Allison Saft's debut adult novel does not disappoint. Considerably darker than her previous novels which I have read, the anger and righteousness from our protagonist Lorelei is at first somewhat jarring before we get to really know her. I found her very dynamic and I appreciated the way that her character transformed as the novel went on, mirroring her growth and her feelings for her academic rival, Sylvia.

The richness of Saft's descriptive force is as compelling as always and fully immerses you in the harshness of both the ship on the water and both the terror and bleakness of the wilderness. The last few chapters I read with a held breath right up until the conclusion.

Definitely do not miss this gothic fantasy romance from one of the greats being published on September 17th.

“Back in the days when wishes still held power…”

It’s part quest, part murder mystery, part political scheme, part romance. It’s both whimsical and dark, about finding oneself and getting lost in someone else. Deals with loss and grief and the things, or rather people, that haunt us.

I have to say how absolutely gorgeous the cover of this book is, I would buy the book just for that reason alone. A Dark and Drowning Tide follows the adventure of 6 very different people on a mission to find the source of all magic which has only been spoken about in folktales.

You jump right into the story and learn about the world and magic system as you go along. I love the world building in this book because the author writes as if the reader is a part of this world and drops names of creatures like alpdrücke and mara as if they were dog or cat. I especially adored all the references to German folklore as I am a Grimms fairytale lover and picked up on some nods to the stories I know well. Even in this overtly fairytale world Saft seamlessly incorporates a prejudiced society that anyone can recognize and trace to our own world and experiences.

Lorelei and Sylvia are the perfect opposites attract that just make sense couple. I just love a character that is incredibly intelligent and cunning but also is somehow completely oblivious when someone is into them. They helped each other grow and overcome, break the molds they were forced into. The yearning, the sweetest declarations of love, the hoping beyond hope. Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and Net Galley for the E-ARC.

Tropes: sapphic, black cat golden retriever/opposites, rivals to lovers, one tent, Darcy hand flex!!!

This was one of the coolest premises I've ever heard. A locked room murder mystery set in a fantasy world while also on a quest to find a magical spring? Incredible. Amazing. I really thought this delivered everything it set out to accomplish, and it did so very well.

The writing style was beautiful, and the world was lush and immersive. This gave off dark fairy tale vibes the entire way through, which I absolutely loved. All of the characters were very three-dimensional as well. I did find myself wanting to learn more about the magic system. It being water-based was very unique and cool, but I feel like it wasn't particularly well explained.

One of my pet peeves with romances that claim they're enemies to lovers is when they make the switch between enemies and lovers very early on in the book. I want ANGST. I want BICKERING. I don't want you to fall in love 20% into the book. This book did not do this. There was a proper amount of yearning and angst, and when the characters at long last admitted feelings, it was incredibly satisfying.

The main character is the grumpy one in the grumpy x sunshine relationship, which was very unique in my opinion. This is one of my favorite tropes to read, and I was giggling and kicking my feet the entire way through. I did start to get a little bit annoyed at her near the end because she was SO grumpy, but that may have just been my own personal preference showing.

Overall I had a really great time reading this. Thank you so much to NetGalley and RandomHouse for giving me a chance to read it early!

I'm sorry to say I DNF this at 35%. I found the pacing horribly slow, and the worldbuilding was intriguing but not well fleshed out. There was a lot of info dumping, rather than gradually introducing us to the world. The relationships between the characters also felt odd; we are more so told about how characters feel about each other rather than shown. I was genuinely disappointed in this one, as I was thrilled to receive an ARC and believed it would be one of my favorite books of the year.

Wowwwweeee!

This was an epic fantasy, sapphic, slow burn, rivals to lovers. There’s also a ton of folklore (including some very cool creatures!), a quest with a troop of childhood friends, AND a murder mystery!

I will admit that there are just so many characters in this book that I sometimes found myself confusing how they all were intertwined, but it got easier to navigate as I read on. Similarly, some of the pacing was also off for me, which is why it took me a while to finish it. However, I read the last third of the book in *one sitting* because once it got going it really got going and I just couldn’t put it down!

I especially adored the feistiness between Lorelei and Sylvia (even when things started heating up 😮‍💨), and I love love loved learning about the creatures they encountered.

Overall I would give this 3.75 stars (rounded up to 4)!

Thank you to Net Galley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I've been dying to read this ever since I heard the first teaser's/descriptions that Allison Saft posted online. Academic rivals, grumpy/sunshine, hopelessly in love but too dumb to realize it, this book has it all. It's always refreshing how well Saft balances exciting fantasy drama with quiet moments of tenderness.

i thought this one was good but not great. It had a bit of a slow start but I adored the writing style and the atmosphere created by the author.

