I love me a good book with gothic sapphic romance with a rival to lovers in an academic setting!
This proved to be an absolute gem that swept me away with its eerie, spooky yet hauntingly beautiful writing.
The story centers around a murder mystery. The plot twists and turns in unexpected directions, kept me on the edge of my seat.
However, it's the romance that truly stole the show for me. The slow burn - it's a slow burn that's delightfully unhurried, allowing the tension between the characters to simmer and build with anticipation. The romance aspect of the book was my favourite, slow burn was really slow burning for sure hahaha. But the tension is what I lived for! It was adorable!

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

sapphic slow-burn academic rivals to lovers gothic folklore? I did not think I could possibly love this more.

Wonderfully written! The murder sub-plot felt rather whodunnit-esque, which was interesting. As for the romantic build up had me giggling and kicking my feet in the air at the possibility of holding hands.

The cover art is absolutely stunning as well. I can’t wait to purchase a physical copy and highlight/annotate accordingly!

(Thank you Netgalley for sending a copy in exchange for an honest review!)

This is the atmospheric, gothic romantic fantasy/murder mystery of my dreams. It is quite possibly the most well-written book I’ve ever read, and I think it’ll live in my head forever. It was absolutely riveting from the very start, and I wish it hadn’t ended!

Tropes:
Opposites Attract ✨
Forced Proximity 🤌🏻
Tending to Wounds 😍
Rivals to Lovers 🫶🏻

This book was eerie. The descriptive imagery had me a little spooked at times in the best way possible. Allison Saft’s ability to turn this haunting fantasy world into something believable was incredible. Her use of metaphors had me highlighting basically the entire book. She’s an incredible author.

This is a murder mystery of sorts, and I genuinely had no idea how it would end. There were several times that I just wasn’t sure this would end positively, and I was NERVOUS. It wasn’t predictable at all.

The ROMANCE….wow. The tension was palpable throughout the entire book. It’s slow-burn, but reading Lorelei’s internal dialogue had me BLUSHING. The yearning, the longing, and the wanting (yes, I did say basically the same thing three times) was incredibly romantic. I found myself really rooting for her happiness, and wow, was it satisfying.

I was prepared to wait until September to read this, but I am so grateful to Netgalley and Del Rey for allowing me to ARC read this. It’s one of my all time favorites now!

Words cannot describe how much I loved this book. It drove me insane. It made me go feral. A Dark and Drowning Tide is utterly enchanting and dripping in folklore. I deeply enjoyed the folk stories, all the different creatures, and the divine atmosphere. The romance was very slow to develop but oh so worth it. This is a romance that will leave you gasping for air. You will feel the yearning and desire coil around your heart and seize it violently. This is by far my favorite Allison Saft book to date, which is quite impressive because all her books have been 5 stars. Officially an auto-buy author for me.

i just read a book where it had sapphic rivals to lovers with a mix of folklore and adventure in it and u want me to be calm after?? yeah, as if. this was such a magical experience for me. i'm out of words. oh how i adore lorelei and sylvia. my precious dark hair x light hair duo, we love u. they were stunning and brilliant, their banters are an absolute delight. i highlighted sooo much, saft literally has a way with words. and god help me when i read some of these sentences it made me want to go to a corner and just sob for hours (in a very good way). i'm so extremely grateful i could meet them earlier, a big thank u to the team for making my wish come true. i'll be here contemplating what to do now.

one thing's for certain is that this is a big win for sapphic nation. thank u allison saft.

3.5⭐️ - I was initially drawn to this book based on the description and it did not disappoint...not to mention the beautiful cover! Sapphic enemies-to-lovers, gothic vibes, with a murder mystery. It did take me a minute to get into and keep track of the characters, but once I did I flew through the remainder of the book!

Thank you NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group, and Allison Daft for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a solid 4.5 stars for me. There is something so intriguing about a dark academia setting with magic that also incorporates queer love. It was a dark read with mounts of betrayal and secrets with so many twists and turns. I thoroughly enjoyed this read and will be recommending it to anyone who enjoys the aesthetic.

Lorelai is embarking on a quest for the king of Brunnestad with her professor and a group of other naturalists to find the Urspsung, the well of all magic. On the first day of the quest, however, their professor is murdered and Lorelai must work with her academic rival, Sylvia, to uncover the murderer while searching for the Urspsung and fighting off fair folk at every turn.

This is a very cute sapphic rivals to lovers story. It gives off similar vibes to Emily Wilde but with a younger cast of characters and more politics and religion throughout. I thought the fantasy-Jewish angle was really interesting to see in a novel and really well handled.

