This dark academia folklore rivals to lovers book seemed like something I would love .However, I ended up DNFing this one . I was unable to connect with the characters and they were very immature. The vibes and atmosphere hit the mark and Saft writes well but for me, it’s all about the characters and this one just fell flat for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC.

Very atmospheric the vibes of this book is perfect for the fall season. I don’t think the authors writing is for me. DNFing for now

Many thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine for providing me with an eARC of A Dark and Drowning Tide in exchange for my honest review!

As far as sapphic fantasy romance novels go, I get some charm out of this choice, although it doesn't stand out to me as much as I'd like it to. The tension between Lorelei and Sylvia creates a compelling element that helps me ride with their rivals-to-lovers dynamic. But it seems like the emotions of their relationship should hit me on a deeper level, and they just don't reach that point. I also don't find the worldbuilding for Brunnestaad to be all that memorable compared to all the other fantasy landscapes I've explored in books. All in all, I wish I could have a stronger and more positive opinion on A Dark and Drowning Tide, but I'm still glad I gave it a try, and the cover is certainly gorgeous. I'm officially rating the book three out of five stars.

3.25 star, 0.75 spice one fade to black

Thank you to Delrey and NetGalley for the e-arc and Penguin Random house Audio for the ALC

ADADT was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and… I am unfortunately disappointed. From what I saw this was advertised as a lush fantasy and sapphic romance. Though technically we got those things, it was not the focus.

What I liked;
- There is not doubt that Allison Saft writes beautiful, vivid environments. I transported to all of these different places and had no trouble at all visualizing them.

<i>the sun succeeded in burning away the mist. The landscape had transformed from the dismal marshes that stretched over the central empire to mountain ranges that scraped the bellies of the clouds. They were tall and jagged as a dragon’s spine, as if one had folded up its wings and laid down its head to rest.</i>

- The integration of folklore was very interesting. Lorelei regularly references different tales for a myriad of reasons; to understand the other characters, to support her own self hatred and to find reasons why she won’t get what she wants to be happy, and to use as guides when searching for the Ursprung.

<i> Back in the days when wishes still held power…</i>

- Saft did a good job integrating her Jewish heritage into Lorelei. The framework of the story heavily relies on the injustices, prejudices and persecution of the Yevanisch people. We see real examples of what was done to the Jewish community (and others) leading into WW2. As well as references to whether or not different food would be considered Kosher, and mentions of how Jewish people “Yevani” respect and handle someone who has passed.
- *As there is currently a very real genocide happening right now, I do want to note that Saft has been a vocal supporter of Palestinians.


What I did not like:
- There was just something completely missing on the character side. I had trouble differentiating and visualizing any of the secondary characters. I even went back and relistened to the entire book and only caught one sentence description of Ludwig and of one of the women. The idea that all these side characters were best friends was strange. It felt like there was a whole history there, that we never really learn or understand.

- Transitioning between scenes I was lost. This may be an audiobook issue, but we would be in the middle of a conversation and I was confused at to when we went from the boat to the forest. Once I was in one environment I could easily visualize it, but there was a lack of separation or description when switching scenes.

- Lorelei’s self hatred and doubt became a turn off. I felt she had internalized some of the antisemistism, to the point where she was almost wholly unlikeable as a character.

- The romance.. What romance? I don’t even think this constitutes as slow burn. Because though the ‘romance’ was super later in the book, there was pretty much no transition between Rivals to Lovers. It truly came out of nowhere. Being that this was so heavily marketed as a sapphic romance I did not expect (are wish) for it to be an extremely slow burn subplot.

- Depth to the main characters. There were moments when we saw flashes of Lorelei’s trauma and I felt something for her. We needed more explanation on her trauma around death. For Sylvia, I don’t feel like I ever figured out what her trauma was from? Lorelei learns her life isn’t as perfect and easy as she thought, but I honestly couldn’t tell you much about Sylvia apart from her hair and her caring for the fantastical creatures.

- Along with the main character depth, I needed more for me to care about the death of their Mentor. I needed to see how Lorelei especially was shaped by her. The death had no impact.

- The murder mystery plot line was wayyyy too much of this book. It felt half baked. Every time someone was a suspect it was based on basically nothing. It read very YA to me.