What Worked for me
1. Sapphic Rep in a fantasy setting :)
2. A slower pace allowed for a deeper appreciation of the the plot developments.
3. A strong and unique authorial voice comes through clearly within the text.
What didn't work as well
1. While I enjoyed having a large cast of characters too many were introduced to me in too short of a space and it was just a lot to keep up with.
2. my arc had some minor typos
who I recommend this title for
This book will be a fun read for current fans of the authors work but is also very simalar in tone to works such as ava reid's A study in drowing.

A Dark and Drowning Tide took you on a ride through twists and turns, the romance was incredible and the world building was easy to follow. Definitely urge people to read, thank you Random House Publishing Group for the e-ARC I though-roughly enjoyed it!

A sapphic fantasy romance that was so delicately told. I found the romantic scenes so lovely and focused on physical beauty, shapes, emotions, touches.

Lorelei and Sylvia could not be more different with Lorelei being more direct, cold, all business and duty driven while Sylvia is smart but light and sweet. With the death of a friend and a mystery to unfold, we get to play detective with a memorable cast of characters but all of whom you may feel suspicious about. Betrayal and lies give the women an opportunity to see where their loyalties lie and whether they can ever find trust amongst them.

A different, unique reading experience and I found the creatures, characters and lands described enough to visualize and put all together. Everything felt powerful and whimsical throughout.

When I heard the pitch for A Dark and Drowning Tide, I thought it would be one of my favorite books of the year. A dark academia book with sapphic rivals-to-lovers? I love all of that. However, I tried to read the first few chapters multiple times and I just couldn't push through. I've never DNFed an ARC before, but I guess there's a first time for everything.

The first chapter is fine. It throws us into the world and we get a lot of tension between Lorelai and Sylvia. The second chapter was difficult to get through. There are 10 named characters (one of which was unnecessarily misnamed at first), 5 or 6 unnamed characters, and the amount of info-dumping left me feeling like I needed to create a series of charts. Not only do we get 10 named characters, but Saft gives us background on each character and explains the dynamic between them and our main character/others. I can understand why Saft does this. When you're introducing this many characters at once, you have to differentiate them or they'll all blur together. Despite trying to distinguish each character, they still all muddled together to me because there were too many to properly remember. I shouldn't have to create a list of who each character is, their backstory, and their dynamic with the main character to read a book. At the very least, I wish Saft would've put a list of the main characters at the front as a resource.

Not only did Saft introduce too many characters at once, but the amount of info-dumping felt overwhelming by the end of the second chapter. Saft gives us the whole history of how the monarch came to power, which didn't seem necessary and could've been explained later. Saft also gave us a flashback scene between the main character and her father that felt out of place too.

Amidst all of this, Saft didn't give me the one thing I needed to keep reading and that is a reason to want to follow Lorelai's story. I love complex, flawed women. A perfect character is boring to read about. However, Lorelei was insufferably bitter. All I needed was some small spark to latch onto so I'd have enough interest to keep going, but it wasn't there. I didn't want to be in her head for hundreds of pages.

This is my third Allison Saft book and, ultimately, I just don't think she's for me. Her other books are poorly paced, and A Dark and Drowning Tide is more of the same. She also has a habit of bringing in complex real-world problems but doesn't treat them with the gravity she should. In the end, it's lazy world-building. While I don't have enough to go on here (which is why I'm not rating this), from the first two chapters, I'm worried that this is also more of the same.

I wish reviewers could get a sample of the story before requesting because feel awful DNFing an ARC. However, after weeks of several failed attempts to read this book, I just couldn't push through.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for my reviews. I wish I had better things to say.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for an advanced copy of this ebook in return for an honest review.

A most people are saying, this is a sapphic romance with magic steeped deeply in the story. Rivals-to-lovers, academic setting, what more could you want.

The story developed well and the romance was sweet. I just think it wasn't exactly what I was looking for right now. I would say this is bound to be a fan fave for many!


3 stars

First of all, thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I very much wanted to love this book. It was very hard for me to get invested. I stopped around 40% through because I was having a hard time connecting to the characters. I felt that the author took great care to describe everything in this world (beautifully), but did not use that same care when it came to the people. It took me a while to understand the dynamic between them and find them relatable.

The story itself was too slow moving for me and did not deliver the haunting vibes I was looking for. I feel the love story took too long to build and left me wanting.

This may be a great read for some people however, this was not a book for me.

