From the first chapter, I could tell I was going to love Allison’s writing. I’d heard great things about her YA novels, and this book (I believe her first Adult Fantasy?) was a wonderful introduction to her work. A Dark and Drowning Tide is decadent and lovely— it was impossible not to fall in love with Sylvia. She was such a charming and whimsical character, and observing her through the eyes of grumpy and practical Lorelei was a treat. I’m not usually a huge fan of whodunnit, but this one kept me on my toes and the gothic folklore was completely captivating.

“I want you brutal, and I want you tender, I want you at your best and your worst.”

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for providing me with an E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I REALLY wanted to love this book. The cover was gorgeous, the premise sounded amazing, and I have only read great reviews.

But I felt like the story promised so much and delivered so little. I felt like the pacing was very slow and not much happened. In addition, Lorelei and Sylvia barely spoke to each other throughout the story, and I didn't feel invested in their relationship at all.

There were also too many folktales sprinkled in the story, and I found myself skimming through them.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3 / 5 ⭐️


I found this book very engaging. The plot kept me wanting to know what happened next and, while some twists were predictable, there were still enough surprises that I did not predict. I thought that the characters were generally well fleshed out, if a little passive at times.

One criticism I did have was that Lorelei and Sylvia's relationship felt a little "insta-lovey". As soon as Sylvia made her feelings clear, all of a sudden Lorelei, a character generally cold and calculating, melted. The ending also felt as though it were resolved a little too easily, and it was a bit rushed.


Overall, I enjoyed the world-building aspect of this book the most and I enjoyed Lorelei's character, even if her interactions with others weren't always completely consistent.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC of this book!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me a free eARC of this book to read in exchange for my review!

Yet again, Allison Saft delivers a fantasy romance that swept me off my feet. I fell in love with the fairy tale quality of this story - and the fairy tales sprinkled throughout.

a dark and drowning tide is an intricately written story with many layers by combining a quest, fantasy creatures, a seemingly murder mystery, and at its heart, a sapphic love story that i very much enjoyed. the writing was very easy to read and allows the audience to be immersed in the story and all the traditions/history of this fantasy world. i also loved the messy dynamics between all the characters.

This is an honest review of an ARC copy of A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft.

First, let me say that my rating is actually a 4.5 stars but Goodreads doesn’t allow the 1/2 mark.

Secondly, the review:

Lorelei and Sylvia are two enemies/rivals who took their sweet time in getting to any romance. When they finally got there, I cheered for them so hard! This story is so full of folklore, magic, angst, tragedy and heartache. I fully expect to see a second book as I feel like there is still so much happening in this world. Each of the characters bring a wealth of umph to the story without overshadowing the plot with unnecessary detail. With that said, I will tell you that the reason I gave this book 4.5 stars rather than 5 is because the beginning of the book was rather hard to get through. While the setup was needed to tell this story, it was cumbersome and lengthy getting into the meat of the story. I was able to picture this world so completely in my mind that I felt the rock of the boat and the magic in the air! I worried through forests and shook with fear at some of the creatures we see. The imagery is quite powerful and you’ll find yourself surviving right alongside these lovely characters in an often harsh world.

You cannot go wrong reading this story!

Thanks so much NetGalley for allowing me to read this one early!

Thank for you the ARC! I will be posting this review to Goodreads on release day with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. The review will appear as follows:

4.5 - (Ebook)

THE PLOT: A folklorist must travel with six eccentric nobles in search of a fabled magical spring, the discovery of which will provide untold powers to a king desperate to secure his reign of his embattled country of Brunnestaad.

LIKES:
- Jewish MC
- Sapphic love story
- The Yearning™️
- Folklore and fables
- Rich atmosphere

DISLIKES:
- Occasionally dragging plot

Back in the days when wishes still held power…

A Dark and Drowning Tide is a sapphic academic rivals to lovers fantasy novel with folklore and fairy tales, love and betrayal, and the pursuit of what one perceives as justice and survival amidst it all. This book explores themes of prejudice and discrimination, as well as the concept of folklore throughout multiple cultures, their similarities and their differences, what may or may not be based in truth, and how prejudice may lie between the lines. Allison Saft has a beautiful style of prose here, dark, atmospheric, and rich, with a dreamy sense of setting that fits in neatly with the fairy tales told within. The main character’s personal growth, as well the development of her romantic relationship, felt so genuine.

I will say that the end is bittersweet, in that there is no perfect, immediately successful solution to large-scale, systemic discrimination. The world the characters live in is actively hostile, with multiple players vying for control, safety, and survival in the ways they know how, for better or worse. This is an unfortunate reality, but I felt that Saft handled it with care.

Overall, I thought this was excellent read and 100% recommend it to those looking for: Jewish characters, sapphic love stories, gothic atmospheres, folklore in a semi-fantasy setting, and/or hints of dark academia.

