Cover of “All The Tides Of Fate” by Adalyn GraceI’m back with another book review, and this time I’m reviewing “All The Tides Of Fate” by Adalyn Grace! “All The Tides Of Fate” is the sequel to “All The Stars And Teeth” by the same author, and I reviewed that book just last week. I quickly picked up the sequel to see what happened next. Here’s a quick summary so we know what it’s about:
“Through blood and sacrifice, Amora Montara has conquered a rebellion and taken her rightful place as queen of Visidia. Now, with the islands in turmoil and the people questioning her authority, Amora cannot allow anyone to see her weaknesses.
No one can know about the curse in her bloodline. No one can know that she’s lost her magic. No one can know the truth about the boy who holds the missing half of her soul.
To save herself and Visidia, Amora embarks on a desperate quest for a mythical artifact that could fix everything―but it comes at a terrible cost. As she tries to balance her loyalty to her people, her crew, and the desires of her heart, Amora will soon discover that the power to rule might destroy her.”
Content Warning:
This book contains graphic depictions of death, gore, and a combination of both. There are also some attempted assassinations, hallucinations, and implied post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. If you are uncomfortable with this content, I suggest you read carefully or skip reading this book.
Character Development: 1.5 out of 5 stars
Amora regressed when it came to character development overall. Any development she had from the previous book was mostly undone, and it didn’t help that she tried to do everything herself without asking for any help. It’s hard to take her seriously as the new queen of Visidia when she constantly threatens people to get what she wants—and rarely takes her mother’s advice in hand. In a way, Amora could have been like Adelina from “The Young Elites” and went wholeheartedly into the convincing “villain-queen” role, but the book never has her fully crossing this line despite her actions.
As for the side characters, I enjoyed reading them way more than Amora. I felt like they actually had personality developments, especially with Ferrick and Shanty. Additionally, it was a bad decision to kill off Ferrick. He was incredibly helpful to Amora and the others throughout the last book and this book and there was no reason to kill him off. I also enjoyed reading Vataea as well and wish there was more of her included in this book. Unfortunately, this book failed to have a convincing antagonist. Unlike the previous book, this book’s main antagonist didn’t feel convincing enough to me and lacked clear motivations for why he did what he did.
Plot Development: 1.5 out of 5 stars
The plot dragged on quite slowly for over half the book. I honestly think that half of it could have been removed to cut out all the filler bits. This includes cutting out all of Amora constantly showing more of why she’s really bad at ruling as Visidia’s queen by how she behaved in the royal court when she visited the islands. More time could have been spent developing the main villain in this book. There could also be more time helping to make Amora’s decision to eventually have all the islands rule together make more sense at the end. The way the book cemented Amora’s final decision felt too sudden. It especially felt sudden since she insisted on ruling over all the islands at the beginning of the book, despite the revelations she learned from the previous book.
Worldbuilding Development: 3 out of 5 stars
The worldbuilding introduced in this book did little to add to the worldbuilding from the previous book, but at least it stayed mostly consistent and made sense. There’s nothing much else to say about it otherwise.
Romance Development: 1 out of 5 stars
I thought Bastian and Amora’s romance was poorly written. I understand Amora wanting to have some space from Bastian considering that they’re bound by a curse put on them from the previous book. However, I found it hard to get behind this pair when they lacked even more chemistry from the previous book. The two also gave each other more drama than what was necessary, especially from Amora’s end.
Overall, I’m rating this book 1.5 out of 5 stars!
This book thoroughly disappointed me. I think that half of this book simply been squeezed into the first book, or condensed into a novella. If the author did that instead of what was given here, the plot pacing would at least make more sense and be more enjoyable book overall.
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