the slowburn romance of this book carries it. sylvia and lorelei are well thought out, rounded characters. they are flawed and feel lived in and i loved watching their romance develop. rivals to lovers is a real favourite teope of mine so this was a lot of fun.

the world building at times could be lacklustre and the politics ended up having a weird pro-empiral/pro-colonisation tilt to it towards the end. the fantasy elements were a lot of fun and i liked that water was the medium through which the magic was controlled.

Dark and twisty, this sapphic dark academia book keeps the reader hooked with delicious prose. Allison Saft is really in their element for this book and I can’t wait to read more of their work.

Yearning is so BACK, baby! The atmospheric and lush prose I've come to expect from Saft works beautifully here in her adult debut.

DNF. I felt that the maturity of the characters did not match their age and expertise and I did not feel compelled to continue. The magic system and world-building, however, was interesting.

3.5 Stars

It’s me, hi, I was the problem with this book…not the book itself.

The vibes were gothic and the dark academia was on point, but the romance and conflict didn't hit home with me the way I wanted. I've loved all of Allison Saft's books so far, and this one was as wonderfully written as the others, but it just didn't grip me like her previous books did, which is a bummer because I was SO EXCITED for this sapphic romance angle.

I love this book!
The romance felt like a real enemies to lovers, and as a fan of folklore I really enjoyed all the magical creatures! The story felt like it was lacking something but I still can’t figure out what it was. Never the less, I still really enjoyed this book and will recommend it!

I got about 75% into the book and I just can't keep going. This book started off slow, but strong. However, as it has continued I have found it harder and harder to stomach Lorelei's behavior. There is a difference between being a grump who distrusts the oppressive class of people you have to spend time with, and being purposefully mean and hurtful to someone you claim to care about. I might come back to this later, but I just can't keep going right now.

I think that the water magic is a little underbaked, but the creatures are cool. I think the folklore and Yeva aspects of the story felt a little too much like our world but with a different name for a second world fantasy book, but I enjoyed them nontheless. But the character relationships haven't been able to keep me going.

Firstly, ALL the covers/editions of A Dark And Drowning Tide are GORGEOUS.
Secondly, I usually jive with Saft's stories, so this might be a "me thing."

I'm sad I didn't love this one 😭 I didn't even like it. The synopsis sounded like something I would devour (folklore, sapphic romance, dark academia!), but instead I found myself hate reading, ever. so. slowly... everything felt incredibly melodramatic. The characters were either hateable, I'm talking to you Lorelaei, or forgettable (insert whats-their-face's name here). I can usually get on board with an unlikeable character but coupled with being frustratingly one dimensional dullards, an unbelievable romance, and a half baked mystery, I couldn't give a bother about any of these guys.
But I'll cherish the cover(s), and what could've been, always.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Del Rey for the eARC!

AHHHHH. What can I say without spoiling it all? Sapphic murder mystery academia vibes with a lot of guilt and a lot of holding yourself back because you don't believe you deserve the love of someone who's above you in the social ladder and also because people tend to die around you and you don't want her to die but you love her anyway.... okay, this book was phenomenal, absolutely one of the best books I've read in 2024.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. Unfortunately it just fell flat for me in the end. It was set up with all these elements I love, like a slow-burn where they don't kiss till the 70% mark, a folktale-inspired world surrounding an expedition to find a mysterious magical spring, and a Gothic mystery. Sylvia, a noblewoman naturalist with a bubbly, irrepresible love for the fairy-tale creatures of their world, and Lorelai, a folklorist from a very different background, are academic rivals and have long hated each other. Or so they think.

They're thrown together on the expedition for the king and their benefactor is murdered. The mystery unfolds into deeper seditious territory as Lorelai is tasked with ratting out the killer.

Unfortunately, it was the third-act breakup that killed this book for me. It wasn't cheating, but it was a betrayal just as hurtful, when Lorelai finds the killer and sells out Sylvia to save herself. Sylvia forgives her instantly, interpreting it as they're both prisoners. They spend the rest of the book mooning over each other against all reason, and the very practical differences between them are never really dealt with. How is Sylvia going to be a duchess and Lorelai a chamberlain at court and can they have any kind of relationship? Seemed that in the end they were still prisoners to Wilhelm.