CW for antisemitism.

i absolutely loved this book! this is the ya slow burns i love to read. the writing was so beautiful and the story was amazing. the characters development was great. a lot of times with ya the characters development is strange and or none existing. this story didn’t fall flat in any way shape or form.

This was my first book by Allison Saft. I loved the concept of this book so much, but I had trouble connecting with the story and characters.
I really enjoyed the atmosphere, the folklore, the magical creatures, and the academic setting. I think the issue for me was that between the research expedition, the politics, the murder mystery, and the romance, it felt like none of the plots were fleshed out enough for me to connect with and care about the results.
I was most excited for the sapphic romance aspect but it just didn’t feel believable to me. The pacing of the book felt off, some things were described in great detail and repeated while others were glossed over.
I absolutely plan to give Saft’s other books a try because this one was so close to hitting the mark for me.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publishing company for the opportunity to read this book!

I can't quite put into words how to talk about this book. I just really enjoyed it. The Mystery. The romance. The plot. I mean I have no issues at all?! Saft writes so beautifully, this whole book felt romantic even though it wasn't the focal point of the story. The magic systems she creates are always so unique.. The story is easy to follow and the characters are swoon worthy. I Love the representations of queer couples and academic women. The book felt so comfortable and familiar and yet so different to anything I've ever read. I wasn't super surprised by the murderers, but Saft had me thinking about this book the whole time I was reading it just to know more and how the story would end. I haven't read every book she's written yet but if it's anything like this I have a lot to look forward to and I can't wait!

A DARK AND DROWNING TIDE is at first blush a fantastical version of Murder on the Orient Express and other stories like it. It’s fast-paced, full of heart-stopping action and near-misses that left me breathless, and intrigue and tension so thick I finished the book in a single sitting. But just like Lorelei’s folktales, there’s a much deeper message buried underneath the adventure, mythical creatures, and gorgeously rendered setting. The book grapples with grief and its aftermath—whether being the one to survive drives you to all-consuming guilt or forces you to surrender to a sense of wonder.

Lorelei is a heroine with a heart wrapped in thorns, her past and the brutality of societal hatred piercing her with every inch she tries to move forward. You can’t blame her for being angry as the strictures around her bleed her nearly dry, and the metaphorical noose around her neck tightens more and more. As she says at one point, being Yeva means she is alive for the dead as much as she is for the living - and she truly is in the grip of the ghosts that stalk her.

Sylvia, for her part, is seemingly a paradox. She is sunny and beloved on the outside, but holds a sense of desperate longing and a fierce desire to be known for who she is. At her core she is a tragic figure, although one fighting against being known as such until she’s forced to admit that while her suffering may look different than others, her gilded childhood was still a cage.

“Life is as bitter as it is sweet,” Lorelei says near the end of the book. And while the book has plenty of bitterness, it ends with the kind of catharsis that feels real - not with a magical erasure of the hardships the characters face, but with the resolve to keep on going despite their existence. As a Jewish reader, Lorelei’s bitterness and grief and the way that history and the present both weight her down felt real and true — but so did the way in which she found reasons to go on and keep fighting, even if incrementally, to change what she knew to be unjust.

And of course, I’d be remiss not to mention the gorgeous slow-burn romance, the fact that there’s only one tent, the inherently erotic nature of combing your rival’s hair, and what is perhaps the most embarrassing “you really should have read those letters before passing them on to your boss” scenario in all of literature. Lorelei and Sylvia earned my heart, and I cannot wait to read whatever Saft writes next.

special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced look at the book in exchange for an honest review.

Beautifully written dark academia, featuring sapphic rivals to lovers - literally count me in. This story follows Lorelei and Slyvia and their group as they try to find the wellspring. The magic and adventure plot is extremely fun to experience along side them. We have tons of magic, political intrigue, folklore, mythical creatures and more.
Their love story was so poetic and wonderful. The way they are completely different but fit so perfectly well together. I wish we had more of just the two of them.

The beginning of the story is a little bit hard to get into. It’s a lot of world building that is hard to understand as a reader with no knowledge of German folklore. It look me a lot longer to get throughout, but once you get to the certain big plot of the story it gets easier.

Overall this book, the cover, the characters are all so dark fairy tale aesthetic. Would recommend to all those who would enjoy jumping into that kind of world!

This book is a combination of elements that I love: a gothic adventure, a sapphic romance, and a murder mystery, among others. I enjoyed the development of both Lorelei and Sylvia as individuals and with each other—the slow burn was very well done. I would've liked to see more of the world, and perhaps a more fleshed out ending as well, but overall this was an enjoyable read that delivers what it promises.

This is the first time I’ve read something by Allison Saft and consider me impressed. I adored this beautifully dark book. I love our main character Lorelei, she’s not your traditional hero at all. I can see how others might get frustrated with her endless pessimism but it suits her character well. We also get to see some wonderful character growth from her and the way she looks at the world. I loved the way Saft included twisted versions of the fairytales we are so familiar with. This is a perfect gothic fairytale adventure and I wouldn’t mind returning to the world Allison Saft has created here. I found the pacing to be good, I never got bored. I do wish we had gotten a little more development of some of the side characters. I didn’t care so much when they weren’t around. But all in all this is such a fun read. I’m definitely going to be reading more Saft books in the future.