- In the end it felt a bit pro-colonialism? I just don’t feel assured that getting the approval of your oppressor is going to be the best way to help your people? But maybe there will be another book to sort that out?

- And back to the issues around the Marketing, I also was expecting this to be a high medieval style Fantasy. It absolutely is not, and I did not realize that till halfway through when it was mentioned the boat had smokestacks. It’s more like either late 1800s, early 1900s in terms of the cities and tech, and then they travel via steamboat to these more fantastical places. If you decide to read this, hopefully going in knowing that will help you get settled into the story faster.

If it weren’t for the beautifully lucious writing around the world and fantasy creatures this would have been a total bust for me. Bummer.

The writing of this book was amazing. It was elegant and enticing and draws the reader in and keeps them engaged, wanting more! The world building was a little confusing initially but everything was described in great detail. The romance was kind of intense ina short period of time, I wish it had been a bit more gradual and sometimes it was hard to feel connected to them and their feelings.

This was my first time reading from Allison Saft and it did not disappoint in the slightest. This was such a good time. Saft's writing style was so rich and tangible it made reading this book so much more enjoyable. The writing style also lends this book to being super enjoyable upon re-read as well. This was like a gothic, dark academia, murder mystery, fantasy with a slight sapphic romance, and I ate it up. This book checks off every single box for me in terms of things I look for when picking up a book. I can absolutely see myself recommending this to a lot of different types of readers since it mashes up so many different genres/sub-genres. Now I'm going to go back and pick up Saft's YA work because this was so good.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of a sapphic academic rivals to lovers felt too good to be true and, for me at least, it looks like it was.

Lorelei is our narrator throughout the book. An outcast in an already established group of characters is not very fun or insightful when the MC refuses to make any effort. She was pretty insufferable through and through. I liked her perspective as an outsider as it related to her nationality but personality wise, it really didn’t do the story any favors.

The writing was decent but the plot and worldbuilding felt very messy. I think dual POV would have been the better choice here, for me at least. Sylvia could’ve filled the gaps.

Overall, not for me. I think Saft’s A Fragile Enchantment was a better book if you want to give her a shot.

As my first Allison Saft novel, I was super excited to be entranced by a new author. Her writing style was easy to follow and we got the sapphic gothic vibe right from the jump! The slow burn romance was my favorite part and the story of Lorelei and Sylvie was brought through a beautifully written, forbidden love lense.
My only issue is that I ended up not being excited for the story unless both main female characters were on the page. The rest of the characters didn’t appeal to me so some of their conversations were lacking.
Otherwise, I can’t wait to read more of Saft’s backlog and get a better feel for her books.

This book kept me hooked from the start. Definitely brooding and dark academia. Overall a great read!

Lorelei and Sylvia are the top students of their mentor in school. So it is no surprise when they are both chosen to accompany a well known group on their next expedition, at the behest of the King. However, Lorelei and Sylvia have been "competitors" their whole life, trying to out-do the other in the their studies. As the expedition begins Lorelei is left feeling out of place in comparison to the other expedition members coming from well-to-do families, while she was raised impoverished and an "outcast" in their city. So when the leader, Lorelei's mentor is murdered on the expedition, her role changes drastically, and her safety becomes questioned. She then finds that the only one she could possibly trust is her "enemy" Sylvia.

I really enjoyed this novel, and this it could be a good beginning to what could be its own "universe". The story was well-constructed, and although I believe there could have been some more details and backstory included, it read well, and kept my interest the whole time. I liked the mix of adventure as well and the "romance" and LGBTQ discussions.

I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys the romantasy world, but is okay with the less spicy of the books, and the more adventure heavy reads.

A dark academia, sapphic, murder mystery with vibes similar to Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries???? Sign me up ASAP! A Dark and Drowning Tide has lots of different elements that are perfectly woven together. It explores betrayal by those closest to you, what people will do in the name of heroism, and how greed can corrupt. I thought I knew the twist in the murder mystery, but I didn't! I was pleasantly surprised that my theory was incorrect. I found Lorelei and Sylvia's relationship very intriguing because of its slow burn (if you're a 'a hate her, but actually, maybe I like her and I've mistaken rivalry for pining, oh my god what do I do now?!' girlie, this one's for you).

Thank you for giving me the chance to review this Arc!