No one is more disappointed than me that this book didn't work for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you NetGalley and Del Rey for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

3.75!

I’ve had a bit of a tumultuous relationship with Saft’s work, between really liking her sophomore novel and not particularly caring for her other two in any way, so I was a little nervous about this one, but it sounded so good. I’m pleasantly surprised with how much I liked this—there were definitely some parts that felt underbaked or just like… a bit strange, I guess? Especially around colonialism. The way oppression was written—especially for Lorelei, whose religion is very clearly Judaism—was solid and handled well, though. Still, I really liked the writing and thought the folklore bits were really fun. I had my suspicions about some of the plot twists but was still surprised by some of them. I found I really liked the romance and found the overall story to be compelling.

In addition to some political implications that took me a bit out of the story, I found that this taking place in fantasy Germany was aggressively apparent, and while I didn’t mind it as much as I’ve minded it in Saft’s prior novel, it still felt strange at times. Despite this, I thought the atmosphere was good and I did feel compelled to keep reading to learn more about the world and characters. While I wish the political part of the world building was more developed or thought more deeply about, I did have a good time while reading.

Lorelei Kaskel is a surly folklorist who is sent as a part of an expedition team to find the fabled source of all magic. However, when her mentor is mysteriously murdered aboard their ship, Lorelei must reluctantly team up with the beautiful naturalist Sylvia von Wolff to find the killer before they strike again.

I was really looking forward to A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft. It was one of my most highly anticipated reads of the year, so I’m sad to say that this book turned out to be yet another milquetoast disappointment.

This book was pitched a story as a sapphic rivals-to-lovers dark academia, but there isn’t any rivalry to be found. What I got instead was Lorelei throwing petty, high-school grade insults at Sylvia because she doesn't approve of her hand-own research approach. There are no compelling reasons and personal history of bad blood to justify Lorelai's animosity toward Sylvia, so their initial dynamics feel juvenile and shallow to me.

There’s also a weird disconnect between what Lorelei boasts about in her internal monologue and what’s actually reflected in her actions. For instance, Lorelei repeatedly compares herself to a viper, but she doesn’t demonstrate an ounce of backstabbing, sabotaging, or ruthless cunning. In essence, she’s all bark and no bite, and I wish she actually had delivered on her promises.

Maybe someday I'll find the sapphic rivals-to-lovers book of my dreams, but this one certainly wasn't it.

I really loved the writing and lore of this story. The settings were richly introduced and it was easy to sink in to this. With a sapphic romance set in a magical world there isnt much else you could ask for going in. I did have a little trouble connecting to the characters at times as sometimes the struggles/miscommunications felt out of place and self-fabricated but the overall story was very interesting.

A new country still in the throes of becoming one, a ruler looking to solidify his power by gaining the power of the magic spring (the Ursprung), and the six people (after the leader is killed right off) with ideas and plans of their own, that he sent to go find it. Sounds like a solid story and it sure was. This land is flush with magic and folklore. But a lot of it is dangerous though Sylvia (quite the adventuress with charm galore called by the locals as the moonlight princess) and Lorelei (grumpy with sharp edges but also a very smart folklorist haunted by ghosts) and their compatriots travel far to find the spring. There are so many plans and assassinations there is hardly a quiet moment to declare love but the somehow they can still fit it in between charming and dodging nixies, alps and other creatures on the way to the spring. Sadly besides the magic, there is also hatred of other races (antisemitism) mixed in to ramp up the tension among the team (and villages they pass) and I couldn't decide who was trustworthy and who was willing to betray everyone for their own cause (well done), except for Lorelei and Sylvia of course! And it takes both of them together to make sure the spring's power ends up where it is supposed to.

I have enjoyed all the books that Allison Saft has written and this one joins that pack with all the excitement and betrayals and magic and a sweet romance to end it all!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My Selling Pitch:
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries but it’s dark academia lesbians vs antisemitism.

Pre-reading:
I know nothing but a stunning cover. Did not love the first book I read from this author (A Fragile Enchantment), but kept both my special editions because the covers were so pretty.