A Dark and Drowning Tide was made for me. Enemies-to-lovers lesbians in academia that end up having to solve a murder? Count me in, this book is for me.
I loved A Dark and Drowning Tide. I really did, I read it in like four hours or something. The world felt so vibrant and all the characters were complex, I found very few of them to be one note.
My biggest gripe would be that the end felt a little rushed, but not to the point where it detracted from the rest of the book.
A very solid 4.5/5!

I didn't know what I was getting into when I requested this book. All I knew is that it was by Alisson Saft and the vibes from the cover were immaculate. Thank you to Del Rey (who always know what I want) and Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I cannot accurately convey to you the joy I was in when I read this book. You have everything that I love (and desperately needed at the time); a backdrop of a kingdom after a great war, a king with something to prove after conquering his neighbors, a group of academics, and one magical quest. I was hooked. And you will be too!

Saft's writing is incredible, as always. With characters that you can't help but root for.

I wanted to love this. Beautiful cover, intriguing plot summary, Lesbian romance…what’s not to love? Unfortunately, this was just not well written. The characters were flat and unsympathetic. I did not care about any of them and don’t feel like the author did an adequate job of fleshing them out and giving me a reason to care. A big disappointment.

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up to 4.

I’m not sure where to begin with this book as I’m still figuring out what I liked and disliked about it. I will say that it took me more than halfway to get invested in the characters and story. The writing was beautiful and descriptive but the plot lacked momentum or depth. I found myself kind of drifting along through the pages waiting for something to grab my attention. The slow burn romance between Sylvia and Lorelei fell flat and for an adult book debut, the romance and intimacy felt too YA. I did enjoy the murder mystery aspect to this book and commend the author for writing something new and fresh. Thank you NetGalley for my ARC!

Thanm you to Allison Saft and Random House Publishing for this arc <3

A sapphic, Jewish, romantic fantasy that is bursting with folklore and mystic unearthly elements. Everything from the compelling magic to the enchanting creatures grabbed me from the start, especially with the beautiful cover. The bewitching fairytales in every chapter that tied into the situation helped build a hypnotizing story that would keep me submerged into the story.

The tension between the two love interests, Lorelei and Sylvia, was choking me through the screen. But it was a good kind of choke, you know? One that I was eager to see more of and I got exactly what i wanted. Allison Saft was incredible with building up tension throughout the book and tying it off with a perfect undoing performance.

I am so excited to see people snatch a copy of this book in 2024. Allison's writing is beautiful and i am so grateful I got to experience this story myself.

Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey and Netgalley for providing me the eARC upon my request. These are my honest opinions of the book.
To be released: September 17, 2024

With such a gorgeous cover, I was really hoping to love this book. The cover paired with the synopsis had me expecting dark, dreamy, even slightly gothic tale with murder.

I was LET DOWN. Was I given a single reason to care about the characters? No, and it starts with the main character. Lorelai comes off as bitter, miserable, and hateful. I also felt a little uncomfortable with the implication that she and the Yevisch identity are stand-ins for the Jewish people. I’m not sure it (i.e. Jewish identity and anti-Semitism) was handled with enough care and nuance.

Sylvia, Lorelei’s rival, comes onto the scene in a fascinating way. With good looks, curiosity, and confidence, Sylvia should’ve been a character I liked or at least was intrigued by. However, just like every other character, Sylvia remains shallowly characterized and therefore foreign to me.

What further makes the poor character work stand out is the fact that the plot is equal parts treasure hunt and mystery whodunnit. With the majority of the plot being a cast of characters stuck on a boat looking for the “Ursprung,” I felt like the characters should’ve filled up the story with their distinct, three dimensional personalities rather than remaining names with traits. When they do take decisive action, I didn’t feel like I had enough substance to understand their motivations. The mystery basically amounts to Lorelai saying she is determined to find the culprit for over two hundred pages and then luckily stumbling upon answers. The bare bones trajectory for the plot and the romantic elements are great ideas but poorly executed.

The atmosphere is paper thin. I liked the little flairs of culture and setting we got, but it was mostly limited to names and brief descriptions. The info-dumpy folklore that occurs frequently throughout the book is supposed to support Lorelei’s role as the folklorist on the expedition—but it just comes off as random and disruptive. I do think the few action scenes and encounters with the magical creatures seemed comparatively well written. I also know from reading A Fragile Enchantment that Allison Saft has a better grasp of the romance story than plot lines involving politics. So I wish that the love plot incorporated had been more developed. As it was, the dynamic was a bit static and one-note for most of the book. The dramatic turns near the end cannot save it.

Overall, I would not recommend this book. It was very badly crafted as a whole.