What to Read

Last Minute Gift Idea: Laini Taylor’s Magical Series

When it comes to last-minute gifts, I’ve got quite the recommendation for you. And, that is Laini Taylor’s “Daughter of Smoke and Bone” series.

The classic series is back and beautifully repackaged as a box set and with some different, and gorgeous, covers.

I had the pleasure to interview Laini Taylor, also author of the “Strange the Dreamer”duology, and meet her at two live virtual events this past month, and her excitement about the new covers of her magical series was palpable.

Read this exclusive chat with Laini for Frolic and enjoy! Then, make sure to pick up Laini’s books for the perfect last-minute holiday gift.

Aurora: How do you feel about the 10th anniversary release of your books?

Laini Taylor: On the one hand, it’s hard to believe it’s been ten years. On the other hand, I wrote Daughter of Smoke and Bone when my actual daughter was a baby and now she’s eleven, so that math works! The publishing journey with this trilogy and LBYR has been extraordinary, and has lived up to and exceeded all my wildest writerly dreams, with the many wonderful forms that reader engagement has taken, and the opportunities I’ve gotten to travel and meet fans around the country and the world. Somewhere along the way, though, it hit me that most books have limited shelf lives, and that new readers wouldn’t continue to find them the way they had in the beginning. So it’s incredibly rewarding to have them take on new life and find new readers. I hope that they’ll find new ways to stick around for many years to come!

What can fans expect from the new covers and editions? How do you feel about fan’s excited responses to the re-release of the novels?

The new covers, illustrated by Berlin-based artist Jelena Kevic Djurdjevic, are so gorgeous and unique, with their luminous black and neon, and don’t look like anything else on the shelf. Cover styles have changed a lot in the past decade, and I’m so here for all the cool and unique illustrated covers we’re seeing. As for fans’ reactions, I just continue to adore the brilliant community of readers we’re so lucky to have in our corner of the fantasy genre—they’re more supportive, more fun, and just better than any other readers, and it fills my soul to see how many people are buying the new editions to put next to their original editions on the shelf. I love you guys!!!

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Aurora Dominguez

Aurora Dominguez is a high school English teacher, college professor and journalist in South Florida. Her work has appeared in The Miami Herald, Where Magazine and J-14 Magazine, all places where she worked as a writer and editor before going from the newsroom to the classroom. Her favorite days are "Caturdays," which she spends with a good book, her husband, Sebastian, and her cat, Luna. Her motto when it comes to reading: "No book left behind!"