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this book. I got 16% (4 chapters) of the way through, maybe I was a little rash in this decision, but I at least expected something to jump out at me and grab my attention. For the main plot being set on a great expedition searching for a spring with untold magic and solving a murder; I expected something a little more fast paced. Nothing happened and it couldn't keep me interested even though I knew that the murder was coming up! I c0udn't even stand the extra side characters; they were just introduced by the King, and they had a small expedition group meeting on the boat, and I just found them all annoying. If it was more fast paced, I might have overlooked it, but the writing is slow and not my cup of tea. I did not like Lorelei from the beginning, she seemed angsty and mean to herself and all those around her. No wonder why no one likes her; even if the root part of everyone's animosity was because Lorelei was from an undesirable part of town who were not openly welcome by the King or community. If she was nice-ish maybe her colleagues would at least respect her.

Sylvia seems off. She's hiding something I know it and trying desperately to throw everyone off her scent. Especially Lorelei, since it's easy to distract her since she's so self-absorbed by hatred toward herself and others. That's just my theory, it seems odd to make two unlikeable main characters right off the bat.

I might give this another shot. I loved the premise and the summary had me WANTING to love this. I already took a huge step back from this (I had this Arc since April I believe) and I couldn't force myself to pick it back up. Probably going to wait for more reviews and reevaluate next year.

I loved the story, the vibe, the characters. However, once the romance kicked into gear, I lost some of my interest. I didn't buy Lorelei and Sylvia together. The romance didn't seem to have much basis outside of attraction. I kind of wish books had more guts to deal with solely physical attraction vs making it an all consuming love when there isn't a solid basis for that. I also found the weaving of the Jewish metaphor to be a little clunky. Conceptually, muah chef's kiss. But I think if you're going to have a fantasy Jewish population and give them a fantasy Jewish name, etc. it needs to be consistent. Lorelei was Yevani but then everything about Yevani culture is referred to with Jewish terms. Just call them Jewish. You're not doing a metaphor anymore. Felt like a misstep in the worldbuilding.

This book wasn't quite it. I adored Lorelei but I don't think A Dark and Drowning Tide did her story justice. This book was marketed as dark academia, a fantasy murder mystery with sapphic enemies to lovers. This book gives us all of that, but, at the same time, I also felt like none of it was done as well as I'd hoped for.

We were given an atmospheric, moody dark setting, which I enjoyed. We were also given a fantasy world, but I wanted more focus on world building. I enjoyed the heavy focus on water as a source of power, but I wanted to learn more about the magical critters and the limits and reaches of the world's magic.

Our main plot follows the characters on an expedition to find a magical body of water, but that felt slow. And the murder mystery investigation and interrogation of characters was kind of boring. I wanted more action! It wasn't until the second half where I felt things took off. Including the sapphic enemies to lovers romance.

Ultimately, this book fell short for me. But if you like fantasy and you're okay with more of a focus on atmosphere and less on world building and plot (and you love a grumpy, sapphic academic (don't we all?)), this one is still worth a try. Maybe just read it on a moody grey day to really let yourself get lost in it. :)

this was very enjoyable! it was a lot going on in the book and i just wish it was paced a bit better but other than that i liked it!

Dark academia rivals -to-lovers sapphic romance full of folklore, pining, self loathing, a wild cast of characters, and a dash of whodunnit. With major themes of antisemitism and war, nationalism and unification, this book was beautifully written and packed a major punch. Saft’s lush prose hits again and the atmospheric writing is simply gorgeous. Lorelei’s grumpy to Sylvia’s sunshine was ✨chef’s kiss✨ and I could not love them more. The slow burn, the angst, the pining - so good!! The whoddunit plotline worked well in pushing the story forward and the elements of German and Jewish folklore were really intriguing. The cover art is STUNNING and I will definitely need a physical copy for my shelves. Allison Saft is never a miss for me. 4.5 stars rounding up to five!

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. This is all of the dark academia-ish vibes I want rolled up in one book. It's an adventure, it's atmospheric, there's a dash of romance, it's PERFECT. I had such a fun time reading this one, I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy for my shelf. I love Ms. Saft's writing style. It varies so much, but is always consistently amazing and knows how to keep the readers engaged.

