If you're a fan of Allison Saft's writing then I'm sure you'll enjoy this one! It's such an interesting premise, and I think it's pretty well pulled off.

A Dark and Drowning Tide is the upcoming Adult debut for beloved author, Allison Saft. I have loved all three of Saft's previous YA Fantasy releases, with my favorite probably being, A Fragile Enchantment. Saft's writing is accessible and fluid. It's magical and enchanting, but without feeling overly-done. Her plots never get drowned out by flowery writing. It's easy to follow along and become emotionally attached to her characters, as well.

In this story we mainly follow Lorelei, who is a folklorist making her way through her academic career. At the start of the tale, she's getting ready to set out on a serious expedition with her mentor and some peers. Their goal is to find a fabled spring said to be a powerful source of magic. They're being commissioned by the King, who believes the powers of this spring will help him better secure his reign of their embattled country.

Shortly after the group boards the ship however, the unthinkable happens. Lorelei's mentor, their group leader, is murdered in the middle of the night. An ominous start. Since the ship was sailing at the time, the suspects are limited. It has to be one amongst them. To me, Lorelei's academic rival, Sylvia, is immediately suspicious. She keeps popping up at strange times and places. A bit of a midnight wanderer, if you will...But Lorelei feels she is innocent. Plus, the four others have equal amounts of motive. Honestly, it could be any of them.

It's too late to turn back though, so Lorelei takes charge and hopes that they'll be able to find the spring before the murderer strikes again. Unfortunately, dangers do not just lie aboard the ship, there's dangers all around them. The group knows they need to band together in order to survive, but that's easier said than done. Tensions are high and tempers flare on a regular basis. Is anyone going to make it through this expedition alive?

Saft's Adult Fantasy debut succeeded in transporting me to another time and place. I had a very good time reading this, although I will say, it definitely has a more serious tone than her YA stories. Nevertheless, it's still as powerful. This also had a slower build than her YA-stories, but I did like the introduction to the characters prior to them setting out on the expedition. Once they board the ship though, that's when things really pick up.

I enjoyed the combination of the academic side of this story mixed with the dangerous Fantasy world. I thought that was a lot of fun. The expedition provided plenty of setting changes and you were seeing unique circumstances in each one, different terrain, magical creatures, etc. The expedition group has a good mix of personalities and there's a lot of tension running among them, which provided solid drama throughout. Some of them were fairly insufferable, but I love having characters to hate.

There's also a light Romance element to this; an enemies-to-lovers trope that develops nicely over the course of the story. The Romance, IMO, isn't the focus of the story, but it does provide a means for developing the two characters involved more deeply. Saft's character work is always top notch and happily, that carried over into this Adult release. There's also a ton of action though, so Plot Lovers, you won't be disappointed.

Overall, I think this is a sensational Adult debut, and I feel like so many Readers are going to absolutely adore it, and I know I'll continue picking up Saft's work regardless of what age category it falls into. Thank you to the publisher, Del Rey, for providing me with a copy to read and review. This is a lush, exciting, engaging and entertaining read!

I wasn't able to connect with the characters, I didn't feel like they were realistic for their age. I think the prose was a bit wordy for no reason, but that's just my opinion!

OH, THIS BOOK!!! I loved this book so much! Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this. I was intrigued when I saw rivals to lovers, COUNT ME IN! Allison Saft’s writing style is so captivating to me and I would definitely recommend this to friends!!

Gorgeous! Allison Saft can do no wrong when it comes to her incredibly unique fantasy-romance novels. Saft is now an automatic buy author for me.

Deeply atmospheric book, full of longing and complex human emotion.
Saft's able to create whole world and complex worldbuilding in only a few sentences. You are immediatly thrown into a world of magic, and old cultural wars.
The love story'll make you swoon, with intense, charged moments between the two protagonists.
A beautiful read, that leave wanting for more, not because the ending is not to satisfaction, but because you don't want to leave the characters arìnd the world.