While this book had a slow start for me, I overall enjoyed it a great deal. I think there were some loose threads that could have been resolved a little more cleanly for my tastes at the end of the book, but the rivals to lovers romance at the heart of the book was so compelling and well done that I didn't even realize that I had some issues with unresolved plot threads until I sat down to write this review. Beyond the slight struggle in pacing, the overarching story was well done, the characters were all interesting and well rounded, and the "who dunnit" mystery kept me guessing until the reveal. I also have to applaud the cover illustrator, as the cover drew me to the book initially and sometimes even kept me going when the pacing was a little bit of a struggle.

This is a book I'll be able to recommend to many customers and think will sell in our store. I appreciate the opportunity to preview!

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for granting me this arc. This book was sooo good! It was my first Alison Saft book and I thoroughly enjoyed her writing style. it sucks you right in from the very beginning. Gothic lesbians and academic rivalry already had me so excited to read this!! My heart hurt for the character who believed it was impossible to be loved by the other while the other loved them with no questions asked. The mystery side to this story also kept me engaged throughout the entirety of the book. I absolutely recommend.

I thought this book offered a brilliant portrayal of dark, gothic themes and very new-age Agatha Christie-like murder mystery elements (which came as a surprise, I wasn't expecting that going in.) As this was my first sapphic romance, I can't compare it to works of similar themes, however, this has been a wonderful introduction and I'm excited to try other dark fantasy sapphic romance books like this. I do wish the romance played a larger role in this, however the banter between the main characters was VERY well done.

A Far Wilder Magic is currently sitting on my TBR shelf waiting to be read and now that I'm familiar with Alison Saft's writing and prose, I'm even more excited to jump into her previous works.

This was a delightful 4.25/5 star.

A dark and drowning tide following Lorelei and Sylvia on a journey to find the rumored source of magic for the king. It starts wild, I’m not normally for sapphic but this one hooked me. after their first day and the craziness of it all the bond between them was nice to watch form. Only having each other to rely on to get through the forests, and chilling mythical creatures, this novel truly transports you to get lost in. Would recommend with preference warnings.

4/5 ⭐️

If you know anything about me it’s that the more I love something, the harsher I am to critique it. Allison Saft is an instant buy for me, therefore I hold her to a ridiculous standard. She has such an exquisite way of writing that it the epitome of showing and not telling…. With that said, it can be difficult to be dropped into her worlds. She’s not very forgiving when it comes to world building and a lot of it you have to just pick up over time. Most of the time this works for her, but with this particular book having a lot of political undertones it was hard to fully understand at the beginning. I wished it eased us in with a bit more explanation.
I adored these characters (or I adored how she wrote the characters who were unlikeable.) It was so refreshing to see an entire book from the “grumpy/moody” point of view instead of the optimistic sunshine. Lorelei struggled to weigh her feelings for Sylvia and her pride and Allison did an excellent job detailing this. These characters are deeply flawed, which makes them more relatable…. However, I do think some of the actions done (specifically in the second half of the book) were nearly unforgivable and we just kinda grazed over them. I wish there would’ve been more conflict about what one of the characters had done. (If you read the book you will know exactly which part I’m talking about.)
Overall, another great one for the shelf.
ARC provided by NetGalley

Unfortunately this book was not for me… I was really excited about the plot and romance and everything felt quite dragged on and not that interesting. I was bored reading the book, didn’t want to pick it up. I think the author’s writing might not be for me.

Actual Rating 4.5

I have been wanting to read (or write!) a book like this for years. I’m not sure what aspect of this book I liked the most, but there were several things that stood out to me.

The world building was wonderful. It was strong and incorporated smoothly throughout the read without relying on info-dumps. I loved that the premise of this work involved an expedition with naturalists, because it opened the door for so many opportunities for fascinating creativity. The creatures, plants, magic, and folklore of this world were fascinating and utilized wonderfully throughout. The author also chose to create a German-inspired world with a Jewish-inspired population present as well. This was handled well in a way that provided interesting commentary and paralleled real-world treatment of those viewed as “others” by the ruling peoples.

I loved the characters as well. The number of strong women in this book was beautiful. Yet they were unique, motivated by very different things, and given wonderful depth and development. Even the secondary characters, women especially, played a prominent role and were written just as well as the main characters. It was a little difficult to like the characters at first, but as the story went on, explanations for their behavior was incorporated in a way that made their actions and thoughts feel realistic.

My only minor complaint about this work was that as the protagonist was a folklorist, there were many asides where something reminded her of a fairytale and the author included the tale. It happened quite a bit, though thankfully the tales were generally only a couple of paragraphs. There were times when it felt like it interrupted the plot too much though.

If you’re interested in a slower-paced fantasy focusing on the nature of the world, enjoy the “grumpy x sunshine” trope, or are interested in a lovely lesbian romance, then this is absolutely worth checking out.