Sadly this one wasn’t really for me. I appreciated the dark atmosphere and the elements of folklore, as well as the two main characters, Lorelei and Sylvia. However, most of the time I found it difficult to get through. I think it was more so a case of me not being interested personally, as I can see why people might enjoy this. The rivals to lovers romance was well done with lots of tension, bickering, and secret pining. Lorelei was the epitome of the grumpy to Sylvia’s sunshine.

Aside from that, it took me ages to differentiate the other characters from one another and I didn’t care for any of them, nor did I care to follow any of the politics of the world. I have enjoyed other books by this author such as A Fragile Enchantment, so I would still be willing to read more in the future.

Thank you to Random House for the ARC!

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

This one was hard for me to really get into - the pacing dragged a bit and it was hard for me to feel connected or excited about the story.

With that being said - I absolutely believe that there is an audience for this book and I believe that there will be plenty of readers who enjoy the book, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

Allison Saft is a great writer and I did enjoy one of her characters more than the others - Sylvia. Sylvia has a happy-go-lucky way about her that drives other people mad. She's a fun character who marches to the beat of her own drum and can be unconventional. She's more dreamer than some of the other logical characters, like her rival Lorelai.

I was hopeful that the sapphic love story aspect would be more intriguing, as I'm a sucker for a good romance, but I did find it to be lackluster.

I would recommend this book to those who are interested in gothic fantasy turned murder mysteries - give it a try, you might like it!

Thank you so much to the publisher via Netgalley and the author for providing me with an arc!
I was so excited to review A Dark and Drowning Tide as i'm always up to read a sapphic fantasy romance. I had such a good time following the story of Lorelei and Sylvia. Their hardships and their goals evolving as they got more and more involved with each other and the more they learned about one another had me giggling and rooting for them to have their happy ending. Not only was their relationship developing among a murder mystery written really well, but the hardships and discrimination that Lorelei and her people had to experience was felt and understood. Lorelei and Sylvia had everything on the line riding with the expedition and finding out who murdered their mentor. The gothic setting, the imagery, the atmosphere, and the enemies-to-lovers was an added bonus. I would have loved to know more about the magic system and folklore. Everything that this book set out to do was done and executed beautifully.

3.75

This was one of my most anticipated book for 2024 and I came out of it a bit underwhelmed. I thought that the writing style was too dense to enjoy which lead me drag my feet through the story. I found the characters a bit too generic so I wasn't fully invested nor attached to any of them. But I love the world-building, the mythology, the setting and that cover is to die for. I've read every single one of Saft books at this point and this certainly won't be the last. This was a great adult debut nonetheless, even if it didn't specifically worked for me .

A Dark and Drowning Tide was such an enjoyable read. A great combination of dark academia, murder mystery, a crew on an adventure, and sapphic romance. Some of my favorite things were:

- The world: was really interesting, I loved learning about the different wildeluette, the folktales, and the exploration of it as the group traveled on their journey.

- The characters: I really loved Lorelai and Sylvia. Lorelai I loved from the beginning, but Sylvia was one that grew on me throughout until I was as mesmerized by her as Lorelai is. The rest of the group were also really interesting and it was really fun to try to guess at all of their innocence/guilt and to learn more about their motives and background.

- The plot: was pretty fast paced and exciting. If you like exploration and adventure then you should enjoy this book. Some things I guessed at but some things I had to wait to find out. I think overall it was a pretty good mix of both which made it an enjoyable read for me.

- The romance: this was probably my favorite part of the book. There were multiple times I would giggle and smile while reading the interactions between Lorelei and Sylvia. It was so adorable from the very beginning all the way to that final page (I cried happy tears at a couple of points). They are so good together, the same in some ways and opposites in others. I want a novella with just their adventures together in the future.

Overall I would highly recommend this book and I can’t wait to read more of Allison’s writing, I hope she writes more sapphic romances in the future.

Thank you to the publishers, Netgalley, and the author for the ARC I read.

Let me preface by saying. I was sucked in to this book in no small part due to its GORGEOUS cover. That, and a shameless weakness for a good antagonistic / enemies to lovers plot line that will never be overdone in my book no matter how many times it's done. Point being, as a whole however I can't say that it is my usual literary bread and butter, but from a casual consumer of fantasy I can say that I enjoyed it quite a bit! There is a lot of really fantastic world building throughout the story that, for me at least, hit that sweet spot between fantasy with delicate tethers to reality to keep it easily digestible for the less die hard crowd where fantasy is concerned.

I enjoyed the mystery element and found having it interwoven was a huge part of what kept me going (not much of a romance reader, while we're at it).

The only real issue for me (and this could relate back to fantasy not being my usual genre of choice) was that it oftentimes felt like I was reading a very beautiful report versus a story. What I mean by that, is that I found it difficult to connect to the characters in a deeper way. So while I wanted to know what happened, and I am happy to have read the book overall, I didn't necessarily find myself snoozing my alarm to sneak in another few pages. I hesitate to mark down for that, because again I think that could be more of a reader to book match issue than a weakness in the work itself.

