Celebrating Dreams of Gods and Monsters: Karou Artwork + Giveaway

To celebrate the release of Dreams of Gods and Monsters, the third and final book in Laini Taylor's amazing Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, the fantastic people at Little, Brown offered a number of bloggers the opportunity to give a copy of the book away and generally express their love for this series any way they saw fit.

I of course went into designer mode and decided to put together a promotional poster featuring the character who made me fall madly in love with her the moment she appeared on page: Karou. This series is chock-full of outstanding characters, but Karou, with her bright blue hair, her hilarious banter with best friend Zuzana, and her emotionally tortuous relationship with Akiva, has always been the person I most looked forward to spending time with when I cracked the spine of one of these books.

Before I post my interpretation of Karou (with a little Akiva mixed in for good measure because I want them to be together forever and ever and always), I want to say a huge thank you to my absurdly talented mother who was my collaborator on this illustration of Karou. I'm so pleased with how the entire piece turned out, and I couldn't have done it without her!

I knew I wanted Karou to be the focal point with all her gorgeous blue hair, but I thought she and Akiva and been separated long enough, so I wanted to make sure pieces of him were incorporated into the design as well. Marrying the image of Karou with Akiva's full wings (as was my original idea) simply wasn't working, so we ended up adding feathers to the tips of certain strands of her hair, allowing the blue to subtly fade into the white of Akiva's feathers.

I hope you guys like it as much as I do, and be sure and check back tomorrow for my full review of the book!

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DREAMS OF GODS AND MONSTERS

By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her, if there can even be a future for the chimaera in war-ravaged Eretz.

Common enemy, common cause.

When Jael's brutal seraph army trespasses into the human world, the unthinkable becomes essential, and Karou and Akiva must ally their enemy armies against the threat. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people.

And, perhaps, for themselves. Toward a new way of living, and maybe even love.

But there are bigger threats than Jael in the offing. A vicious queen is hunting Akiva, and, in the skies of Eretz ... something is happening. Massive stains are spreading like bruises from horizon to horizon; the great winged stormhunters are gathering as if summoned, ceaselessly circling, and a deep sense of wrong pervades the world.

What power can bruise the sky?

From the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond, humans, chimaera and seraphim will fight, strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy.

At the very barriers of space and time, what do gods and monsters dream of? And does anything else matter?

Find Dreams of Gods and Monsters:

Amazon • Goodreads • B&N

Find the Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy

Tumblr • Facebook • Re-Read Project • Tour Dates • NOVL

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GIVEAWAY

Thanks to the hugely generous team at Little, Brown, I have one copy of Dreams of Gods and Monsters up for grabs on the blog today. To enter, please fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Giveaway is open to US addresses only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway