Finally finally FINALLY DONE with Days of Blood & Starlight; I honestly thought that I would get this book done earlier because I wanted to prioritize keeping my reading goal on track during my break but instead I was stuck with this for days. BEGONE SLUMP!!!! 
 Alright so the second book to the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy was an okay read for me. I am giving it a solid 3 star rating because I did struggle in getting the story together. The first book ended on a really high note and I was very excited to devour the second book just because I needed more answers. Basically my expectations were really high but unfortunately I didn't feel this as much compared to the previous book. 
 In terms of the new characters, I found the introduction of Thiago very interesting and I didn't really have a problem with him in terms of his story arc. Though I did hate the fact that Karou trusted him because even I could sense something off with him. Like seriously, Karou? He's the same guy that had you killed when he caught you with Akiva and suddenly you found out that Akiva did something horrible you choose to trust him instead? Mostly those were the kind of things that I did not enjoy while reading because I felt as if Karou was just as messy and indecisive as the plot was. My saving grace in this book however would definitely be Zuzana and Mik; I absolutely loved her in the first one and she just continued to amuse me. 
 In a way, I guess the world building of Days and Blood Starlight and the story arcs of each characters made it unique in a sense that us readers, following Karou as the main character was already in the world itself. It wasn't those typical fantasy books that would have a normal girl suddenly sucked into a whole new environment similar to TMI (not that I'm throwing shade at the TMI series ok it's one of my faves) but basically what I'm trying to say is that Laini's fantasy world moved away from that overly used concept in YA. I did however like how we still had a sense of normalcy between everything; thanks to Mik and Zuze's storyline so ultimately everything was perfectly balanced. 
 Other than that I wish I enjoyed it more but the several connections major characters had in the first book were completely forgotten so it made it very draggy because I had to deal with a whole new phase of unanswered questions. I know that the main couple here would be Akiva and Karou but I really disliked how their romance here was subtle to the point that they didn't interact at all. Wasn't a big fan of how their relationship was labeled important in the first book and then suddenly it had a 360 degree turn. I get it; this is the obligatory "obstacle their relationship both needed" but it just didn't work. In my opinion, it would've been better if we saw glimpses of their relationship and how they were both struggling because it was pretty much obvious. Instead I saw petty and naive reasons from Karou saying she didn't need him. Oh please. Don't me. 
 This review may sound like I won't be stepping into the final book but actually I will already because the urge to finish a trilogy is killing me. Hopefully, the third one won't disappoint!!