This is a new favorite of mine. I was immediately sold when I read this was sapphic and my love for it only grew when I realized it was a Jewish, gothic, and dark academia novel. Allison Saft did such an amazing job with writing academic rivals to lovers in a gothic fantasy setting.

This book follows Lorelei and Sylvia as they team up to solve the murder of their mentor during an expedition to seek out a magical spring for the king. Lorelei knows that Sylvia is the only one on the expedition that is innocent. This leaves 5 other members of their crew that each have their own motive. There are many things they face on this expedition from a sentient forest to beasts that change forms.

The plot of this book was so well developed and paced very nicely. Each character added depth to the plot and were greatly written. Lorelei and Sylvia have become my new favorite sapphic couple. The tension??? The yearning??? Absolutely amazing! I thought this book was a great balance between romance and plot. The romance didn’t overshadow the plot of the book, but added to the enjoyment. This book had me immersed in this world with its folkloric nature. It was so beautifully written.

I don’t think I will ever get over this book. I didn’t want it to end. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

An enchanting sapphic read that teleports you to where you want to be. I loved the characters and their romantic tension. This solidifies my love for the author. As a debut into the adult genre this was fantastic!

I’m going to start this off with that this is probably the most conflicted I’ve felt about a book in a while.

I was immediately drawn into this book because of the absolutely stunning cover & the gothic tones it gives off.

The romance in the book was my favorite part hands down. I would give it a 4.5⭐️ in just the romance itself. I loved that we got the POV from Lorelei. The mood & pessimistic tone of the book match well with what the cover was giving. I always appreciate the not happy go luck side of romance that isn’t necessarily enemies to lovers. The tension between Lorelei & Sylvia was adorable. I love that Lorelei didn’t lose her grumpiness at the end. Also I am a sucker for the whole “ruin me” line.

Another thing I enjoyed from this book is I like majority of the characters. I enjoyed reading the interactions between Lorelei & Ludwig. And honestly Ludwigs whole character & wish we got more of him.

I also really enjoyed the creatures of this book & how it got looped back around later in the book.

What ruined me from giving the book a 4⭐️ was the plot itself. I left this book feel so incomplete with the storyline. I constantly felt like I was missing something. The world building was nonexistent. I was so confused on the part of the country & felt like I needed map (I am not stranger to high fantasy so I’m used to made up places). There was so much history that we were not giving about the world, plus its characters history. Not to also mention the lack of magic building. These were just things I could not look past & took enjoyment away from the story. I would have liked to see this story split into a duology. There was just so much life that could have been added to the book if that was done.

I also would have like to see this not in third person because it felt messy with how it was written at times.

At the end of the day, I’m giving ‘A Dark and Drowning Tide’ a 3.5⭐️.

Thank you NetGalley & Random House Publishing Group for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Allison Saft's writing is always so beautiful. While I think that this book could have benefitted from better pacing, I can say with confidence that this is my favorite of Saft's works so far. Lorelei and Sylvia were strong and interesting characters who moved throughout a fascinating world built on myths, fables, and events that are analogous to our own world. Lorelei is the perfect embodiment of a "morally grey" character. When so many people describe characters as "morally grey" to fulfill a trope and write actual war criminals, Saft writes Lorelei as a pragmatic, acerbic, traumatized, and passionate young woman who understands the lack of options existing in this brutal situation. Saft's past work, particularly A Far Wilder Magic, look at how antisemitism and other forms of prejudice are deeply traumatizing, I think that A Dark and Drowning Tide had the strongest discussion of how violence and prejudice interacted with the world's magic system. I particularly loved the integration of Lorelei's work as a folklorist with her heritage and the use of stories within the story.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this lovely book.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed beyond my disbelief. The premise was exactly what I was looking for: sapphic academic rivals to lovers, creepy murders, dark academia stuffed with folklore and fairy tales, and not to mention the cover was so alluring! From the moment the book started, it felt so off... The characters felt like two-dimensional archetypes of certain personalities; the MC, Lorelei, was the brooding and grumpy one, while the love interest, Sylvia, was little Miss Perfect, beautiful and smart. Despite a rough beginning, I was determined to like it.

The first 50 per cent of the book felt quite slow, as the plot only consisted of the content in the blurb, making it harder for me to immerse myself in the story. Most of the book's trudging around till around 70 to 80 per cent had little significance to the plot or how the book ended. The folklore felt a bit loose, and I found it hard to find my orientation in the world. I would have loved if the beginning of the book had a map to help me more effectively visualise everything.

