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daisymadeli's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I enjoyed this book, mainly thanks to Maren and her vicious spirit. I love a feral woman, and she gave a lot of that as she shed her princess life. I could’ve done with a lot less “luv”s from Ramsey; I won’t forget about his Scottish accent without them, I promise. Honestly, this book gave me the most enjoyment I’ve had out of a little mermaid retelling, but as soon as they added the vampire element, I was pretty over it. One thing too many.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Blood, and Death
lighthartedreader's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Grief, Physical abuse, Child death, Murder, Death, and Blood
booklifeisthelife's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
I finished A Ship of Bones & Teeth by Karina Halle. It's a standalone gothic dark fantasy pirate romance re-telling of The Little Mermaid. (They mention a sequel following other characters at the very end, go figure, but this one *can* be read as a standalone. ) I've been on a pirate kick lately. This one was alright, 2.5 stars. It wasn't great but it wasn't bad. However don't go in expecting what the synopsis says - a protagonist who is full of bloodlust and vengeance. It's there but not as strong as it leads you to believe which was a letdown. But I digress. The romance was alright. Major power unbalance which is mentioned in the tw list in the beginning of the book. The romance a bit too fast for me but wasn't horrible. I liked the fantasy elements even though I dearly wish for an adult pirate romance with no other elements. There was some interesting characters. I wasnt a fan of the love interest but he wasn't the worst. The ending made me happy with her getting the best of both words and being reunited with Nill.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Sexual content
Moderate: Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Confinement, and Sexual violence
Minor: Child death, Gore, and Suicidal thoughts
moragscot's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Exactly what you'd expect from this author. Formulaic and repetitive but good enough for a quick holiday read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, and Death
Moderate: Kidnapping and Child death
Minor: Rape
chunkydunk's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
It’s probably the best retelling of Little Mermaid I’ve read! The FMC is strong and fierce yet vulnerable. The MMC is dark and twisted yet heartbreakingly broken. The villains are there but not as present as I thought. It’s much more about what the characters do with their tragedies and how they learn to live with their choices. I only wish there was more book to read!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, Child death, Death of parent, Death, and Blood
Moderate: Kidnapping
koistyfishy's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
3.5 Nill's Tooth Stars ⭐
Spicy Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️.5/5
The whole time thinking about what to write in this review, that TikTok sound clip of "Paige, you were good. I'm waiting for you to be great" played on repeat in my mind, as that is exactly how I feel about this book.
Do not get me wrong, it was enjoyable the same way a Marvel Movie is, and contains so many annotateable and memorable lines. But going in I wanted the next Endgame or Guardians of the Galaxy, and instead was given Black Widow. The one that is not "technically" bad, but it's not "technically" good either.
This book is a Dual POV story that follows Maren, a little <s>mermaid</s> syren, who was hungry for experience and adventure after growing tired of her life under the sea. She makes a deal with a sea witch to turn her human but is lied to about what life is truly like with feet. Soon Maren finds herself married to an abusive prince, where she is expected to be seen and not heard. On the voyage home, our dear Captain Ramsey captures their ship and takes her and the prince hostage...but soon Maren learns that things are not always what they seem on board with the Brethren of Blood.
Before I elaborate on what kept this from AMAZING I want to touch on what I did like. The worldbuilding is absolutely exceptional. Considering this is standalone, there is not often a lot of time given to this to set the foundation, but it was there. I could smell the ocean, I felt like I was on that Pirate ship. There was a fully-fledged magic system and lore that truly paid homage to the vibes of The Little Mermaid mixed with Pirates of the Caribbean. I also really enjoyed the writing as a whole and the style. It was easy to follow and as I mentioned, the number of lines I highlighted in the book truly gives a testament to how much I enjoyed the general quotability of the book.
It was clear that a lot of time and care was put into understanding the life of a pirate as well as the mechanics of sailing a ship. My vocabulary-loving brain practically squealed at the amount of nautical terms that I learnt reading this.
So why then is this only good? Firstly there are a lot of action scenes in this book but every single one of them felt like they had this intense build-up to a climax that would be instantly over or brushed off very quickly. I honestly thought I must have been missing pages or chapters as the story would move on and not line up. It was like aspects of the plot were just missing, conversations were not had and the consequences of the events weren't ever shown.
We were just told things happened and not shown how they happened. Big events would just be mentioned in a passing line and wouldn't have the reaction expected. I would have not minded this if it happened once or twice but it happened numerous times, to the point that I got frustrated. This bled into the smut and the inopportune time that the smut happened. More time was spent on explaining how to have sex with a mermaid than the death of the Edonia
There were also factors of the plot and writing that felt like they were added purely to elicit a shock from the reader. Added to create a feeling of being unhinged for the sake of being unhinged.
The relationship switches from lust to love with the main characters feeling very quickly. They both lack some characterization and development. For a captain who has been mourning his dead wife and his daughter for so long to move on almost instantly because he found someone to warm his sheets felt weird. I would have liked to see him going through that emotional struggle to accept this. And I felt that any time anything was borderline serious or crossing into that emotional exploration, it would move on very quickly into action or smut.
