tweet a 140 character review of Daughter of Smoke and Bone - just send it to @SmokeAndBone using the #smokeandbone hashtag, any time from now until this Sunday 8th July. Everyone who tweets a review will be in with a chance of winning a proof of the new book, and the tweets will also be included in online adverts, so you may well find yourself featured on sites like Glamour.com

Continue reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor - Published in Paperback Today!

Weekly Gossip

Here is your weekly news!

The sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor has a name! Days of Blood and Starlight! How awesome, huh? I love it! The image on the left is released from Little, Brown, the US publishers of the books, as is the following teaser:

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News: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor to Become a Movie!

Exciting news! The absolutely amazing Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor is going to hit the big screens! Yes! Universal Pictures has acquired the rights to the book! I am SO excited! This is one of my favourite books of the year, and it will be awesome to see it as a movie!

You can read my review of the book here, and to find out more, read the press release or the following online articles.

Entertainment Weekly
Hollywood Reporter
MTV Hollywood Crush
The Wrap

So are you excited too? Who do you think should star? And direct? I'm thinking Peter Jackson!

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Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (#Ad)

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (review copy)

I was sent this review copy for free from Hodder & Stoughton in exchange for an honest review.

Errand requiring immediate attention. Come.

The note was on vellum, pierced by the talons of the almost-crow that delivered it. Karou read the message. 'He never says please', she sighed, but she gathered up her things.

When Brimstone called, she always came.

In general, Karou has managed to keep her two lives in balance. On the one hand, she's a seventeen-year-old art student in Prague; on the other, errand-girl to a monstrous creature who is the closest thing she has to family. Raised half in our world, half in 'Elsewhere', she has never understood Brimstone's dark work - buying teeth from hunters and murderers - nor how she came into his keeping. She is a secret even to herself, plagued by the sensation that she isn't whole.

Now the doors to Elsewhere are closing, and Karou must choose between the safety of her human life and the dangers of a war-ravaged world that may hold the answers she has always sought. From Amazon UK

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Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor Trailer

Here are the three trailers for the amazing novel, Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor! The trailers are just awesome, and the book is brilliant!







Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (released 29th September 2011) - Errand requiring immediate attention. Come.

The note was on vellum, pierced by the talons of the almost-crow that delivered it. Karou read the message. 'He never says please', she sighed, but she gathered up her things.

When Brimstone called, she always came.

In general, Karou has managed to keep her two lives in balance. On the one hand, she's a seventeen-year-old art student in Prague; on the other, errand-girl to a monstrous creature who is the closest thing she has to family. Raised half in our world, half in 'Elsewhere', she has never understood Brimstone's dark work - buying teeth from hunters and murderers - nor how she came into his keeping. She is a secret even to herself, plagued by the sensation that she isn't whole.

Now the doors to Elsewhere are closing, and Karou must choose between the safety of her human life and the dangers of a war-ravaged world that may hold the answers she has always sought. From Amazon UK

Find out more at the Daughter of Smoke and Bone Website.

Continue reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor Trailer