Overall, the book had its high points, such as a compelling premise and atmosphere, but I was unable to become invested in the plot, the characters, or their relationships. I was so sure this was my book, that I'd at least rate this book a 4 stars, but sadly this is more of a 3 stars.

My excitement for this book had much to do with how I loved two of the author’s other books. This book was a bit slow to begin with, but once the murder mystery part started to happen it really took off. I usually am not a fan of female characters for various reasons and this book had quite a few. For the most part they were tolerable and different enough to add to the story. I wish there were more male characters and that they got more presence. Lorelei was irritating, and everything she is accused the other characters of being, she was herself. That being said she was still entertaining at times. I liked the pacing for a standalone and how it ended.

There's nothing I love better than a Sapphic love story!!! The storytelling was whimsical and it truly felt like you were there in the story. The characters were easy to be able to connect with, which is something that I love most when reading. I hope there's a book two!

Lorelei is on a mission with six others to find a magical spring for their king. The mission comes to a halt when her mentor is killed! Everyone that is part of her mission are suspects. She teams up with her academic rival because she knows that she is innocent. They must hurry and find the killer before they can strike again!

This book had me zoned in from the very beginning. In one day I was already a third of the way through. The banter between Lorelei and Sylvia was so on point. I was laughing, on the edge of my seat, and not knowing what was going to happen next the entire time. This book is such a great murder mystery. Of course I had a few theories on who the culprit was. And I was only partially right but I’m glad it wasn’t so obvious! The ending was so beautiful although a bit rushed. I definitely recommend this book.

I found the characters of this book to be the real stand-out, and I was able to root for them and care for them very quickly. The harder part for me was the world building - while I think this book did a good job of not info-dumping too much, I still found it to be a bit of information overload at times. Some of the folklore was hard to follow.

I also found the mystery to be interestingly written - I didn't really like that it wasn't really the star of the book; sometimes that plotline would just drop entirely for other parts, which I thought was weird and made the stakes feel so much lower.

I found the romance to be a bit lack-luster as well; I totally saw it coming, but I feel like the chemistry wasn't really there.

Overall, I enjoyed the atmosphere and several aspects of the book, but a decent amount of it just fell flat for me.

Unfortunately did not love this one like I wanted to. It took me a while to get into it, but by about 70% through I was hooked. I will be suggesting this and buying a personal copy, because I think if I reread this at a later time I would more than likely rate it higher than three stars.

3.5 stars!

I have such mixed feelings about this book because there were some things I really liked and some things I really didn't.

Starting with what I liked:
- I think the setting was very lush and rich. A lot of time is spent traveling around forests and I think Allison Saft described it in a wonderful way
- Sapphic romance! I love the dynamic of "I hate you but obviously I'm going to read every single thing you publish" and the way they talked about each other was so yearning and full of angst I ate it up...I'm not sure that we really saw their rivals aspect, but I still enjoyed it a lot
- The cover....this is absolutely gorgeous
- Jewish representation (MC is not specifically labeled as Jewish but is part of a fantastical ethnic group with clear similarities)! Also, I liked how folklore and fairytales were used to explore anti-semitism and how it is perpetuated.

What I didn't like
- This really just dropped you in with no explanations. Throughout the entire book, I was so confused by many aspects of the worldbuilding. I know there was a war? Most of the characters know each other from childhood? But who fought who? When was the second war and also who was it against? The same thing with the magic system. I know that power came from water but I just wanted to know a lot more.
- The ending. I thought we were building in a certain way but instead the end kinda made me feel like we were okay with colonialism? Which is a choice for sure.
- I also was really bored with the first half, so much so that I took a 3 day break and read two other books in the time in between.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group Ballantine with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book is so different to Allison Saft’s previous works and I hope to see more like this in the future. It’s very folklore heavy with immaculate dark academia vibes. The sapphic academic rivals to lovers romance is so good. Their dynamic is perfect!

SO ATMOSPHERIC! Loved every second of this incredible sapphic academic romantasy. If you love good folklore, murder mystery and incredibly written prose, then this is your book. Stunning characters immersed in the most imaginative world.

I enjoyed this book, it's a sapphic fantasy murder mystery. There were times when I didn't really like the main character, and I wish we had more build up and understanding of the romance in this book, as it felt kind of rushed. I wish we had more backstory on how Sylvia's feelings developed and why. I did find the ending beautiful though and overall I did enjoy this story.

I also am very curious if there will be spinoff books from this. Such as the books Sylvia published or a prequel book.

