Daughter of Smoke and Bone Series

I discovered the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series last year and found myself enjoying it a lot more than I anticipated.  In a young adult market saturated with "angel" stories, this series brings a fresh approach to the topic.  Instead of angels, fallen or not, living among the humans, this series is about angels that live in their own world.  The angels are only half of the story though.  The main character, Karou, belongs to another world entirely.  She is part of the world of the chimaera.  As far as she knows, she is a human girl raised by the beasts.  In the first book she is just starting to learn the truth about who she is and the world she is from.  She has a near deadly encounter with a vengeful angel, Akiva, that leaves her little human life turned upside down.  Her people have been at war with the angels for centuries.  They are bitter rivals.  In a past long forgotten (or locked away), Karou and Akiva dared to fall in love and dream of a world where the two sides could find peace.  What resulted was death and betrayal.  Books two and three take place almost entirely in the worlds of the angels and chimaera.  There aren't a lot of humans in them except Karou's feisty best friend, Zuzana and her boyfriend, Mik.  We dive into the politics and powers of the two worlds.  Bloodshed is constant and war is inevitable.  Can Karou and Akiva find that common ground once again and can they bring their people to see each other as anything but the enemy?  These books are just awesome.  They are classified as young adult, but in reality all the characters are adults.  If you are opposed to YA books, but like fantasy, you will like this series.  There are awesome characters all around.  The evil/bad characters are truly horrific.  All the characters are far from perfect and each has a distinct personality.  There are a lot of characters, both angels and chimaera that you come to love and hate.  Zuzana is probably my favorite character.  You'll just love her too.  She refuses to be left behind and insinuates herself into the chimaera world.  She is exactly what Karou needs.  This series has a good mix of action, suspense, romance, friendship, humor and despair.  It is a dark world these creatures live in and if they can't work together all the worlds might just end.  I highly recommend giving this series a try.  Happy reading!