Category: Romance

⚓ Title: All the Stars and Teeth
⚓ Author: Adalyn Grace
⚓ Publisher: Imprint
⚓ Publish Date: February 4, 2020
⚓ Book Form: Ebook
⚓ Pages: 384
⚓ Genre: YA, Fantasy, Pirates
⚓ Dates Read: Mar 11 – Mar 20
⚓Rating: ⚓⚓⚓.5

Set in a kingdom where danger lurks beneath the sea, mermaids seek vengeance with song, and magic is a choice.

She will reign.

As princess of the island kingdom Visidia, Amora Montara has spent her entire life training to be High Animancer—the master of souls. The rest of the realm can choose their magic, but for Amora, it’s never been a choice. To secure her place as heir to the throne, she must prove her mastery of the monarchy’s dangerous soul magic.

When her demonstration goes awry, Amora is forced to flee. She strikes a deal with Bastian, a mysterious pirate: he’ll help her prove she’s fit to rule, if she’ll help him reclaim his stolen magic.

But sailing the kingdom holds more wonder—and more peril—than Amora anticipated. A destructive new magic is on the rise, and if Amora is to conquer it, she’ll need to face legendary monsters, cross paths with vengeful mermaids, and deal with a stow-away she never expected… or risk the fate of Visidia and lose the crown forever.

I am the right choice. The only choice. And I will protect my kingdom.

– Goodreads

I first featured this book on First Impression Friday. I predicted it to be a 4-5 star read. I wasn’t too far off, but I was a little disappointed.

There were tons of magic systems in the novel, but surprisingly, I didn’t have trouble following. It was laid out in a way that’s easy to remember what magic does what. This is super important since magic is the focus of the story! To use the magic, you have to give something whether it be blood, hair, bones, etc. I loved all the systems! My favorite was Zudoh. I’d love to work with curse magic!

There was a love triangle, like in every great ya fantasy. I was rooting for Bastian from teh beginning. He’s the perfect bad(?) boy. Ferrick seemed to have a little bit of Tamlin from ACOTAR-esque feels to him. Like, I kind of hated him. Through the book he got better and maybe even found a love of his own!

I really liked Amora, too. She seemed down to earth and just wanted to be the best leader she could be. She got thrown a lot of set-backs, but she got up fighting every time. While she did have a love interest, her main goal was not overshadowed by cute boys 1&2 so that was really nice to see.

What brought the rating down was the fact that it took me 10 days to read this. I mean, this is short for a fantasy. Part of that was probably me. Work has sucked the life out of me and I don’t see it getting any better soon. Yay healthcare… But by the end I was just ready for it to be over. I’ll definitely read book 2. I’m excited to see what comes next. Maybe I will be in a better headspace and won’t feel like the book is taking years to read!

Have you read All the Stars and Teeth? What were your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below!

Until next time…