I lost my kindle and couldn't redownload it. Sorry!
I lost my kindle and couldn't redownload it. Sorry!
I lost my kindle and couldn't redownload it. Sorry!
I lost my kindle and couldn't redownload it. Sorry!

I wanted to love this book, because the cover is glorious and I was hooked by the premise, but my feelings are mixed. I adored the writing style, and the fairytales that intersperse the narrative are lovely excursions into the folklore of this world. In general, I enjoyed the world building, and I'm always a fan of fantasies centering academia and court intrigue. However, the romance between Lorelei and Sylvia disappointed me, largely because I didn't understand why they continued to go back and forth with each other. I understand they were rivals initially, but especially once they admitted their love for one another on the expedition, I didn't see why Lorelei felt compelled to disavow that love, or why Sylvia fled for Albe once they returned home. I think if the political landscape of the land had been given more page time, these uncertainties might have been laid to rest, but as it stands I wish we had had more time with Lorelei and Sylvia happily in love, because those moments were my favorites in the book. All this said, I still had a good enough time during my read, and I would read more by Allison Saft in the future, because as I said, I really enjoyed her prose.

Allison Saft is quickly becoming one of my new favorite authors. Her writing is beautiful, and her worlds are always thought out and a joy to explore. This one might be my favorite of her books so far; the complicated relationships between the characters and the details about the fantasy creatures really drew me in.

3.25-3.5
It’s not that I didn’t like it, or that it wasn’t good. It just was hard for me to stay engaged and invested for some reason. Maybe pacing, not of the romance, but of the main plot itself? I think the sapphic grumpy/sunshine, from the pov of “grumpy” was a nice change for the trope, and enjoyable. The cover art is obviously stunning, and the writing was well done as expected from Allison Saft. It picked up for me around 60%, and the last 30% or so both the romance and plot were more satisfying. I had high expectations going into it, and still expect plenty of readers will connect with it more than I did overall, I’m bummed that I’m not one of them. I would still suggest it to someone if I thought it would be a good fit.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for a digital arc in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you to Netgalley and Del Rey Press for providing me an arc in exchange for an honest review.
This was such a fun read! The world, based on Germanic folklore, was well fleshed out and the magic system was easy to understand yet still interesting. The plot was great, I love how well paced this was as both an adventure and a mystery. Most of all, though, I loved the characters. Any time Sylvia and Lorelei exchanged dialogue I felt as if I were there. They are seriously the best, and I won’t say more to spoil the journey. I am so excited for this to come out in September, I have a lot of friends I think will love this!

I really enjoyed this book, the premise was exciting, the characters interesting, the writing carefully crafted. I have read one other Allison Saft book, and enjoyed it. Overall, a good read and enjoyable novel.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the digital ARC and for answering my accessibility questions!

The protagonist, Lorelei, shares her name with a siren from German folklore. It fits the water magic, nymphs, and nixies in this book perfectly. I liked how Lorelei, a folklorist, incorporated German fairy tales and often subverted them. Lorelei's people, the Yeva, are strongly implied to be Jewish. The references to Judaism and to antisemitic persecution were obvious even to me, a non-Jewish reader. So many European folktales are antisemitic, so I'm always glad to see Jewish authors reclaiming and re-imagining them.

I liked the murder mystery and the adult, sapphic attraction. At times, the rivals (enemies?) to lovers aspect was a little overdone or drawn out. It was obvious from the beginning that Lorelei was attracted to Sylvia and never hated her. Still, both characters grew, so I liked their relationship.

A fun, atmospheric read!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this arc copy. All thoughts are my own.

This book was very hard for me to get into. The characters just weren’t that relatable or likeable to me. I couldn’t form any type of connection with them. I will say that it’s a good example of rivals to lovers and I did enjoy that part.

To me, nothing really happened in the first 100 or so pages and I just felt like this drug on for me. It took me a while to finish this book because I just had to keep putting it down. I’m not sure I would’ve finished it if it hadn’t been a NetGalley arc.

With that being said, I wouldn’t say the book was bad because it wasn’t but it just wasn’t for me. I’m not sure who I would recommend this too but I am sure others may enjoy this type of written style/ story.

