I received this advance reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. This novel pleasantly surprised me, it was full of interesting characters and dynamic world building. Both a mystery and a magical adventure story filled with the recklessness of youth and certainty of lifelong friendships. Definitely an excellent installment in the dark academia genre, strongly recommended!

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.

Many thanks to Turn the Page Tours, the publisher, and the author for gifting me a copy of the book. Purchase link in bio, synopsis in comments!⁣⁣
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⁣⁣⁣⁣{𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒}⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
Dark academia lovers will delight in CURIOUS TIDES. With an exciting and mysterious storyline, readers will be immediately drawn in to an intricate and rich world filled with magic based off of all things lunar and the tides. With its cast of equally unique and dynamic characters, this was a hard one to put down. ⁣
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I absolutely adored the characters, particularly Baz and Emory and how they’re both sort of trying to find their places in the world once again after tragedy. The school was super unique and detailed, and I loved the mystery surrounding it and the secret societies within. Ninth House is a fantastic comparison, and CURIOUS TIDES will be sitting on my favorites shelf right alongside it. ⁣
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Bottom line — an engaging read from start to finish, and certainly one that I’m going to recommend the heck out of. All the stars to this beauty.

Emory is one of the few granted magic based on lunar sign, but her healing was always mediocre. She pushed herself so she could attend school with her gifted friend Romie, but Romie ditched her for powerful new friends. Emory followed them to a dangerous sea cave and interrupted their arcane ritual. Only Emory survived. Now her abilities are warped. She turns to two boys for help: Romie's studious, wounded brother Baz, and one of her enigmatic new friends, Keiran. Between the love triangle and the info dumping, it takes forever for the plot to get to all the juicy intrigue and dark destinies.

What a fun read this was! Five students venture into the depths of the cave and only Emory emerges. The rest are presumed dead, but Emory doesn't believe it. She believes her friend is still calling for her. Check this out if you enjoy dark academia, magic, and myths!

As a college student, Curious Tides is what I want in a dark academia fantasy set at a university. The characters are all magically gifted, gloomy, tired, and a bit stupidly foolish. There are also secret societies, myths and legends, forbidden magic, and issues of classism. Did I mention every character has their own trauma?

I liked the chapters’ alternating POVs, especially Baz’s. Emory got on my nerves because she made so, so many dumb decisions that clearly negatively affected those close to her. I’m an insecure young adult too, but I hope I would know not to act so self-interested. Baz’s chapters, then, were perfectly refreshing. He showed the more level-headed approach to processing grief and an appropriate amount of wariness and support for Emory’s endeavors. Not to mention that his love for Emory shines through in his narration, even when she’s actively pursuing the other party in her love triangle.

The basis for the magic system is unique, though the general worldbuilding structure follows the pattern of typical YA fantasies. The first half of the novel is exposition-heavy, though by the end I still felt like I was just beginning to grasp the boundaries of the magic system. At 544 pages, the novel is already rather long for a YA fantasy debut—particularly considering it’s the first in a series—so I think the language could have been more economical.

Overall, Curious Tides is an enjoyable, if formulaic, YA fantasy for dark academic lovers, and I look forward to following the author’s improvement in the next installment.

Wasn't my cup of tea but if you loved A Nature of Witches I think you'll REALLY like this one. Beautiful writing and cover, fun dark academia setting, just got a touch slow for me in the middle.

Curious Tides had so many of my favorite elements: dark academia vibes, fantasy, secret society, magic tied to nature (in particular, water- an uncommon choice which I looooooved), and dual perspectives. Great for fans of A Deadly Education as it's set in a magical boarding school.

Aldryn College for Lunar Magics is a prestigious school for magic set next to the Dovermere sea caves. When a group of students drowns at these caves, the sole survivor, Emory, is determined to find out the truth behind the incident.

