I had very high hopes for this book, but unfortunately it fell just a little short of my expectations.
The Dark Tide reminded me a lot of The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw, which I really liked. However, The Dark Tide is much darker, and set in a fantasy world.
The main problem I had with this book was that there was very little world-building. I didn't feel like I knew very much about the world beyond Caldella, or even Caldella itself. The magic system wasn't very well fleshed out; I don't really have an idea of how magic works in this world.
And while I loved Lina and Eva (especially Eva), I didn't feel like I knew much about either of them. For example, Eva is the Witch Queen who lives in the Water Palace, but I don't really know how she came to be there, or how her sister became the queen before her, or even how old she is. As for Lina, I know she likes dancing and has a flair for the dramatic, but I don't know much about her family or her life before the beginning of The Dark Tide.
A lot of this book was just witty dialogue between the characters, which I did enjoy, but I wished there had been a bit more background so that I could've had a better understanding of the characters and Caldella.
However, I did enjoy this book quite a bit, especially Eva's entire personality, and the beautiful descriptions of Caldella and the Water Palace. I'll definitely be picking up the next book in the series!

I absolutely love dark books and this one delivered! It is up there with my top 5 reads of the year so far! Pick this one up and I promise you won't be disappointed!

I enjoyed this book so much! It's a fast-paced fantasy Sapphic story about a girl trying to save her brother but accidentally putting the boy she loves in danger, only to trade her life for his. What a tragically romantic story that Lina would love! Even though there is romance in the story, it's not a very centric part of the story. It's a book about finding yourself and what you would really do for the ones you love. It's about wanting to make a difference and that even if you have all the best intentions, that's not really all there is to it.

I liked Lina's character because even though she loves fiercely and would do anything for the ones she loves, she's still a kid with limited resources that is bound to make mistakes but she always tries to correct them.

Eva's character is a bad ass that can't understand why people would sacrifice themselves for the ones they love. She lost her sister to the very thing that rules her queendom and she can't stand it. She's not a powerful queen but she's learning.

Their relationship is sweet and filled with a lot of confusion and this is just the beginning.
I also want to celebrate the amazing sibling relationship in this book, it was very sweet to see them care for each other and have their issues but still try to fix them. It was a fierce thing and they would give their lives for the other in a heartbeat.

Really recommend this book!

Hold up. Wait a minute. THIS IS ACTUALLY AMAZING.

This is hands down one of the best fairy tale retellings I have ever read. I did not have high expectations at all, but this story hooked me right from the start.

Let me give you the simplistic baseline plot. It's a dark fairytale retelling about 2 girls who have to decide if they should save the sinking city that the live in. That's right! We have a city that is sinking beneath treacherous waves and in order to combatant that and slow the process down is a ritual where a local boy has to be sacrificed to the sea. Oh, that's not all! TRUST ME. We have a girl who tries to save her crush from the witch but inevitable falls for the witch!

If that's not a auto-buy, I don't know what it.

I adored the atmospheric setting, the flawed characters, the representation, and how dark the curse was. Of course, there are the characters, too, who are so lovable despite being ridiculously flawed (or because of that, maybe, because they all feel so complex and multidimensional!).Seriously, though, I just don’t have anything negative to say about this gorgeous fantasy novel. Between the writing, characters, story, rep—it’s the whole package. I’d recommend this to any fans of fantasy stories, especially if you enjoy retellings and/or high/low fantasy crossovers!

I really liked the atmospheric feel of the book with a very lyrical and poetic writing style. Every relationships were interesting and well done. I thought there was a little bit of pacing issues but enjoyed the worldbuilding, I loved knowing more and more about it. Great read!

The tale of a sinking city and a tide that demands a sacrifice. This book quite literally pulled me under. The hero x villain dynamic was SO satisfying to me. Part of me thinks this book would have worked as a standalone but a much bigger part of me doesn't want this to be the end of Eva & Lina's story, so I'm glad that it's not. I truly truly loved this book and how it pulled on my thoughts and made me ask myself questions about standard "fairy tale" stories.

I absolutely love this cover! I thought that it worked well with the book. But the story didn’t hit the right points for me. I didn’t DNF it which is a definite positive but I can’t say I recommend it either.

3.5 stars
I was a bit disappointed because I had way too high expectations but don't let this stop you from picking this book up. I had a great time and I think it was a very clever concept. Plus a "villain" as the love interest is everything we could have asked for.

Actual rating is a 3.5.

THE DARK TIDE is easily the most evocative book I've read in quite a while. I'm a huge fan of books where the setting feels like another character in the story, which is something THE DARK TIDE does quite well. The slowly-flooding city of Caldella and the crumbling palace the city's witches live in both felt incredibly real. There's so much rich lore built into this world and it added so much to the story.

One thing I found really interesting was that lots of other reviewers are describing THE DARK TIDE as a dark fairytale with a romance. Despite the premise of the book, I was surprised to discover that the romance actually plays such a small part in the story. There's definitely a hint of romance between Eva and Lina (and I definitely do ship them together) but the story is a lot more about the two main characters' personal growth than a romantic relationship. It looks like this is the first book in a series so I'm definitely curious to see if there will be more romance in later books.

I really loved the premise and setting ofTHE DARK TIDE. At times, I was a little bored with the plot (probably due to a mismatch of expectations vs. reality on the romance front). Overall, I enjoyed THE DARK TIDE and definitely plan on reading the sequel.