Side note: the cover is absolutely stunning!

3 stars.

Allison's writing always creates immersive worlds that I want to live in forever. Every element -- from the character names to the descriptions to the folklore -- is so intertwined and solid that I fully believe in this magical setting being a real place just out of reach. Lorelai's ambition in the face of hatred and discrimination and backstabbing is so compelling, as are her moments of despair when it seems like everything she's worked towards will crumble, or she questions whether it was all worth it in the first place. And magical Sylvia is so hard to pin down, almost illusory in her masking to be what everyone expects of her. Conclusion: Saft is a mastermind.

This was good but not outstanding. I enjoyed it, and I will recommend it to my sapphic friends, but I would have liked more from it. I loved the slow-burn aspect to this romance, and there was great chemistry between the MCs. I liked the academic setting, even though I was hoping for more information and overall a longer read.

The sapphic enemies to lovers trope gets me every time! I struggled with this book, and I definitely think others will enjoy it. It just wasn't stellar for me. Best of luck to the author and all associated parties!

I am slowly but surely becoming an Allison Saft stan, I really enjoyed this book and while the world building was alright the actual magic system inside this world was a bit muddled. It had a nice pace to though and I think readers will definitely enjoy it!

I'll start with what worked for me:
- I really enjoyed the main character; we don't usually get the POV of the grumpy in the grumpy x sunshine books, and I had so much fun reading how much of a hater lorelei was. The tall, dark, handsome, brooding androgynous vibe really worked for me. I feel like in sapphic romances we often get the femme, romantic, sweet main character and this was very refreshing
- The tension between the two seemed fairly genuine. the reason for their rivalry was interesting and was fun to watch the layers peel back as the story went on
- For the most part, I really enjoyed the cast of characters. Sometimes they were a bit similar so I had a hard time keeping track of who was who, but overall I found the group Lorelei was traveling with very intereresting and intriguing characters.

What didn't work for me:
- I found the world building very lazy. I never felt like I really got a good grasp at the type of magic that this entire world was built on and the politics happening were definitely an afterthought. (Like the ending very much confused me as to how nothing really happened after they returned home - no big changes after the huge adventure and discoveries made on their journey)
- Going with that, I found the obvious backstory of Lorelei being jewish so heavy handed. I think there could be room for a very cool metaphor for judaism within this world, but the blatant ripping off of jewish culture within our real life really took me out of the fantasy. Felt like a lazy way to create an ethnic group within this fantasy world that was persecuted. It almost made me feel like the author didn't trust us as the readers to follow the moral compass of this story, they had to really spell it out for us.

I enjoyed myself reading this sapphic fantasy enemies-to-lovers but found huge flaws in the core of the novel that really left a bad taste in my mouth.

but I do have to shout out the cover art; one of the most stunning book covers I've seen in a minute.

lorelei, a folklorist aspiring to be a naturalist. she’s determined to find a fabled spring, sure that this will get her to her dream. but when her beloved mentor is murdered, she has to shift gears to clear her own name. she teams up with her rival, sylvia, to find the real murderer before they strike again.

something i love about allison saft’s books is that they are so magical, all the way down to the prose itself. this helped immerse me into lorelei and sylvia’s world, and i didn’t want to leave.

i also loved lorelei and sylvia’s character exploration and growth. they weren’t perfect by any means, which is partially what made them so interesting. plus, their relationship was definitely a slowburn, which i loved.

i highly recommend this to adult fantasy fans.

First, let me thank Netgalley and Random House Publishing for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

I was excited to read this book because of the pretty cover and interesting book description. It definitely seemed like a book with some of my favorite tropes and elements. I enjoyed the overall plot of the story. The characters were likeable, but I didn't feel as though they had enough depth for what I prefer in a book. I still liked the characters, but I couldn't get lost in the story in a way I like. It just felt as though something was missing throughout, but the story was still good. I also struggled to stay focused at times because of the pacing. There were times when I wanted to skim read because it felt like it was taking forever for the story to "move" (progress). Overall, I liked the story and would recommend it.