I was expecting pirates.

Dear Reader,

All the Stars and Teeth came in my second Fox&Wit book parcel together with half a dozen beautiful pirate-themed photo props. This made me hope for an adventure at sea with cannons blasting as Captain Jack Sparrow and Barbossa shout "Arrrr!" at each other. Instead, Adalyn Grace wrote an heir-wins-back-throne novel. Those can be good or bad. Which is it?

In the beginning, it's slow. Our heroine Amora must prove her worth as heir to the throne by showing that she has control of her magic. This scene should be fast, tense, gripping. But Adalyn Grace doesn't know what to show and what to tell. She lingers on clothes and small talk. Instead of showing us how Amora is feeling and what's at stake for her, she tells us not once but several times. Amora's inner monologue is stuck on replay. The book stays this way until about halfway through.

Amora fails the test, gets imprisoned, a pirate breaks her out. (I can tell you about this because it's all in the teaser. No spoilers in this review.) On the run, the two of them have some adventures and close calls. Most of it happens on the islands, only one interesting thing ever takes place at sea. I'm not sure why, but none of the scenes grip me. Maybe because I don't care much about Amora the Broken Record? I like the other three members of her crew, most of all Bastian the pirate captain, who starts out as a poorly imitated Captain Jack Sparrow but soon turns into a many-layered character.

After half the book, the pace picks up and with it we get some tension. The plot stays predictable, which isn't bad if you like generic fantasy. Fight scenes and secrets, curses and some romance.

The worldbuilding? Too much world, too little building. It gets confusing. We never find out quite how the magic works in the kingdom of Visidia. There's different kinds of power and every person chooses one, or learns one, it's not clear. It seems you can also practice magic by accident. Anyway, most powes appear only as decoration. We see element-wielders throw fire at each other or bend a cliffside into a staircase, and enchanters turn their hair any colour they like. But only two kinds are important for the story: soul magic and curse magic. Both look different in different scenes, so we never find out what the rules and limits are. Then there's the mermaids' powers. We never find out what those can and can't do, either. Amora's mermaid friend Vataea solves problems when Adalyn Grace needs her to. And a certain poisoned weapon works different on different characters. Wait, any wounds work different on different characters. The red shirts drop dead from a scratch, the evil overlord survives injuries that not even a healer should be able to cure. (Healers can't save you from a fatal wound, it says in one place.)

All the Stars and Teeth is an ok read, but nothing special. It didn't surprise me anywhere. You'll like it if you like a typical YA fantasy novel, or if you need a beautiful cover for book photos. There seems to be a second volume planned. I won't read it.

Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran

All the Stars and Teeth by Adalyn Grace

published in February, 2020

ISBN:

1250307783

Available on Amazon.co.uk.