A stunningly written gothic romance with beautiful imagery and well developped characters.
Lorelei and Sylvia are fascinating characters and their dynamic had me hooked.
I love the folkloristic element because it never fails to amaze me.

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got an eGalley of this from NetGalley to review.

Thoughts: This was okay. The characters were hard for me to really engage with throughout, and I expected more adventure from the description. This has some adventure but is more of a who-dun-it mystery with a lot of politics going on in the background. I almost stopped reading this a of couple times because I just didn't enjoy the story or the characters all that much. The second half of the book was better than the first.

The story follows Lorelei, a folklorist from a religious group that's been prosecuted often. She is hoping to help lead an expedition with her mentor on a search for a magical spring that will provide unlimited power. When her mentor is murdered early on in the expedition, the only person she thinks she can trust is her academic rival, Sylvia. The other five expedition members are all, like Sylvia, in competition either for or in support of the king's throne in one way or another, and all of them have reasons to want the expedition to succeed but the people around them to fail. As Sylvia and Lorelei are forced to work together, they realize that they may be closer to each other than they realized.

I really loved some of the adventuring parts here. There is a lot of awesome adventuring, fantastic creatures, and tough situations to survive. However, that is entwined with this odd "who-dun-it" mystery and a lot of political turmoil in the background. I didn't really like any of the characters in this book. Lorelei was too aggressively angry all the time, Sylvia was too dense, and the other expedition members had equally off-putting personalities. The story just wasn't well-balanced and wandered a bit too much for me.

The ending feels very abrupt (I feel like I have said that a lot about books lately). I just wish the story had focused more on the journey and the magic and less on a bunch of back stabbing characters with historical issues with each other trying to destabilize the kingdom. There is just too much going on here; some parts are very dense and some are very lyrical.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay but not great. There was too much back-stabbing and political maneuvering for me, and I didn't like any of the characters. If we could have focused on the adventure, the magic, and the journey more, I would have liked this. Itfeels like there is too much going on here; a magical journey, cut throat politics, a who-dun-it mystery, a romance, and a search for a mythological truth. I liked "A Far Wilder Magic" better. However, even in that book, Saft's writing felt a bit unbalanced to me. I am on the fence about reading books by her in the future. I sucked into reading this one by the stunning cover and the intriguing synopsis.

Another excellent work from Allison Saft (and my favorite one so far)—*A Dark and Drowning Tide* is a gorgeously written fantasy romance.

The story follows folklorist Lorelei Kaskel as she beats the odds and is appointed by the King to lead an expedition of 6 magical nobles (including her lifelong academic and magical rival, Sylvia) to find a mysterious spring that will help the King attain the power to secure peace in the newly formed kingdom of Brunnestaad. When her mentor co-leading the expedition is suddenly murdered shortly after they embark on the quest, Lorelei has to not only guide the group of arrogant nobles, but also figure out which one of them is the murderer. As their expedition continues, Lorelei needs to rely on the only person she knows can’t have done it—her rival, Sylvia—to figure out what happened to their mentor. The closer they get to finding the magical spring, however, the more questions arise about whether or not the power it provides will be their country’s salvation, or its doom.

>> ❤️ What I loved: This story really had it all for me—compelling characters, engaging plot, and fantastical setting! Saft has crafted a really unique fantasy full of adventure, political intrigue, and mystery to drive the story forward. The romance subplot was an excellent enemies-to-lovers, slow burn that was just sensuous and luscious and everything I could have wanted from a queer sapphic story.
>> 💔 What I didn’t love: Like Saft’s other novel I’ve read, *A Fragile Enchantment,* I felt that the ending of *A Dark and Drowning Tide* was a little too rushed. I would have loved a little more of a wind-down from the major climax of the novel, with a little more time for the aftermath of what would happen in the political situation and in the romance.

I highly recommend *A Dark and Drowning Tide* to fantasy readers, especially lovers of queer fantasy with a strong dash of romance.

**Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 (4.5-5)**

**Acknowledgments & Disclaimers**
✨ Thank you to NetGalley, Allison Saft, and Random House Publishing/Ballentine/Del Rey, for providing an ARC and the opportunity to share an honest review of this book.
✨ All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.
✨ My reviews and ratings strive to evaluate books within their own age-demographic and genre.