Review: Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor

Published: April 8, 2014

Number of pages: 624

Format: hardcover

Publisher: Little, Brown Books

Genre: fantasy, romance, adventure

Audience: YA

Rating: 3 owl hoots out of 5

Summary:

The battle begins…on Earth as two races, chimaera and seraphim, prepare for the epic war. In the meantime, Karou and Akiva must lead their kind to rebel against Joram and his army to stop him before it is too late. Everything rests on Karou has she must help the chimaera survive but will her feelings for Akiva stand in the way as they work together to lead their people into a new era?

My Review:

If you’re following this trilogy and are about to read this book, then I suggest you drop everything and cancel your plans for the next day or so. The reason: it’s over 600 pages long! I planned on reading this one during the feels read-a-thon but after the week, I still couldn’t finish it. Seriously, it took me 2 weeks to finish reading this brick!

Apart from relief after reading this giant book, I was also impressed of how everything was wrapped up nicely with answered questions to Akiva’s past from Ruzgut’s origins. I was surprised that Laini added new characters, some who were a bit creepy including this human prophet with a haunting past and a surprise identity that startles everyone including herself. She plays a significant role in explaining the seraphim history, which we learn a great deal and ties with Akiva’s past.

I was really excited to read this book as I love the trilogy, but I didn’t expect to be patient for so long when the story of the final battle in Earth slowly developed. The first half was all about Karou and Akiva working to gather what they have to stand against the angel emperor and his massive army. Of course there are bumps along the way including back-stabbing betrayals, the on again off again romance, and the “way can’t we just get along?” mentality as Karou and Akiva get their armies in order. Which can take a great deal of work when some people decide to cause havoc on purpose.

The battle scene is the one part I was excited for but became a slight disappointment. As the epic battle was going to determine the future of Eretz, I expected a lot of bloodshed considering what had happened to Akiva and Liraz in the sequel. Instead it was more of a quick stab on the back and a slap on the hand. The fight scene only lasted a few pages and afterwards, I was like “Really? That’s it??!!” I expected a little more from that especially since I had to spend a good amount of time reading a quarter of the book awaiting patiently for the big finale.

Reading the trilogy was quite the ride and I apart from the not-so-intense final battle scene, I’m still glad that things turned out well for our favorite YA couple.