Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. Published by Little, Brown and Company, 2011.

Karou is an unusual young woman. Her hair is blue, she speaks numerous languages and she can do magic. When she isn’t at art school, she is working for Brimstone. She buys teeth for him- yes, it is disgusting and no, she doesn’t know what he does with the teeth. In order to acquire the teeth, she must deal with unsavory people and beings and goes back and forth between her art school world in Prague and the fantasy world inhabited by her unusual “family”. The sudden appearance of black handprints on doors coincides with the loss of Karou’s “family” and leaves her bereft. Finding that there is an ongoing war between the chimaera and the seraphim, Karou begins questioning everything she knows, trying to figure out who can be trusted. During her search for the truth and meets the beautiful (and forbidden) angel Akiva, but knows she must maintain her focus on solving the mystery or lose her friends and family forever.

This is an excellent fantasy/mystery novel with a strong setting and unusual characters. I look forward to the rest of the books in the series.