When she wakes up after nearly drowning at Dovermere, Emory discovers her previously mediocre healing magic has grown to an impossible ability going beyond healing. As she tries to learn the truth behind her new powers and what led so many of her classmates to the cave that night, Emory is thrown into a secret society and teams up with an unlikely source, Baz, the brother of her best friend, Romie, who had drowned in the caves.

The perfect dark academia, fantasy read and great for fans of A Deadly Education.

Curious Tides is the YA dark academia fantasy debut by Pascale Lacelle, first in a duology set in a world where people have magic based on which phase of the moon they were born in. The level of magic any given person has varies across the population and only those who are gifted enough can attend college for further education in order to access more prestigious occupations and higher levels of society. One of our protagonists is Emory, a mediocre Healer born under the New Moon who is struggling to maintain her place at Aldryn College—but after surviving a bizarre and fatal ritual conducted in secret by some of her classmates, Emory suddenly finds herself capable of wielding impossible powers that can only come from outside her lunar house. Our other protagonist is Baz, a greatly gifted Eclipse-born student at Aldryn who restrains himself from using the magic that his kind is held in contempt for possessing and does his best to abide by the rules and be a model citizen…until Emory begs for his help in training her to control her forbidden magic in secret.

The story is told from the third-person perspective alternating between Emory and Baz, allowing the reader to gain a fuller perspective of this fantastical new world. Emory is intent on unravelling the tragedy that took place in the Dovermere sea caves which claimed the life of her best friend and it takes her down a twisty, treacherous path involving the elite popular clique of students at Aldryn and a secret society with immense power and influence whose interest in her spells danger. The struggle to harness her chaotic new powers also threatens to upend her life as Emory risks Collapsing, a cataclysmic implosion when Eclipse-born lose control of their magic and it spills out, wreaking havoc on anyone and anything nearby.

Baz knows all too well about this deadly phenomenon, having lost his father and schoolmate to Collapse, which inevitably led to their incarceration at the dreaded Institute where they are branded to prevent them accessing magic ever again and live as shadows of their former selves. From Baz, we learn more about the rampant prejudice in their society against the Eclipse-born and witness the daily injustices that people like him have to swallow down just to live their life in peace—the fear that people hold towards Eclipse-born might seem to make sense on the surface, given the possibility of their magic being unleashed uncontrollably, but it really is no different to those of other lunar houses whose magic could also be used for ill and yet they don’t face the same stigma. Where Emory’s arc is very personal as it centres around self-preservation and finding closure after losing her best friend, Baz’s arc revolves around gaining a greater understanding of what it means to Collapse and the treatment of the Eclipse-born who have been imprisoned, propelling him to take greater risks and rebel against the system that he’s never questioned before.

The world-building is phenomenal and very intuitive—it could have been overwhelming to readers faced with an intricate magical system based on five houses with multiple variations of powers in each, but basing this system on the moon phases makes it much easier for readers to parse. We’re all familiar with the new moon, waxing moon, full moon and waning moon, and the abilities tied into these phases make sense, such as lightkeepers who manipulate light belonging to House Full Moon and reapers who can take life belonging to House Waning Moon. The author also weaves in snippets from a story that Baz is obsessed with known as Song of the Drowned Gods, a renowned manuscript held in high regard that some believe may actually depict real events and could be used to reach the deities known as the Tides. Its inclusion is enigmatic and intriguing, a puzzle that the reader will linger on, and the manner in which it eventually intertwines with Baz and Emory’s path is exciting and expertly written.

Curious Tides is a lushly evocative tale that will effortlessly mesmerise readers and transport them to this prestigious but troubled college where glitz and glamour go hand-in-hand with secrets and sacrifice. Our protagonists must not only face a society that would condemn them for powers they each fear and revel in, but also find the strength to overcome loss, betrayal and figure out where they truly belong.

This was peak dark academia, I loved this book so much 😭 if you like The Atlas Six, this book is a must read!

I read this book in less than a day, my mind is still swirling with the moon phases and the tides and the amazing, amazing magic the characters had 🫠 also please the twists at the end were so well set up? I called a couple of them towards the middle of the book, and I still gasped at the way it was introduced to the plot so well.

