Chained to an enemy general. Determined to be free.After years in seclusion and training, eighteen-year-old Tylira Nyota is summoned by the High Tazmin to be chained to a fallen enemy general. She is a terrible choice to receive this honor – her magic is useless and she finds it impossible to fit in the world she was born to. Determined to keep her freedom, Tylira instead joins the legendary race … instead joins the legendary race for the fabled Teeth of the Gods. With an angry step-mother chasing her and the handsome general chained to her wrist, Tylira must learn to control her magic – which is turning out to be deadly – before it destroys everything she’s fought to gain.
TEETH OF THE GODS is Wheel of Time meets Sarah J. Maas in a mind-bending epic fantasy adventure of freedom, magic, love and a princess’s quest to live life on her own terms.
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Tylira is a Tazmina, the ninth daughter of the ruler. At age eighteen, Tylira is spoiled, impulsive, and self-centered. She justifies her impulses as her search for freedom and independence. Because of her status, Tylira is guarded by a troop, led by Talika, and Tylira owns an elephant named Alsoon, with whom she can communicate telepathically. Tylira also can use her heartstone to enter the RaAshara where she can learn from her ancestors. All of this is background knoledge for the plot in which Tylira is tethered to her enemy Rusk Hawkwing before they go in search of the treasure called the Teeth of the Gods. The story was mesmerizing until the final few chapters when the plot took a direction that I’d never have predected, and that I thought weakened the book.
*I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
Veronica is one of my favorite voice actors. She slips into the characters and their rules with ease. We can hear the emotion of each individual as she puts voice to their thoughts, words, and actions. She uses different tones, accents, and personality to differentiate each character for us. I feel this is a blessing when listening to audiobooks. Veronica has brought the characters to life for us.
I’m taken with the world. There was a lot of thought and creation in this world and culture of the people. From their dress to their land. From their beliefs to their magic system. The relation to other lands after a ruler defeats them. It’s all so well drawn out. The best part is we see all of this through details of what Tylira is living through. It’s all conveyed through events, which makes the story rich and full.
Tylira is an interesting character. She hasn’t connected with The Common as others have. She doesn’t know why. When she starts to connect it’s because of the cruel nature of discipline inflicted on her by her fathers high consort to find it. Tylira wants more in life than sitting in the Silken Gardens. Tylira finds her way to a new city with a summons from her father, High Tazmina, in order to be bonded with another that can teach her new things. She finds more than she expected, along with a strong determination to join the Hunt for the Teeth of the Gods.
Tylira is a bit young, more naive. She’s lived at the Silken Gardens with her half sisters and trained her whole life thus far, she’s eighteen. She’s not kissed a boy yet and has many things she wants to do, like seeing the world. Tylira sees her chance to experience many things and takes it. Though, she’s stubborn in taking advice. She’s struggling with her “magic” and she refuses to listen to a few things that could help her. This is something I think comes from the way she is raised, alone in the Silken Gardens, and treatment from others since her mother is said to be The Tazmin’s least favorite wife. She is determined to be independent and free, though at times I would like to shack her to get her to listen. lol. I can see her being a character that readers could get frustrated with because of her decisions.
I like Amadera. I have mixed feelings of her as the book goes. I didn’t like her at first. She’s the High Tazmina’s High Consort and acts all mighty. Even what she does to Tylira to get her to connect to the Common. Grrr. But, there is something more to Amadera, or so I think I see flashes of. Maybe Amadera thinks she’s really helping Tylira and making her a stronger person for what may come in the future for Tylira.
The magic in this book is something I liked. They use heart stones to show when they have made a connection to The Common, and it shows clear with their color and power. I found I was attracted to the meditation spirit area that Tylira goes to speak to her ancestors. I looked forward to the moments when visiting these deceased ancestors. There is one ancestor that is a bit strange but interesting – An’alepp. She’s an old woman who’s a bit crazy. I kept trying to place the influence in the culture and world to something in our world. I just keep getting drawn into what’s created here and love it.
There is a growing romance here. I like this kind of romance, when two people are thrown together and very individually strong. They work at a friendship first, then the rest follows. But they have to get through “other” things in their lives before they can trust and like each other.
