Daughter of Smoke & Bone

When she’s not going about her normal routine as an art student in Prague, 17-year-old Karou leads a double life running magical errands. She travels through portals between earth and the mystical world of Elsewhere to collect teeth of all kinds for the foursome of human-animal chimaera that raised her from infancy, though she doesn’t know why she’s tasked with the job. Karou has long wondered who she really is and why she feels she was meant for another life. It’s a mystery that begins to unravel when, while on a mission in Marrakesh, she meets the winged and otherworldly beautiful Akiva, and he immediately tries to kill her. Karou is suddenly swept up in an ancient war raging between the chimaera and the seraphim, the chimaera’s greatest rival. With a story that’s rife with intrigue, romance and action, the gripping first installment in award-winning author Laini Taylor’s best-selling epic fantasy trilogy puts an exhilarating new spin on the angels-versus-demons archetype. Published in 2011, Daughter of Smoke & Bone went on to win the American Library Association’s award for Best Fiction for Young Adults. —Megan McCluskey

Buy Now: Daughter of Smoke & Bone on Bookshop | Amazon

Contact us at letters@time.com.