Overall, I'm happy I had a chance to read A Dark and Drowning Tide and could see myself picking up another book by Allison Saft going forward, I definitely will be recommending it to anyone in my circles with an interest in fantasy, world building, and/or folklore!

Thank you to the publisher, NetGalley, and Allison Saft for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

(This review will be posted on my goodreads upon publication)

oh my god?? it's like her writing gets better every time so i have to say this one is my favorite book of hers!

there's so much i can talk about like the characters (lorelei and sylvia have my heart), the atmospheric settings and THE DESCRIPTIONS!!! and let's not forget the actual plot (which the mystery made me feel so stupid, i don't know how i didn't realize)

i cried so many times while reading it's not even funny. it was everything.

thank you netgalley for the e-arc!

Wow wow wow. I have not has a book hook me from the first page and this one did exactly that. The cover is beautiful as well. I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy of this. Looking forward to more works by Allison Saft!

First of all I want to thank Netgalley and Ballantine Books for this ARC!
I am giving this a 5/5 review. Enemies to Lover? Sign me up! This book had me sucked in. With mystery, fantasy, romance and everything in between it gives you a little bit of everything. Our MC Lorelei is sassy and flawed. I loved the fact that the characters were flawed. I feel like this helps us readers to relate more to the characters. The writing was great and kept you engaged. The ending I did not see coming it was a big twist. I am looking forward to reading more from Allison Saft.

Lorelei Has dreams of being a naturalist in order to do so she had to she has to find a certain something for her king on the way to her journey she loses someone very close to her an has to solve the murder while trying to fend off other creatures, while trying to retrieve, said item !! This book was an adventure twists an turns left an right I absolutely loved this book and the cover is so beautiful

Gothic sapphic rivals pining for each other? Sign me up!

Lorelei Kaskel, the kingdom’s folklorist, must set out on an expedition for a mythical spring with six nobles and her beautiful academic rival Sylvia von Wolff. The trip is off to a bad start when the leader, Lorelei’s mentor, is murdered. Together with Sylvia, the two must discover the culprit and the secrets of the Spring, before an undeserving noble seeks it for themselves.

The mystery, mythical creatures, and magic were great additions to the story, but the real gem is the romance. Lorelei and Sylvia, their dialogue, rivalry, and pining scenes, all swoon-worthy perfection. It is slow, and is secondary to the plot, but so worth it. This book is a great read, the author never misses.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for this ARC.

➼ 4.5 ☆
~ thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for a cop in exchange for my honest review !!

This was my first Alisson Saft book and needless to say, I'll definitely be reading her other works. I was desperately hoping to love this book, since I absolutely adored the premise, and I'm so glad that it didn't disappoint.

In this book, you read about love, bravery, and cruelty, among so many other things. The tale has been interwind with so many different topics so beautifully that I adored it so much. Some of the quotes hold such a close place to my heart. The writing was so elegant and enticing, I adored it. The way things were described, quotes were said, and characters were writing was enthralling. Everything pulled me in. The way this book was crafted was honestly so ethereal to me, it gave me this... feeling. I loved it, i loved that feeling.

The characters were well written, but it felt as if you could only connect to them to a certain level. I couldn't figure out exactly why, but it frustrated me at certain times. You knew what the characters were feeling, but you weren't 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 what they were feeling. While I adored Lorelei and Sylvia, I wasn't able to connect to them as much as I wanted!

The romance was amazing. I loved the fact that it was a sapphic rivals to lovers, a trope that I've never read before but I feel like it was written perfectly. I do wish that it showed how Sylvia started to gradually care about her more because it seemed to come out of almost nowhere but it didn't feel entirely choppy. Overall, I adore how their relationship was written!!

The plot was amazing. I did 𝘯𝘰𝘵 guess who would turn out to be the killer, even though I had strong suspicions on who it was which turned out to be completely incorrect. I lovelovelove how the story was told and the twists that happened. I feel as if the final product wasn't one that I was fully expecting or one that added up for me but at the same time it did. I had a lot of conflicting thoughts about it!

Overall, this is one of the best books I've read this year! It's definitely a favorite and I cannot wait to get my hands on the physical copy because that cover is absolutely 𝘨𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘰𝘶𝘴. I've fallen so in love with Lorelei and Sylvia so much, I was screaming over them holding hands. It's definitely a book I would recommend reading and I enjoyed reading it so much. This being the first arc I've ever gotten, I'm so happy I loved it! I'll definitely be reading more of the author's works because I adore her writing style <3

𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