The cliffhanger is mildly killing me, I need book two please 🥲 and I need them to have the hea, my heart is--

TWs (taken directly from the book) - death, grief, branding/ tattoos, body horror, mild panic attack, anxiety and depression, bloodletting, self-harm, alcohol, magical substance abuse, magical asylum/ prison

-- ty to the author, the publisher, Netgalley / @turnthepagetours for an advanced / gifted copy respectively!
And thanks again to @turnthepagetours for organizing a book tour!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

Curious Tides is a dark academia fantasy which follows Emory, a student at a magical academy who suddenly gets mysterious powers following the death of several of her classmates.

Curious Tides absolutely nailed the dark academia vibe! It was gloomy, there were secret societies, and the magic added the perfect touch to the fantastical world of this book. I loved the world building; everything felt rich and fully realized, which made it so easy to feel immersed while reading.

I love a good split-POV read, so Curious Tides delivering on POV chapters for both Emory and Baz was a delight. I adored getting to know them and I cannot wait to see how their story continues in the sequel!

Happy Wednesday y’all! Man, it has been a busy day- lots of work and meetings, but I’m so excited to talk to y’all about Curious Tides- today’s my stop on the Turn the Page Tours tour for Curious Tides and y’all- this was such a cool book! This book came out yesterday, so make sure you go out and grab it today!

Curious Tides 4/5 Stars

Summary from Goodreads:

Ninth House meets A Deadly Education in this gorgeously dark academia fantasy following a teen mage who must unravel the truth behind the secret society that may have been involved in her classmates’ deaths.

Emory might be a student at the prestigious Aldryn College for Lunar Magics, but her healing abilities have always been mediocre at best—until a treacherous night in the Dovermere sea caves leaves a group of her classmates dead and her as the only survivor. Now Emory is plagued by strange, impossible powers that no healer should possess.

Powers that would ruin her life if the wrong person were to discover them.

To gain control of these new abilities, Emory enlists the help of the school’s most reclusive student, Baz—a boy already well-versed in the deadly nature of darker magic, whose sister happened to be one of the drowned students and Emory’s best friend. Determined to find the truth behind the drownings and the cult-like secret society she’s convinced her classmates were involved in, Emory is faced with even more questions when the supposedly drowned students start washing ashore—alive—only for them each immediately to die horrible, magical deaths.

And Emory is not the only one seeking answers. When her new magic captures the society’s attention, she finds herself drawn into their world of privilege and power, all while wondering if the truth she’s searching for might lead her right back to Dovermere…to face the fate she was never meant to escape.

Curious Tides was such an interesting book! I really liked the academia aspects and everything being tied to stages of the moon. The different “houses” almost were super cool, and I definitely enjoyed that. Emory was a really interesting main character and I loved everything about the eclipse born- Baz and Kai were super cool and I liked their powers and the powers that Emory grows into. I’m a sucker for secret societies, so I thought the Selenic Order was great and I really liked that Emory pushed to become a part of it. The one thing to note about this book is that it’s compared to books like A Deadly Education and The Atlas Six, and while there are some similarities between the books, in those books, it’s very obvious that the characters are adults. In this book, the characters felt as though they were written a little younger than early college, and of course there’s nothing wrong with that, but if you’re going into it expecting it to feel slightly older, it doesn’t- it feels very boarding school, which again, is totally fine, and didn’t change my enjoyment of the book, but I know that kind of thing does sometimes impact other people, so I feel as though I have to mention it. Other things I enjoyed about the book was the lore spread throughout and the abundance of libraries. Your girl loves a good library. As we get further into fall, I think a book like Curious Tides is exactly what you should be picking up, so make sure you grab yourself a copy today!

