A couple weeks ago, we reported that Paramount was in a bidding war with two other studios for the rights to Laini Taylor's young adult novel Daughter of Smoke and Bone.  Paramount was reportedly putting up $700,000 to get the rights, but it wasn't enough. According to THR, Universal has won the bidding war between four studios for the rights to what could be the next Twilight (like every other young adult novel optioned since 2008). When I first wrote about Smoke and Bone, I commented on how unintentionally hilarious it sounds (globe-trotting art student collects teeth, discovers she's in the middle of a battle between devils and angels, and falls in love with a warrior angel), but it's got the sales and praise to back up Universal's big purchase.  The book's honors include "Amazon Ten Books of 2011, Amazon’s #1 Teen Book of 2011, a Publishers Weekly Best Books 2011, a Huffington Post Top 10 YA Book of 2011, and a New York Times Notable Children's Books of 2011."Hit the jump for the official (and highly amusing) synopsis of Daughter of Smoke and Bone.daughter-of-smoke-and-bone-book-cover-01Here's the synopsis for Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone:

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”; she speaks many languages–not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When one of the strangers–beautiful, haunted Akiva–fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?