From Goodreads: "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?"

The book begins with Karou, a mysterious blue haired girl living in Prague with no knowledge of who she really is. All she knows is that since she was a baby, she was raised by creatures that are not entirely human. She runs errands for her "father," Brimstone, and attends an art school with her best friend. When strange black handprints begin appearing on the doors used to travel between Brimstone and the human world, Karou is suddenly thrust into a world that lay just on the other side of a door- and it's more familiar than she realized.

I put off reading this book for almost a year after buying it for reasons unknown. While I had read many reviews about it, and had bought it for the purpose of reading it, I just...didn't. I was mainly afraid that I was going to start reading and it would be just like all of the other YA books out there.

Boy was I wrong.

Okay, maybe not entirely. Once the book really started going and more details were revealed, it kinda turned into your typical YA lovey dovey book. But then it completely spun around and took a turn I didn't really expect, which I was very grateful for. As I have grown older, my desire to read books about "star crossed lovers" (or whatver you want to call it, has significantly decreased. I was afraid this book would take that turn and I would be disappointed, but Laini Taylor just took everything I thought I knew about this book and did a 180 with it and I was so pleased.

Once I actually picked up this book, all of my previous assumptions were thrown out the window and set on fire. I honestly never wanted to put it down, and could not stop thinking about it once I did. The entire book was beautifully written, very descriptive, and just an all around incredible book. Did I mention the book was amazing?

I loved following Karou on her journey, and discovering who she really was along with her. Once her past came to light, I was ecstatic! I had been dying to learn the secret that Brimstone had been keeping, and why Akiva was so interested in her. The end of the book left me in absolute shock, and the temptation to read the preview of book two, Days of Blood and Starlight, was almost too much for me to resist! I wasn't a big fan of Akiva throughout the book, and especially at the end. Something about him just didn't click with me, but maybe he will redeem himself in the next book. Karou was hands down my favourite character, with Issa being second. Each character was amazing in their own way, but those two just really stood out to me.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of a different kind of YA novel! Throw away all of the assumptions you may have, and just dive in head first. Trust me, you won't regret it! Stay tuned for reviews on Days of Blood and Starlight and Dreams of Gods and Monsters!