(obviously potential spoilers from here on)
Thick of it:
Fantasy Jewish again, heard! (It is gnarly how many of these I’ve stumbled onto this year. Since when is this a genre?)

This book said right in on the horny.

This is literally just lesbian Emily Wilde.

This is really heavy-handed with the Jewish fantasy rewrite.

Gut instinct says that the Brianne of Tarth wannabe is the villain. (The pattern recognition is downright scary sometimes.)

Maybe blondie’s working with the mentor, and they’re gonna fake the mentor’s death so that they can stage a coup because she’s sick of being his encyclopedia and wants to rule. (I. Open. Books.)

I’m such a victim of dance moms. I keep picturing Maddie every time they say Ziegler.

I literally gave up and had to start taking notes because there’s too much plot and too many names being thrown at me.

It’s kind of giving Wicked. (There's whiffs.)

Here’s a massive plot hole in this book: if water is magic, people’s bodies should be 80% magic and somebody should be able to manipulate the magic inside of their bodies. Am I crazy? (Oh lol, you know asked and answered.)

Even though the plot of this is moving, it feels so slow because so much of it is info-dumping exposition and not like natural sounding dialogue.

He’s like too obviously evil so it’s not him, and he’ll get some sob story redemption arc. Same thing with the pretty, bitchy girl.

It’s either a betrayal by her gay bestie or a betrayal by her teacher working with the magic studies lady because the teacher was speaking with Sylvia‘s mom.

What the fuck kinda noncon line was that?

I did not sign up for rapey lesbians.

dishabille

Now, I’ve never read Murder on the Orient Express or Murder on the Nile, but I imagine they're something like this.

What’s up with the pronoun usage? Are they trying to call her non-binary or are they being homophobic? (Wildly unclear.)

This isn’t even grumpy sunshine. She’s literally just being awful to her for no reason.

I mean, I would assume it’s the button from the other dead brother?

It’s a little Six of Crows just in that it’s an ensemble cast with loaded backstories to mirror real world history.

salubrious

See, this was slow to start, and now that it’s made the correction that I noted in the first bit and we’re getting exposition through dialogue rather than just info dumps, I’m invested. I care. I don’t like the romance just because of how mean she’s being for no reason. Also, it’s a little bit of a colonizer romance in my opinion.

It’s pretty well written. It’s heavy-handed with the real world history, but that’s kind of the point of the story, so I don’t know how annoyed to be by it.

The more this book goes on, the more I’m so convinced the teacher is not dead at all. I don't know how she did it, but I don’t think she’s dead. (Wrong.)

She keeps saying she’s not humble. She literally comes across so nice and humble.

Camaraderie I mean come-

This is not enemies to lovers. This is literally revenge fantasies and rapey and I do NOT like it. And it’s not because of some gentle lesbian cliche. If he was a dude I'd hate him too.

Lol Faerie AI also can’t do hands. (I think it's so interesting how both dreams and AI can't get hands right.)

Are compound sentences not allowed in magic? (I have this snarky thought whenever you get that one wish trope.)

Another gaping plot hole: if they can manipulate water with their magic, and snow is water, why can they not manipulate snow?

How very Fox D’Mora. That’s gotta be a nod to Olivie.

capacious

bilious

What a piece of fan art that would make- some albino femme on a fire horse.

You know normally I’m all in on I’m going to ruin you smut, but not here, not when there's actual malice behind it.

Lol he’s turning into Groot.

Hid it under her not bird? (No, but tell me this isn't such a better hiding spot than in her pocket. The not bird is literally just there for vibes otherwise.)

Yeah, correct. I’m not rooting for this romance if you get off on the idea of killing her.

I feel like people who like this book are gonna try and attack criticizers of the romance with the argument that they like enemies to lovers when it’s straight people. They like a grumpy, morally gray character when he’s a man. So they just don't like this book because they're homophobic.
And I’m just over here like if you slap a dick on Lorelei, I would still be upset at the things the theoretical he is doing and saying.

Oh come on, that has to be a nod to Olivie Blake.

