Sweet Lazlo. What can I say? I'm a sucker for good fairy tales, and Laini endulged me. Lazlo felt as familiar to me as if I was looking in a mirror, he's me and who I want myself to be, the rosiest version of me I could dream up. There's not much I can say about this book without spoiling the book, but that's part of the fun- the story is so alluring every twist and turn is a revelation. 
 The author's prose sparkles, just like her last series, but there's still something entirely original about Strange the Dreamer. As a book, it's just as good, but I think she definitely improved. An underlying message in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone was war and how it affects and perverts people, so even good people can do things they loathe for things they believe in. This is an important concept, one that makes villains of heroes and heroes of villains . This book takes it a step further, bringing issues more personal about war and vengeance to the surface, and making you able to empathize. Some characters spoiler: (view spoiler)[ Minya, Eril-Fane (though more Minya than Eril Fane) (hide spoiler)] became, even as I began to hate them, simple to empathize with. Easy to put myself in their shoes. That's what this book is about right? And reading? The capacity to put oneself in anothers' shoes. Or perhaps.... their dreams.