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely adore Allison Saft's books; I have read (and loved) all of her YA titles. I am sad to say that this one just did not resonate with me as much, in my highly subjective opinion. As usual, Saft's writing is gorgeous and her character work is compelling. However, the central mystery did not quite grab my attention and felt like it dragged at some points. Still a solid read if you are interested in the premise! I can see many readers loving this one.

A Dark and Drowning Tide is a novel I was looking forward to a lot. I’m always a sucker for gorgeous covers and it seemed like the perfect mix of a dark atmosphere and romance, but unfortunately for my high expectations it ended up falling a bit flat.

It is by no means a bad book, but I think the plot dragged a bit, being a little predictable at times and a bit too low at some moments.

I enjoyed the romance, but I didn’t go crazy for it, so overall I had an average experience reading it, hence the 3 stars.

A dark, gothic fantasy with murder mystery and romance sub plots. I loved the folklore elements!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc! Opinions are my own.

The writing was not bad but the story has been done, repeatedly. It felt like a poor imitation and mash up of so many other stories I’ve read - like Emily Wilde crossed with A Study in Drowning but not as good as either. The folkloric elements could have been developed so much more, but they often felt tacked on, even though that was the point of the story. It just felt like it had so much potential in that area, but it was skimmed over. The rivals to lovers storyline and the mystery became the only focus and it was exceedingly predictable. The characters didn’t feel fully fleshed out and this made me not care about them. I wanted to like Lorelei but her POV was so hateful at times and just thoughtless. There were obvious messages about anti-semitism and colonialism and I think that it’s great that the author explored this. The end obviously was meant to demonstrate that evil does sometimes win, I guess? Or at least that in real life things don’t always turn out how you want them to and tied up with a bow. And I get that not every situation ends with good conquering evil, but then I wasn’t sure what message that was supposed to send. I was really excited for this book but it really let me down. I skim read the last half and read the end to complete it, as I’ve had it for some time and had set it aside for quite awhile, but I wanted to go ahead and get it out of my pile. I didn’t want to DNF as I had hoped it would get better, but it, sadly, did not for me.

NOTE: I procrastinated on writing this review, so many of my opinions weren't fresh enough in my brain to word them well. But this book was amazing, one of the best I read this year!!

Lorelei, a grumpy folklorist out of place among her noble peers, is selected to lead a group of talented, tight-knit scholars on a quest for the king. But the mission quickly goes awry when their mentor is found dead. Lorelei and her academic rival, Sylvia, must team up to solve the mystery, even as they are caught in webs of politics and hindered by both their peers and the magical creatures of their world.

I absolutely loved this book. The first thing that came to mind when trying to describe it was The Atlas Six meets The Cruel Prince. The beginning, especially, has all the elements of a good dark academic fantasy, featuring a group of scholars with wildly different personalities and complicated relationships. You will hate and love pretty much all of them. Except Sylvia, who is an angel. But it also strongly reminded me of The Cruel Prince, with fae-like creatures, complex politics, and a BEAUTIFUL enemies-to-lovers romance. But this one is sapphic. Which obviously makes it better. I haven’t fangirled over characters like this in a while.

The plot of this book was very well constructed, incorporating elements of high fantasy, adventure, and mystery. I thought I was actually onto something with the whole murder, but I was completely off! The addition of political intrigue made it even more fascinating, and the water-based magic system was super cool. I do wish we could have seen more of the worldbuilding, and the author definitely likes using big words that make my brain hurt. But this book was pretty exceptional overall, and I highly recommend it!

This was an A++++ romance and a B- political allegory, but the political allegory could have been scrapped and it would still be great. The dynamic between the main couple is absolutely perfect, and telling the story through the grumpy, short-sighted, stubborn one was such a wonderful choice. The tension between the two women is electric and their arc is so beautifully done, with all the perfect beats. I love Lorelei so very much and the happy ending is so lovely and deserved. That said, it’s burdened with the evergreen problem where the villain is kind of right and has to be made grotesquely monstrous to hide the fact that the romantic opposite has extremely suspect politics re: colonization. The fact that Lorelei is Jewish and experiencing true-to-life antisemitism makes the parallels for Sylvia all the sketchier- if the Yeva are a stand in for a real people, Sylvia capitulating to a colonizing force and being a hero for it also reads as a stand in for real geopolitics. All that said, it still gets five stars bc it’s mostly a romance and the genuinely evil colonization element just could and should have been cut and replaced with a more generic geopolitical conflict where the romantic opposite isn’t pretty clearly in the wrong but presented as the most honorable for it.