I still don’t believe that he’s the villain. I think it’s that Adel chick still. (It’s so frustrating to me when I open the mystery book and I figure it out based solely on when characters are introduced. It’s annoying.)

Girl, this is not a plot twist. I fucking opened this book.

Let’s be very clear, it’s not The Secret History, but there’s whiffs.

Did she just rip off Pride and Prejudice because like I’ve lowkey been thinking that all book, but I also haven’t read it to confirm, but I do know that infamous line.

Old habits die screaming🎶

I fucking hate that princess bride line.

Absolutely 0 to 60. This is like all whimsy and dark fairytales, and then it comes in with like mild bdsm sex shit, and just was not expecting that.

I know the explanation is because fairy magic, but the fact that this creature can just teleport around is way too plot convenient. It's lazy writing.

What do you mean she’s just like I surrender and they believe her? What the fuck is that?

Forcing Heike to marry the king is not the feminist saves herself girl power redemption arc you think it is.

How do you draw out an ending that much and make it that anti-climactic?

Also, it's cool that they're getting married, but like isn't the entire rest of the kingdom still overrun with fantasy nazis? Like are we just gonna ignore that? (Yes. Happily ever after, the end.)

Post-reading:
Here’s the thing, I don’t think anyone’s pitching this book correctly, but even if they had marketed it appropriately, I still think you’d be disappointed.

The romance kinda sucks. And kinda is being generous. I think I get what the author was going for. There’s some Pride and Prejudice vibes, some dark academia rivals, enemies to lovers nonsense going on. The aesthetics are good. The premise is good. The execution…it comes off pretty noncon. There’s a couple lines that turned my stomach, and yet you read them, and you very much get the impression that the author thinks she’s being romantic. It’s really hard to get me to root for a romance when you have a character actively fantasizing about killing the other, especially when that other character has been nothing but nice. The author was clearly aiming for some domme sub spice, but it never connects. You really just read it and go that’s a predator. You’re a bad person. She deserves so much better.

But we’re supposed to root for this main character! And I love morally gray, I love unlikable characters, I love a well-executed tragic backstory. But we never get over that justification hump in this book. It’s perfectly fine if a character isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, but like she’s a dick. for most of the book. unprompted. And not in a funny way, so it’s not really enjoyable to read.

So if we step away from the romance, the rest of the characters are pretty underdeveloped. They have good little soundbites of tragic backstories, but that’s really all they are. They're some pretty staple archetypes that you've read before. One character even exists just to gossip about the others and force the plot.

A plot that is entirely too predictable for the payoff we get. Now I will be the first to acknowledge that I am disgustingly good at guessing books, so just because I figured something out doesn’t mean that the masses will. And I don’t mind a plot that I can guess as long as it’s still satisfying. This isn’t that. You open the book and you have a pretty good idea of whodunnit before the murder even happens, and you wait all book for your main character to catch up to some political leaps you’ve made.

A huge part of this book is a fantastical spin on antisemitism, which like yay representation, but it doesn’t do anything new. There’s nothing uniquely fantasy to the religion. The main character isn't even practicing. It’s just kind of easily identifiable real world history shoved into a book with some fairies happening around it. And then we don’t solve it. We’ll pose all these moral dilemmas about unification, and culture erasure, and religious persecution, and then we completely drop the ball with the ending and fix nothing. Like oh, her overpowered girlfriend’s in charge now, so like world peace, I guess? That's messy. That's lazy. If you’re going to examine a moral issue in a book, you have to give me a stance with your ending otherwise you’re not arguing anything.

The magic system in this book is really just there for vibes and not well thought out. The creatures themselves are fun to hear about, and it’s nice to see faeries getting the gory treatment again.

If you’re going into this expecting some bantering nerdy sapphic romp, you're going to be wildly disappointed. It’s more of a political fantasy that happens to have faeries. It’s very similar to Emily Wilde, so I think fans of that series who want some darker characters will enjoy this book. If you enjoyed Sword Catcher and want more of the same, this will definitely work. I’m not a huge fan of either of those series, and I fared about the same with this book. It’s good, not great, and the romance was never what I wanted it to be, but I don’t actively regret reading it.