TLDR review: Great world-building and magic system; chapters are long af; Baz is damaged but sweet/loveable; Emory’s an emotionally messy batch
Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle has been one of my most anticipated releases for the year. It’s a book with a magic system based on the phases of the moon. What’s there not to love about that? Coming from the standpoint of a moon-loving crystal witch, the book gives off the impression that it has been dipped in the precious moonlight and sprinkled in the light of the stars. So, imagine my excitement at being able to read this book.
Curious Tides is about a girl named Emory and a boy named Baz. They both attend Aldryn College, a university designed around helping people with special abilities further their studies and applications of their magic. In this universe, whatever moon phase a person is born under gives them special magic related to the particular phase of the moon. Emory is a healer born under the New Moon while Baz is an outlier, being born under an eclipse. Unfortunately for Baz, in this world, the religion states that the eclipse-born represent people born under the phase of the Shadow, or this world’s proverbial devil. As the belief goes, the Shadow stole magic from the Tides/Moon Phases forcing the Tides to lock him away, sacrificing themselves in the process. So, Baz, like others born under the eclipse, are treated poorly like they themselves are untrustworthy thieves.
The magic system of this world is phenomenal. The application and explanation of the moon phases translated into magic is imaginative and extremely well thought out. All while reading, you find yourself going back and forth trying to decide which phase of the moon you would like to be born under. The applications of each form of magic are almost endless. Take Baz, for example, he is a Time Spinner. He can change time around an object or person. He can even stop time in an entire room, or he can pick and choose different aspects of the room to pause, reverse, or slow down. If you have ever watched the reboot of Charmed, his power closely resembles Mel, the middle sister. Towards the end of the book, I, along with Baz, began to question where the limit of his power lies. And, that is one of the great aspects of this book, the potential for the plot feels endless as the world is built on such great magic and mythology.
The pacing of this book is where the book could use some work. The chapters are broken up into Emory and Baz’s POV. Switching Points of view works greatly for this book. However, the chapters are incredibly long and slows the pacing of the book. This book would definitely prosper from shortened chapters even if those chapters stay in the same POV. Speaking of the two main points of view, this is where this review begins to take a u-turn.
While Baz was a loveable nerd full of anxiety, wanting deep-down in his heart to do the right thing, Emory was a shallow, annoying, selfish, and self-centered hypocrite. To say that I didn’t like this character is being too nice. I hated her. There were several times throughout the book where I wanted her to eat dirt. And, this is not out of my personal point of dislike, but because of her thought processes and actions in the book. From the beginning of the book, everything is about Emory. What does Emory need? What does Emory want?
The book starts off with the reader learning of a traumatic event that happened at the end of the previous term. Basically, Emory was near ground zero of her best friend Romie’s death. She spends months during the summer dealing with this traumatic event. When she comes back to school, she’s emotionally devastated. But, you know who else is emotionally devastated? Baz is. Romie was his sister after all. Emory went through prep school with both Romie AND Baz. They grew up as friends, so Romie’s death should have been a shared experience between Emory and Baz. But is it? No, because Emory chooses to shut down and keep things to herself. I am fully aware that people grieve in their own way. However, the way that Emory grieved was by shutting herself off, not communicating with Baz, and ultimately gaslighting his feelings about Romie’s death. Emory was dead to me when the gaslighting started.
There is also an element of mystery surrounding what actually happened to Romie. This is a perfect time where Emory could open up, even just a bit, to Baz in order for them to work together to figure out what happened to someone they both loved. But, does Emory do that? No, she lies and keeps secrets from Baz. Then, she goes to the hot dude on campus and his group of friends and lays her heart bare for them. The priorities of this character are all screwed up. Grief can be used as an excuse for her smorgasbord of emotions. And, by smorgasbord, I mean she was jealous at points, she was needy, she was gullible, and she was irrationally angry. Grief can only be an excuse for so much of her actions though.
The most inexcusable thing about Emory as a character is her lack of responsibility. Throughout the book she emotionally manipulates Baz, she gaslights him, and she downplays his feelings towards her. She treats a person that she has known almost all of her life like he’s a pawn on a chessboard. And, at the end of the book when Baz finds out, she doesn’t even truly apologize. She gives this lackluster tear-filled apology. This even comes off like emotional manipulation because she uses her devastation and aftermath of the poor decisions she’s made garner sympathy while apologizing. That is not a true apology. Then, what makes it ten times worse is that Baz, being the bigger person, tries to find the silver-lining in this bottom-feeder of a person.
I usually really enjoy the chosen one trope in books, but only if that character seems worthy of the power they have been given. Emory is definitely not worthy. She does absolutely nothing to garner the abilities she’s given. She even mentions in her internal monologue about how she feels entitled to have powers and be special. This book is the first of a series, and I seriously hope she has a chance to grow in the next book because she is a nineteen year-old with the emotional intelligence of a ten year-old.
Baz had a great opportunity to grow in this book, and he did. Was it a steady upward line of growth? No, but he kept giving it a shot all the same. His adventure in this book is the one I am most interested in. I am also looking forward to the development and adventure of other side characters like Kai and Jae. I'm also looking forward to Baz’s developing relationship with his father. Emory can go take a long walk off a short plank.
This book was a series of ups and downs for me. I both liked and didn’t like a lot of things while reading it. I’m looking forward to the next book though.

