Tooth and Nail by Jennifer Safrey : Review

Tooth and Nail

by Jennifer Safrey

Expected publication: February 7th 2012 by Night Shade Books

Gemma Fae Cross, a tough-girl amateur boxer whose fiance is running for congress, has just made a startling discovery about herself. She is half faerie - and not just any faerie, but a tooth faerie! A hybrid of fae and human, Gemma is destined to defend the Olde Way and protect the fae - who are incapable of committing violence - from threats to their peaceful and idyllic way of life, which must be maintained by distilling innocence collected from children''s baby teeth. But when a threat to the fae mission emerges, Gemma is called upon to protect her heritage, and become a legendary fae warrior... even if it means sacrificing everything she knows about being human!

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My Review:

 
Gemma Fae Cross is a recently unemployed woman who boxes on her free time (her nickname is Brickhouse, because of her tall, strong, Amazonian build).

One day, during training, a beautiful woman called Frederica Diamond approaches her with a job proposal. Oh, and explains that her middle name isn't just a name. It's a family title. She is fae, or better yet, a "tooth fae". Yup. An honest-to-God tooth fairy.

Now she has to divide her time between her politician boyfriend Avery McCormack (who can't afford any kind of scandals on his campaign for the House of Representatives, like, oh, I don't know, faeries?) and the super annoyingly hot fae mentor/trainer, Svein Nilsen.

The morning fae have to collect teeth in order to extract the essence of innocence to try and recreate what they lost when the human world took over, but Gemma is a hybrid. A warrior. Full-blooded fae don't fight. They may know how and can have training and sparring matches, but the minute violence starts to take over, they have no choice but to stop. So she is the only one who can protect them from the threat that is destroying the innocence in all milk teeth and turning kids into arsonists/crazy psychos.

I thought this was a very interesting take on the tooth fairy legend. Gemma was a very strong, very violent, non-fairy looking heroine. And that's what made me like her. And Svein.... oh, my. He made me wish I could become a fae just so he could kick my ass once in a while. LOL. Avery was very sweet, too. Very romantic, even if most of the time he was too stressed about his job to notice her unusual behavior.

I liked how the author developed this triangle, and I seriously couldn't pick whose side to be on. The deliciously romantic human boyfriend, or the unnervingly yummy and tempting fae? Hum... poor Gemma.

The loss of innocence issue was very interesting, too. Not to mention scary. Really, it was a brilliant twist I didn't see coming at all. I was wondering why she was mentioning violent kids SO much and then BAM. She blows my mind. Wow. O.o

If you like urban fantasy with strong heroines, lots of mystery, boxing and yummy guys, go ahead and read it!

You can check out the first chapter here.


*I received an e-arc from the publisher by Netgalley in exchange from an honest review.*