Jennifer Safrey

Egalley thanks to Night Shade Books
Interesting concept, but the execution is somewhat dry, and that's probably why I couldn't give this book a higher rating.

I mean, tooth fairy? How awesome is that? The evil plot of stealing children's innocence early so the teeth will get corrupted and the Fae won't gather vital for them Old Magic should have worked. The identity of the villain is pretty cool, Gemma's situation as someone who is in the spotlight as a girlfriend of a young politician adds spice to the whole thing. The training, the job, the world-building - it all should have worked.

But.

Either the story didn't gain intensity at all or lost focus too early. It's all smudged, the threads stay loose, the reality of the conflict fails to grab your attention. It just wasn't sharp enough.

I did enjoy the book, but it wasn't memorable and didn't affect me in any way unfortunately.… (mere)

TOOTH AND NAIL got off to a good start. The heroine, Gemma Fae Cross, stands out from the urban fantasy crowd – she lives in DC and she’s just quit her job as a pollster to prevent any conflicts as her live-in boyfriend Avery runs for the House of Representatives. Most urban fantasy heroines live on the far edges of respectability. Gemma hobnobs with movers and shakers at fundraisers.

She's really calm and rational about discovering that she’s a fairy, and really calm and rational about deciding to take up the fairy cause. The fairies need baby teeth. Collecting baby teeth harms nobody. She’s willing to help, sure.

Everything went so smoothly that I started to get bored. Gemma’s level-headed. Avery is a saint. The fairies are nice and kind and good, to the point where they have a sort of Stepford feel, with the sole exception of hot fairy Svein, who’s rude and abrasive.

Just as I started to get bored, all the characters in the book started to act like morons. I didn’t like that any better, so I guess there's no pleasing me.

Remember how Gemma quit her job to make sure not even the teeniest, tiniest whiff of scandal wafted toward her perfect, saintly boyfriend? QUIT HER JOB. So why on earth does she waltz right into the Watergate hotel on a tooth-nabbing job and persuade the security guard to let her through by telling him that she's on her way to visit a boyfriend? When one of the major secondary characters is a muckraking journalist with a nose for scandal?

It really bummed me out to see Gemma put Avery’s career in jeopardy. Especially considering the sacrifices she’s already made and the fact that she keeps Avery in the dark about her new identity. I might have forgiven her if it weren't for the way she lets Svein snipe right through her self-restraint. The attraction that flares between them adds insult to the injury Gemma's doing to Avery. I had precisely zero sympathy for her.

So the villain in TOOTH AND NAIL is, appropriately enough, a dentist. He’s actually pretty creepy, but his evil plot is to manufacture poisoned toothpaste. It’s a cool evil plot. It’s probably a better evil plot than most creepy villains ever come up with. But there isn’t a whole lot of room for action and mayhem when the conflict boils down to, “How can we prevent this evil dentist from selling his poisoned toothpaste?” Gemma finds a nice, neat solution to that problem and it doesn’t involve either explosions or high-speed car chases.

So even though TOOTH AND NAIL is neat in a lot of ways, it didn’t win me over. I couldn’t forgive Gemma for risking and betraying her primary relationship, and there wasn’t enough action to keep me glued to the page.

The straw the broke the camel’s back for me here might be The thing at the end with Emma’s dad. When it turned out he’d abandoned her “for her own good”? Because some dentist guy leveled some threats and that was the best plan he could come up with, just leave his wife and daughter without a word? And he kept tabs on her by talking to Smiley, which was somehow okay when sending her an email wouldn’t be? Bullshit. … (mere)