This novel is based on astrology, and yet, it isn't - at least, not the astrology that is commonly known. There is magic in this world, based on the date and time of a person's birth, determined by the exact phase of the moon. The only exception is those born during an eclipse, whether solar or lunar; the powers held by such people are of a class a part, and much more likely than others to Collapse - to lose total control over their abilities in a cataclysmic fashion, for which the rest of the populace fears them.

Emory is a Healer, born under the new moon, at Aldryn to study advanced magics in her field. But something horrible happened at Aldryn the year before, in the cave of Dovermere, and Emory's best friend, Romie, along with seven other students, died. In returning to Aldryn, Emory hopes to find answers, and, hopefully, in time, closure. The answers she seeks are there, but they are unlike anything she could have expected. This is a sweeping tale of exploration into one's self and one's abilities, of finding that the limitations always presented as fact are, in reality, a fiction created by those who would control people stronger than themselves, to take advantage of that power in place of its rightful wielders. The answers that Emory finds are totally unexpected, and yet, as the novel unfolds, appear inevitable, in the way that only truly well-woven stories can do. I can only hope that there will be a sequel, and that it will at least approach the same quality that this volume has exhibited. Recommended for middle school to adult.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A very atmospheric and witchy story just in time for the autumn spooky months.

This story isn’t fast paced. You’re brought into the fold steadily - piecing together bits of what has happened and the way of this world with the characters. The magic system is quite unique and I appreciate the focus on the details of how it works without just info-dumping and hoping for the best. This can sometimes cause the book to feel sluggish but for what is to be a series the pacing feels right.

The pacing of the characters relationships is so very well done. Connections are built at a realistic rate which for the reader is really helpful because even if you can tell one (or more) characters aren’t who they are leading people to believe - you still get wrapped into those relationships. It helps the reader become invested in the characters and all the twists and turns the story takes.

Overall I enjoyed this. While I typically prefer something faster paced it fit this story well. The amount of romance was just right for what this entry into the series was trying to convey. I’m excited to see where it goes from here.

Curious Tides is a dreamy, moody tale perfect for this autumn. While I came for the lunar magic (which I practice myself), I stayed for the gorgeous world and characters built by the author. I did find myself losing steam about a third of the way through, but that’s just me. I think this series has a big future ahead of it!

A big thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I came for the moon magic, quickly left for the dark academia.

Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle is a YA fantasy novel that follows the life of Emory, who is a student at the prestigious Aldryn College for Lunar Magics, but her healing abilities have always been mediocre at best—until a treacherous night in the Dovermere sea caves leaves a group of her classmates dead and her as the only survivor. Now Emory is plagued by strange, impossible powers that no healer should possess. Powers that would ruin her life if the wrong person were to discover them. To gain control of these new abilities, Emory enlists the help of the school’s most reclusive student, Baz—a boy already well-versed in the deadly nature of darker magic, whose sister happened to be one of the drowned students and Emory’s best friend. Determined to find the truth behind the drownings and the cult-like secret society she’s convinced her classmates were involved in, Emory is faced with even more questions when the supposedly drowned students start washing ashore—alive—only for them each immediately to die horrible, magical deaths. And Emory is not the only one seeking answers. When her new magic captures the society’s attention, she finds herself drawn into their world of privilege and power, all while wondering if the truth she’s searching for might lead her right back to Dovermere…to face the fate she was never meant to escape.

I REALLY wanted to love this book, with it's unique magic system. But I often found myself skimming through most of it due to it's dark academic nature. Which, I often love. But found to be too annoying for a book like this . I jsut wish this cool magic system got to live in a world where it could have been explored more. But overall, it was a decent read that went on a little too long for my liking.

I was promised Ninth House meeting Deadly Education. I vehemently dislike both of those books. Yet by the sheer will of the book goods, I was given a chance to review an ARC of Curious Tides. I think that this promise hurts the book. It was so much better than those two dark academia positions.

I will encourage you to swipe and reed publisher description, so I can jump straight away to describe for you why I like this book so much. It has all the elements of good storytelling we all saw before. The academia settings, four houses, prejudice towards one of them, the murder of students and secret that higher authorities and secret societies want to cover up. And students who want to solve this for any price necessary. All the situations and twist are familiar yet combined create something I've read with absolute pleasure. There is no flowery prose but simple description of the complicated magic system. Of course, along the way I wanted to know more. Why this and why that. I didn't understand the unlogical behavior of characters. And that challenge itself was pleasant. Another thing was the dynamics between the characters, somewhat "I saw this before" and still the author made it a little bit raw and fresh at the same time. Those people are not perfect, and it made me like them all the more.

Despite some mistakes and plot holes, I truly enjoyed the book so much, so I already purchased the special Barnes & Noble edition and I encourage anyone to get to know Emory and Baz as well as this unique world where magic comes from the Moon.

Readers who love dense world building and unique magic systems will fall for this unique and lush tale.

Curious Tides took me a little by surprise! It isn't often that you see such complexity and thought poured into world created by a debut author. Lacelle has offered readers something they can really lose themselves in. The style of writing feels moody and melancholy, a style that lends it's self so well to the dark academia setting.The characters felt complex and human giving readers the ability to really feel stakes in their decisions and obstacles.

This is most definitely a series and author to watch!

"Curious Tides" by Pascale Lacelle is a captivating dark academia fantasy that combines elements of magic, mystery, and intrigue to create an enthralling reading experience.

The story follows Emory, a student at Aldryn College for Lunar Magics, whose healing abilities suddenly become much more potent after a tragic event that claims the lives of some of her classmates. The newfound powers are both a blessing and a curse, as they come with dark consequences. To understand and control these abilities, Emory seeks the help of Baz, a reclusive fellow student with knowledge of darker magic. Together, they embark on a quest to uncover the truth behind the deaths of their classmates and the existence of a secretive and sinister society.

Lacelle masterfully builds a world of magic, secrets, and privilege within the confines of Aldryn College. The atmosphere is rich with dark academia vibes, and the author's prose brings the setting to life with vivid descriptions and a sense of foreboding. The characters, especially Emory and Baz, are well-developed and undergo significant growth throughout the story.

The plot is filled with twists and turns, keeping readers on the edge of their seats as they try to unravel the mysteries surrounding the deaths and the enigmatic society. The incorporation of magic and the consequences of wielding it adds depth and complexity to the narrative, making it stand out in the crowded young adult fantasy genre.

"Curious Tides" explores themes of power, privilege, friendship, and the consequences of one's actions. It offers a fresh take on the dark academia subgenre and will appeal to readers who enjoy stories that blend magic and mystery. Pascale Lacelle has crafted a compelling and immersive fantasy novel that will leave readers eagerly anticipating her future works.