This is a book you might have heard of as an OwlCrate book before and a much earlier US release. But it was a book I was so excited to read so the moment I saw it was available on NetGalley…
I obviously requested it and I was so lucky to get it.
The book follows Amora, a princess who after a poor display of her soul magic during a ceremony, decided she needed to travel with a pirate to do something to prove that she still deserves to be Queen. This is a book with a smallish cast that grows with the book but there’s princesses, pirates, rebels and mermaids. Sounds like a lot of fun, right?
And it really was.
I loved the friendships in this book. Most of the characters don’t know each other when they’re introduced but they form this really strong and lovely friendships. Even when they’re bickering and things are difficult, their interactions were just so well written.
What I didn’t realize was that I’d already found them – this is my crew, and I hold them tight
All The Stars and Teeth by Adalyn Grace (Chapter 32)
Unfortunately, I didn’t love the romance as much. Don’t get me wrong, they were cute. But there wasn’t enough of them. You don’t actually get to see many of the ‘small’ moments. There’s a couple of scenes including one where there are some very awkward boys as Amora had gotten her period *cue my eyerolling*. But it made the romance when it happened feel very sudden. Like there wasn’t enough build up when they had certainly spent enough time together. It was just…a little bit of a let down. But it’s definitely something that could be improved upon in book 2 by just showing us them interacting more.
My favourite character was the mermaid Vataea. You meet her around the mid-point of the book so I won’t give too many details. But she was sassy, loves travel and the whole aspect of mermaids in this book is just so good.
And that was actually what I loved best about this book.
The magic and world building! Oh my gosh, I was fascinated with this world. The islands, the magic, how the separation was shown with clothes and colour. It was such a good setting and you find out so much about it without ever feeling like you’ve had an info dump of world building. You also get to see some of the history of the world, the important stuff that matters to the main character’s story obviously but I loved reading it and I’m hoping to get some more in the second book.
Overall it was such a good book. Not perfect, no, but there’s plenty to build upon and that I’m completely looking forward to getting to in book 2. I might even have to order it from the US early!
4/5 Stars
Buy the Book:
Lace and Dagger Books 