The spark that ignites in the first few pages continues through the story and the reader gets taken along a familiar but engaging fairy tale, with romantic twists and turns throughout the magic.

I really enjoyed the characters in this novel as well as the author's approach to gender fluidity in many character. Lina is strong and impulsive but also loving and protective. It was a love story that wasn't. The Dark Tide was an easy read, but I also felt like there were times when details had been glossed over and I really wish it hadn't felt so rushed. I liked the author's voice and her wordind but found myself adrift several times.

This was a nice read! The story was engaging all the way through and kept me flipping the pages no matter what. The characters were a little bland, but overall quite likable. It didn't stick out much to me, but I still cared enough to finish it. I would definitely pick up more by this author in the future!

I was intrigued by the premise of this book, but ultimately it fell a little flat for me because I wanted more detailed world-building and complex character development. I would recommend it for fans of THORN by Anna Burke.

I was expecting a lot from this book (definitely one of my more hyped debuts of 2020), and it honestly met all those expectations.

The writing, while not quite up there with my favorites, was just lyrical enough to carry the fairytale/myth style of this story well. It was also still practical and simple enough to generally understand what was going on, even in fight/action scenes. It definitely, when combined with the story itself, made some scenes hit quite hard, and I loved the style it gave to the book as a whole.

The setting/island is also wonderful, and there's so much left still in this world to discover. The dynamic of witches and normal residents of the island was interesting, as both seemed to need the other while not actually liking the other all that much. The way the mainland existed in the story as well left a lot to be explained while still providing a strong reason for all these people staying on an island intent to drown them, meaning there weren't that many holes for the world building. Additionally, the magic system was also fascinating while also just making sense. There wasn't just one way of using magic, and instead the methods were a mix of all the cultures that had fled to the island (almost like a shared language can come out of many groups being forced together, there were still distinct traits from each original magic tradition but it all started to blend together well).

I also just loved the characters/romance/relationships in this novel. All felt full and intriguing, whether it be familial or romantic. The main focus was on Eva and Lina, of course, and while I loved where their paths led them and how they dealt with each other, the dynamic between Eva and Marcin or Natalia as well as between Lina and Finley were deep too. It wasn't just a flat sibling or friend relationship, all of them had variation. Lina didn't purely love Finley, her brother, or hate him, but almost both at the same time, and it felt authentic and reminiscent of real life frustrations and emotions with siblings. The same can be said of Eva and her relationship to her (now dead) sister Eva, and her long time friend Marcin. All of this just strengthened the overall story, as it is these relationships that motivate the characters.

All in all, definitely put this book on your tbr and preorder it! It hits all the boxes: witches, f/f romance, strong sibling relationships, etc.!

The Dark Tide is one of those books that you get lost in and you find that you stayed up all night to finish it. I love how you had the point of view of Lina and Eva it really connected you to each character.

I really loved the writing and story of this one! Wonderful dialogue and world building. The one thing I didn’t like was the romance. It was strange that this girl went through going to save this boy she loved from the sea witch but then her emotions flip around so quickly. I think it would’ve worked better if maybe a brother or friend had gotten kidnapped so it wouldn’t seem like the lead character was fickle with her emotions. However, I really liked the ending on this one!

Not for nothing, I would read this book again for the cover alone. I wonder, however, if that would be the only reason.

**3.5**

For a book about drowning it’s not lost on me that all I wanted was for it to slow down and have more time to breathe.

“The Dark Tide” sees a city sinking beneath the waves slowed only by a ritual which calls on a local boy to be stolen by the Queen and sacrificed to the sea but this year Lina refuses to lose the boy she loves and bargains her life for his and is desperate to save her city and her life before it’s too late.

This book starts strong it has this great dynamic set up between the siblings and throws you into the middle of this tradition that sees the townsfolk willingly attending a revel and playing with magic despite the risk of being chose by the witch queen and I loved every second. The entire atmosphere was filled with chaos and illusion that threw me into the book so fast I couldn’t stop only to realize that was the set pace for the novel and made myself put it down because I could no longer keep up.

This book tries to do a lot and though it may be mentioned I can’t recall how long Lina was to stay with the queen before the sacrifice and though part of me wants to say a month the way the plot was presented makes it feel like a few days if not hours which made it harder for me to buy into the changes in the dynamic between Eva and Lina. there is so much here from Eva’s history and the tragedy of her sister and the bitter hatred she has for Thomas and ultimately Lina when she takes his place and the pull for Lina to find a way out without betraying her homeland was everything I wanted and I never felt like we had the time to explore it all.

Changes were made quickly and the plot shuffled forward without so much as glance back that I had a hard time keeping track of those in Eva’s circle and their importance to her that when it was time for the climax it didn’t have any sort of emotional weight that I felt it was supposed to to the point that I thought it was going to go in a completely different direction, which arguably it did but without spoilers it’s hard to comment on why that seemed out of place rather than perfectly placed foreshadowing as I expect it was meant to.

This one is kind of a bummer honestly because I feel like it had everything I so desperately wanted to love but instead it knew it had to get from point A to point B without the freedom to explore the journey which would have made their entire relationship and dynamic hit differently.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**

We finally have a Beauty and Beast retelling that is f/f!! I. Loved this, both of the characters are great and the cover is so pretty!