The tropes you can expect in this are:
▶ Enemies to Lovers
▶ The Little Mermaid X Pirates of the Caribbean
▶ Touch Her You Die
▶ Hidden Identity
▶ Revenge Plot
▶ Morally Grey MMC
Ultimately it's still good...I'll still recommend this as I had fun with it but it had so much potential to be more...
Spicy Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️.5/5
The whole time thinking about what to write in this review, that TikTok sound clip of "Paige, you were good. I'm waiting for you to be great" played on repeat in my mind, as that is exactly how I feel about this book.
Do not get me wrong, it was enjoyable the same way a Marvel Movie is, and contains so many annotateable and memorable lines. But going in I wanted the next Endgame or Guardians of the Galaxy, and instead was given Black Widow. The one that is not "technically" bad, but it's not "technically" good either.
This book is a Dual POV story that follows Maren, a little <s>mermaid</s> syren, who was hungry for experience and adventure after growing tired of her life under the sea. She makes a deal with a sea witch to turn her human but is lied to about what life is truly like with feet. Soon Maren finds herself married to an abusive prince, where she is expected to be seen and not heard. On the voyage home, our dear Captain Ramsey captures their ship and takes her and the prince hostage...but soon Maren learns that things are not always what they seem on board with the Brethren of Blood.
Before I elaborate on what kept this from AMAZING I want to touch on what I did like. The worldbuilding is absolutely exceptional. Considering this is standalone, there is not often a lot of time given to this to set the foundation, but it was there. I could smell the ocean, I felt like I was on that Pirate ship. There was a fully-fledged magic system and lore that truly paid homage to the vibes of The Little Mermaid mixed with Pirates of the Caribbean. I also really enjoyed the writing as a whole and the style. It was easy to follow and as I mentioned, the number of lines I highlighted in the book truly gives a testament to how much I enjoyed the general quotability of the book.
It was clear that a lot of time and care was put into understanding the life of a pirate as well as the mechanics of sailing a ship. My vocabulary-loving brain practically squealed at the amount of nautical terms that I learnt reading this.
So why then is this only good? Firstly there are a lot of action scenes in this book but every single one of them felt like they had this intense build-up to a climax that would be instantly over or brushed off very quickly. I honestly thought I must have been missing pages or chapters as the story would move on and not line up. It was like aspects of the plot were just missing, conversations were not had and the consequences of the events weren't ever shown.
We were just told things happened and not shown how they happened. Big events would just be mentioned in a passing line and wouldn't have the reaction expected. I would have not minded this if it happened once or twice but it happened numerous times, to the point that I got frustrated. This bled into the smut and the inopportune time that the smut happened.
There were also factors of the plot and writing that felt like they were added purely to elicit a shock from the reader. Added to create a feeling of being unhinged for the sake of being unhinged.
The relationship switches from lust to love with the main characters feeling very quickly. They both lack some characterization and development. For a captain who has been mourning his dead wife and his daughter for so long to move on almost instantly because he found someone to warm his sheets felt weird. I would have liked to see him going through that emotional struggle to accept this. And I felt that any time anything was borderline serious or crossing into that emotional exploration, it would move on very quickly into action or smut.
The tropes you can expect in this are:
▶ Enemies to Lovers
▶ The Little Mermaid X Pirates of the Caribbean
▶ Touch Her You Die
▶ Hidden Identity
▶ Revenge Plot
▶ Morally Grey MMC
Ultimately it's still good...I'll still recommend this as I had fun with it but it had so much potential to be more...
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Death, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Violence, Murder, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, and Kidnapping
Minor: Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts
calliecuriosity's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Blood, Cannibalism, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Gore, Grief, Cursing, and Murder
stardust_heidi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Okay, here’s the deal. I really enjoyed the story. The characters were great. I really loved the pirate vampires — that was a fun twist on the pirate trope.
The execution of the story especially the writing and word usage, however, left a lot to be desired. At times I felt like the author was trying too hard for it to be a pirate theme, and it was just…too much. It made the language feel stilted and unwieldy. At times, I was just like, pick one speech pattern and stick with it. I’m not sure if this author uses a professional editor or not, but it could have used it.
The darker elements felt kind of awkward to me as well. I don’t know. It was fun, but I was overall fairly disappointed in the book.
The execution of the story especially the writing and word usage, however, left a lot to be desired. At times I felt like the author was trying too hard for it to be a pirate theme, and it was just…too much. It made the language feel stilted and unwieldy. At times, I was just like, pick one speech pattern and stick with it. I’m not sure if this author uses a professional editor or not, but it could have used it.
The darker elements felt kind of awkward to me as well. I don’t know. It was fun, but I was overall fairly disappointed in the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Kidnapping, Death, Blood, Confinement, Grief, and Violence
Some non-con situationskkxmac's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Murder, Self harm, Torture, Cannibalism, Child death, Physical abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death, Grief, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Rape, Sexual content, Blood, and Emotional abuse
bookedbykiki's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, and Torture
Moderate: Kidnapping
Minor: Gore