Coming to the end of the book, it took a turn I hadn’t expected. As much as I enjoyed the story, world, and character interaction, I found I was really sparked by this surprise. I thought back, thinking on what we learned through the book and where we ended up. There were hints given as we came here, not as much in the beginning but more so the closer we got. Very cool!
I thoroughly enjoyed this story for all the aspects and the turn at the end. I am ready to ride along with Tylira on her next adventure. I’m curious to see what comes and if she can learn what she must.
I received a free copy of Teeth of Gods in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoyed this book. What brought me in at first was the fact that Tylira has an elephant for a pet. But, honestly, who would not want to go on an adventure with their elephant and a mysterious man with honey-brown eyes. Action and adventure with just enough smouldering from a honey-brown eyed rougue, will keep you reading and wanting book two.
Tylira is one of the daughters of the High Tazmin and found out her mother was killed. Tylira’s heartstone is foggy and so is her view of the future. Wanting to be free is her dream, but her destiny is to save the world. Amandera, the wife of the High Tazmin, is set on unlocking Tylira’s powers even if it it ends in death. For Tylira to come of age and be taken seriously, she has to be tied to a failed general to learn how to be more mature and patient. With only an 8 foot chain between them, how can she finally be free?
While this story had some very unique plots some of the character development had me worried. I personally did not like how the princess had to be abused in order to access the power, and then was treated like she was nothing when she was not grateful. I do not recall the book actually stating the main characters age, if it did it was only in passing. This made me believe that she is still very young as her maturity level was really low, and she was quite selfish at times. Towards the end things started to wind up with more action and suspense with an ending that was not expected.
I find this review difficult. I loved the book, but at the same time it feels somehow lacking and I’m not sure why. I looked through the Amazon reviews to see what people complain about and… well, most of them are just wrong. So I think it’s just that the author didn’t manage to make me feel invested in the characters and the world.
The characters are well developed. The main char is likeable enough, albeit a bit childish. The worldbuilding is good. Not great, but good. The world itself is great but most of it is left unexplained and the parts that are explained aren’t given any real detail. But it’s interesting anyway, what starts as a pure fantasy story with magic turns out to be more SF when it’s revealed that the “magic” comes from artifacts created by long dead ancestors with amazing technology. It’s a fun twist in Clarke’s aphorism that “sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”.
I think the author needs more time and a more critical editing team before she becomes someone whose books I will look forward to, but this is still an amazing tale. I “bought” this when the author ran a free promotion a while back but if I had paid full price I wouldn’t be complaining. I will be buying the sequel, though I’m not sure about the rest after that.
I can recommend this to people who like mixed genre SF with a mostly even mix of action and character with a bit of an “old school” feel. It’s billed as YA but I’m not sure I agree (the morality of the world is more complicated than YA ought to be). It’s also kind of a “princess romance” but not really. Not my kinda thing but if you’re into that…
Overall, a good solid book that I would read again (and possibly will).
The ending was unexpected….a good thing and liked the characters.
Had promise but the sci-fi twist was disappointing.
It was a good read, but it ended leaving you hanging
Interesting plot. Original storyline. Enjoyed the book
I mostly enjoyed this book. The premise of the story was good, though the execution was somewhat lacking. One of my biggest issues with the book was the immaturity of the main character, Tylira. I understand that this is YA, but it became very annoying after a while. Especially when she refused to accept input from someone who had been proved correct several times, and who was there specifically to advise her. Also, there were several interesting elements introduced which just seemed to fall off the table. I think basically the author had too many balls in the air, and some ended up falling due to lack of attention. Bottom line – I did enjoy this book enough to finish it, but not enough to buy the next two in the series.
This book had some good characters. The lead was a really slow learner resulting in the death of many secondary characters. It felt like the author needed to kill off many of the entourage to get them out of the way for later scenes. It felt like a good story expanded into enough pages for a free book. I am glad I read it also glad I didn’t have to pay for it…
A good read!
I read 100 pages and liked the story line but the main character acted like a spoiled teenage brat. I could tolerate her antics anymore and quit the read.
This book is a young adult sci-fi book with a different premise. A young woman is raised in a sheltered environment, with no regard for anyone, except for her mother, who has recently died. She longs for her freedom and sets out to fulfill this dream while on her way to her father’s palace to find out what her station in life will be. She accepts a challenge that comes only once every seven years and the ensuring adventures for this quest takes turns that she can’t foresee.