Review of Dreams of Gods & Monsters

Dreams of Gods and Monsters

(Daughter of Smoke and Bone #3)

By Laini Taylor

About:
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?

Source: Goodreads

My rating: 4.5/5

My Thoughts:

I have finally managed to read the conclusion to this most awesome series. It took me a few chapters to get back into the story, purely because it had been so long since I had read the last instalment that I had forgotten what it was about. But once I was in, I was hooked. 

I can't help wishing Brimstone came back but alas that isn't possible, no matter how many Wishes there are. 

This book is told from various perspectives, obviously Karous and Akivas, but then there are others top, and their part in the story only makes sense later on. For example, the Stelians importance is only made evident in the final chapters of the book- no spoilers! 

Jael and his army of angels have landed on earth and are being welcomed by Rome with open arms. Humans are worshipping them, and as a result chaos ensues. Meanwhile, the Chimaera are being killed off and the rebel misbegotten are in hiding with the hope of killing Jael soon. 

The two enemies have a common enemy, Jael, and they try to put aside their differences to fight together. Akiva recognises new powers in him, but he has no way of controlling it, whilst Karou is trying not to make her love for Akiva obvious, especially since Ziri is in the white wolf's body but no one knows this yet. The chimaera need the white wolf as their leader and anything else will cause more rifts, something they cannot afford. In the midst of all this is Karou and Akivas mutual attraction but even if they are finally on the same side, it is virtually impossible for them to actually be together! It's sad but sweet because they both know there are more important things at stake.

And of course there is plenty of Zuzana and Mik, with their funny conversations and crazy imaginations. They bring a lightness to the book and despite their lack of super powers, manage to save the day many times. 

I'm sad to see this series end but I'm sure laini Taylor has plenty more exciting stories to come! 

Zed (:

Favourite Quotes:

It was a rule of secret-keeping, in which she was well-versed: Ask not, lest ye be asked.

People with secrets shouldn't make enemies, she warned herself. 
And, clear and unbidden, as if in response, from some deep layer of memory, arouse her mother's voice. "People with destinies," it said, "shouldn't make plans."

Not much, but some. Which should be fine, right? All she had to do was come up with a plan to avert the apocalypse and somehow convince these grim and hardened soldiers to adopt it. In...approximately twelve hours. While deep in a trance, performing as many resurrections as she could.
No big deal.

It was shame. Shame never faded, and Liraz realized only now that this was the baseline of her emotions-her bitter, curdled "normal"-and that her soul was poisoned soil in which nothing good could grow.

"They should treat it like an alien invasion," Morgan had said, and he'd been exactly right, the little pissant. It was an alien invasion. It just happened that the aliens looked like angels and beasts, and came not from "outer space" but from a parallel universe. 

He shrugged. "My wife likes to say that the mind is a palace with room for many guests. Perhaps the butler takes care to install the delegates of Science in a different wing from the emissaries of Faith, lest they take up arguing in the passages."

"You know," observed Zuzana, in English, "you'd probably be a lot prettier if you didn't make that face."