Who should read this:
Emily Wilde girlies
Pride and Prejudice lesbians
People who love fantasy spins on Jewish

Ideal reading time:
Early fall

Do I want to reread this:
Nope, but I'd give the author one more chance to wow me before writing her off.

Would I buy this:
Yes because it's just good enough that I can justify owning that cover even though I don't love the book. Probably wouldn't buy it if it had a different cover.

Similar books:
* Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare-political fantasy Jewish, ensemble cast
* Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett-light academia, romantic subplot
* The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo-historical magical realism, fantasy Jewish
* House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas-urban fantasy Jewish, ensemble cast
* This Dark Descent by Kalyn Josephson-political fantasy Jewish romance
* Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo-YA fantasy, heist, ensemble cast
* The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton-cozy fantasy romance, light academia
* Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente-fairytale retelling, historical
* Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater-YA magical realism romance
* Masters of Death by Olivie Blake-urban fantasy romance, ensemble cast
* The Secret History by Donna Tartt-OG dark academia book
* Blood Over Bright Haven by M. L. Wang-urban fantasy, moral dilemma
* Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli-fantasy romance, enemies to lovers, Jewish
* The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem-like it’s not, but if you want fantasy romance enemies to lovers where the politics are actually done well
* Garden of the Cursed by Katy Rose Pool-YA political urban fantasy, enemies to lovers romance, whodunnit
* A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow-fairytale retelling, sapphic romance

Sylvia being pro-Imperialism was a big ick for me.

I loved the folklore aspects, Lorelei's Jewish identity and the overall dynamic between Lorelei and Sylvia. I think they needed more time together though and I would have loved to see the other characters explored more. The story was short but dense and part of it was me not being in the right headspace for it.

After several failed attempts to finish this book, I am going to throw in the towel. It's just not for me, but I do think it would appeal to some teens who enjoy slow burn storylines. The reason why I couldn't finish this book is the conflict between the two main characters was mostly one-sided. I was just as confused as the main character's nemesis whenever the mc got short with her. But I will say that I enjoyed the folklorish parts in this story.

Sorry I haven’t gotten to write my review til now. We moved and everything’s been all over the place for almost a month since moving. But I loved this book so much. I thought it ran slow as the beginning but I think that’s because my brain was all in packing for the move. So I restarted it and it ran amazing. Anything with vampires and other creatures has me by the hook. I highly recommend this book to everything. Will definitely be rereading this every Fall/Halloween season.

This is my second Allison Saft novel, and in this one she does again something that drove me bananas in her last book: make the setting obviously inspired by a particular real-life place and time, and make the MC a member of a real-life oppressed identity, but change all the names and add magic so the story is set in a secondary world.

Here, the setting is clearly just-unified Germany (c. 1860s). All the character/creature names are German. The king is even named Wilhelm. And Lorelei, the MC, is Yeva aka Jewish: they sit shiva, observe kosher laws, are required to stitch gold circles onto their clothes. Why use all these historical and cultural references only to set the book in a secondary world?

I also found Lorelei to be pretty unbearable. She and her people have been subject to vicious brutality and prejudice and this has hardened her into focused, determined blade seeking her own ends. Totally understandable. But she is so self-sabotaging and bitter, even to people who are kind to her, that it was difficult to read the story through her POV. The plot did pick up around 2/3 through, though, which made it more readable.

I will say that Saft writes fantastic kissing scenes (especially first kisses): full of yearning and tension. This was true of A Fragile Enchantment, too. And Saft’s writing is strong and extremely readable. There’s just some elements of her storytelling that evidently aren’t for me.

I really enjoyed the beginning of this novel. I loved Lorelei and Sylvia's antagonistic relationship, and I really enjoyed the worldbuilding and magic.
Once they started traveling by foot to find the spring, I started to lose interest. Lorelei and Sylvia began getting closer and I just didn't love them as a romantic couple. There were some good action scenes and other moments but as a whole, once I was finished I just felt meh about the story.

While this one didn't 100% work for me I have loved Alison Saft's previous novels and look forward to what she is going to write next