Actual Rating: 3.5 
 Once upon a time, there was a book called Daughter of Smoke & Bone and it was nothing like I ever imagined/thought it would be. 
 It's really hard to write a review on this book without giving much of the plot away, which I guess defeats the purpose of convincing someone to read it. Then again, I don't think my reviews really convince anyone to read a book. 
 So let's get on with it while trying not to give away the plot. 
 Daughter of Smoke & Bone, interesting title and lovely cover by the way, tells the story of a blue-haired girl named Karou, who feels a deep loneliness and emptiness. She's not exactly sure why, but nothing present in her life seems to eliminate these feelings. It's as if something's missing. 
 From the beginning, Laini Taylor builds this intrigue and mystery surrounding Karou - that you start trying to figure out what the heck is going on. Like why does Karou feel incomplete and what's up with her job? And why doesn't anyone know who she really is? 
 It seems as if Taylor used the prompt words: teeth, angels, devils, love and loneliness to make up the story. And while reading the book, you keep trying to make a connection between all these words. 
 The teeth were a very interesting bit of the story, and I found it to be the most mysterious. Karou's job was to collect teeth, which she gave to a character called Brimstone. I say a character, because it's quite hard to describe Brimstone, without giving the story away. At first you think he's just a figment of her imagination when you're introduced to him, given that Karou's an artist, but he becomes so much more. 
 Karou collects all kinds of teeth. Doesn't matter where it comes from. Brimstone isn't really picky except for baby teeth, I guess. I even began to associate Brimstone with the tooth fairy. Because it was assumed that these teeth were mostly used for wishes. Except Karou never appeared in people's bedrooms to collect them from under their pillows the traditional way. 
 At first, I thought this book was going to have religious undertones, since it seemed to be dealing with the love between an angel and a devil. Thought that there might be a heaven and hell setting. Especially after reading Angelfall. But this book wasn't like that, and I liked it. It was like a small surprise. 
 It's like Taylor created her own mythology about a different world and then placed her characters in it. And there are different versions of the myth of how the characters and the world came to be, just like the different myths about our origins that we have today. 
 This particular one almost reminded me of Greek mythology about how the gods and goddesses came to be. 
 (view spoiler)[ Once upon a time, before chimaera and seraphim, there was the sun and the moons. The sun was betrothed to Nitid, the bright sister, but it was demure Ellai, always hiding behind her bold sister, who stirred his lust. He contrived to come upon her bathing in the sea, and he took her. She struggled, but he was the sun, and he thought he should have what he wanted. Ellai stabbed him and escaped, and the blood of the sun flew like sparks to earth, where it became seraphim--misbegotten children of fire. And like their father, they believed it their due to want, and take, and have. As for Ellai, she told her sister what had passed, and Nitid wept, and her tears fell to earth and became chimaera, children of regret. 
 When the sun came again to the sisters, neither would have him. Nitid put Ellai behind her and protected her, though the sun, still bleeding sparks, knew Ellai was not as defenseless as she seemed. He pled with Nitid to forgive him but she refused, and to this day he follows the sisters across the sky, wanting and wanting and never having, and that will be his punishment, forever. 
 (hide spoiler)] 
 Taylor doesn't just write a story, she weaves a fairy-tale. She seduces you with her words, that even if she was writing something generic, you'd think it was fantastic. Not that this was a generic story, it's anything but that. It's creative and original and refreshing. 
 Her world is dark and intriguing. Beautiful and mysterious. Everything about it is indeed magical. The world, the plot, the characters, the romance. She gives you the tooth fairy (almost), Prince Charming (view spoiler)[ in angel/chimaera form (hide spoiler)], forbidden love, and the whole idea of soul mates. 
 And this soul-mate romance is where I slightly got pushed off from the fantasy train. The romance is magical, as it should be, because it's a fairy-tale story. It has the romance where the lover feels incomplete without the other person, the love at first sight, the I'll do anything to be with you romance. And, at first, you can understand why it works. 
 Naturally, I have a hard time believing characters that see each other and are drawn to each other because they're meant to be. The whole love-at-first-sight thing is not realistic to me, not tangible. But I understood why it could work for this story, because it is sort of a fairy-tale. 
 And in fairy-tales, Prince Charming is absolutely gorgeous never ugly and he realizes that he and Cinderella are soul mates. But in reality, they have to work for it and I like reading about the work they do to get to that I'm in love with you stage. I've always thought love-at-first sight stories were an easy, lazy route. But I gave Taylor the benefit of the doubt. 
 And she didn't disappoint because it all made sense in the end and she explained the instant connection between the two characters. 
 So why 3.5? I was pulled into the story at the beginning. But then during the middle, my interest waned. And though I did like the revelation at end and the whole story in general, I just didn't love it for some reason. Maybe it's the whole idea of needing someone to complete you that didn't work for me. I don't know. 
 All in all, I am looking forward to the next book.