Book Review: Dreams of Gods & Monsters

Title: Dreams of Gods & Monsters

Author: Laini Taylor

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Series: Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Book 3)

This was my second time reading this series and I bumped basically every book up a star because I love it so much. The worlds that Laini Taylor are just so out there that I wish that I could see them in real life because they seem awesome. I love the characters (even if I’m probably pronouncing all of their names wrong in my head), the setting, the plot, just everything about this book. A lot of trilogies get worse as they go along but not this one! Dreams of Gods & Monsters was just as good as the previous two, if not better. One of my only major complaints is that my favorite character is missing but that’s just something that I had to deal with and attempt to get over.

LIKES:

+ The introduction of a new focus character. Eliza was, in my opinion, awesome. I really loved her backstory and how it all tied together in the end

+ Mik and Zuzana didn’t get tossed to the side as most best friend/side characters normally do as a series developed. I liked that we still got to see their characters develop and that they continued to be a part of the series versus gradually fading out.

+ More explanations/connections. This book explains A LOT of the events/people/worlds that were previously mentioned in the other two books and it helps provide context for a lot of the things that happened. You get to understand why a lot of the characters act the way that they do, and the events that led up to the big finale.

+ Betrayal and deception… need I say more?

+ Liraz gets some pretty major page time in this one, which is great because a) I’ve always liked Liraz and b) watching her character develop was awesome

+ Just a lot a lot of new character introductions/getting to know old characters better that made me really happy because everybody felt more 3D after this book versus just names and I-kinda-remember-yous

DISLIKES:

- I’m not a fan of romance so I wasn’t happy that the tensions between Akiva and Karou seemed to overshadow some important parts of the book. It almost felt like it was one of the more major conflicts versus one that should have been more minor.

- The end of the book (not the very end, but the part slightly before that) confused the heck out of me. I had to read it 2 or 3 times and I’m still pretty sure I missed something.

I (still) love this book, and I’d recommend it to pretty much anybody. It’s got action, beautiful worlds, awesome character development, and romance (if you like that kind of thing) but not so much that it makes me squeamish to read it.

See this review on Goodreads.