Dark Tides, the sequel to Tidelands, suffers from a number of flaws — namely, poor characterization, no atmosphere (which she actually had going for her in Tidelands), and the most transparent, preposterous, and convoluted storyline imaginable. If there's a third in this series, I will not be returning for it. This makes me question Gregory's other works — which I have not read, but heard so much about.

First, there's such a slow start to Dark Tides in addition to constant back-and-forth between the two settings: London and New England. Gregory would've done better to not chop it all up, especially at the beginning, into such tiny segments of changing points-of-view to set up the novel. In fact, I really don't think Ned's storyline was necessary at all. Adventures with Ned and his Chain of Ethical Issues (with which most of us agree by now, and which was not common viewpoint back then) that he drags around with him was so clearly draped across his shoulders by the author. The weight of what basically amount to an essay is a lot to carry, especially when all the plot is actually happening across the ocean in London. His story is dull, dry, and entirely predictable, dropping the history lesson like a piano in a cartoon.

The characters themselves suffer from no development, particularly since Gregory once again favors telling and not showing. Twenty years has passed and no one seems to have experienced any growth — aside from the deceptive first ten percent of the book when Gregory lays out some loose groundwork that is meant to do all the heavy lifting for the rest of the book. Alys should be a savvy businesswoman, yet she falls so quickly into allowing herself to be duped that it is wholly unbelievable. How is she more naïve than in the first book?!

And James, with all his talked about heartache and pain, should have experienced more than just passing disappointment once he believes that he has no son and never did. Apparently he never truly loved Alinor; for all his twenty years of pining, with letters sent every year, his feelings seemingly disappear within an instant's notice.

Alinor should be a much wiser woman, given her age, her experiences, and her belief in her gift — she was never a dummy to begin with. And while she's not acting much out of character in this installment, I have to say it's mainly because she's hardly in this book. She's shoved into the corner, barely playing a role. The biggest blow to Alinor's character is actually her relationship with Alys. It is entirely muddied and mishandled. Throughout the book, Alinor continues to keep her feelings hidden from Alys, as though Alys wouldn't understand or believe her. As though they have not lived together Alys's entire life — have not remained close and even gotten closer. It's confounding and disappointing. What a missed opportunity to really display a bond between these two women — having raised two children together — in this time period of history!

Speaking of the children, Johnnie and Sarah, they play strange roles within the story (his basically disappears), but Sarah really shines brighter later on when Alinor sends her on a secret mission to Venice. While the Venice section really picked up the pace in a much needed way, it only added to the absurdity by the end of the book. Sarah herself wasn't much of a character beyond what was needed for the direction of the plot — and she had some conveniences with which I really struggled accepting. Mainly this is centered around Sarah's multilingualism and literacy. I'm willing to accept her level of literacy, seeing as how she's her mother's daughter and whatnot — fine. However, Sarah flippantly remarks that she can speak some Italian and, when in Venice, she acts as though she understands some words only because of her understanding of French. How in the world does this young woman who is an indentured servant and apprentice in a milliner's shop in 1670 London know more than one language on top of being able to read and write with no problems? We are repeatedly told of how poor they are, and how they barely scrape by. I found her character to not only be hard to believe, but to be just a game piece on the board being moved around by the author. She felt completely out of the story.

And then there's Livia. She's obvious from the start and in such a painful way. Utterly transparent, she was exhausting and so thinly developed that she may as well have had an evil cackle she accidentally let loose once in a while. I found it increasingly hard to believe that anyone would fall for her nonsense — not just from the start, but continually so. It only worked because Gregory conveniently has all the characters refusing to talk to each other about things that are happening — it was like a damn YA novel where the main character refuses to ask for help and if she had, all the problems would've been solved and there would've been no story.

However, on top of that I have a real issue with the pseudo-relationship between Alys and Livia. Livia clearly works at seducing Alys into trusting her, capitalizing on her years of loneliness. But the vagueness with which Gregory leaves their scenes hanging ... you have to simply guess at what exactly happens in their shared bed. How far does Livia take the deceptive relationship? How far does Alys allow it to go? And for someone who dropped the word ‘cock’ without hesitation in Tidelands, I find it hard to imagine that Gregory simply wanted a nondescript (let's say) scene. Was it just because it was two women? Disappointingly unbalanced. And what does that say about Livia? She's another villainous LGBTQ+ person who wields her sexuality any which way she wants? What does this say about Alys? Is she bisexual? Was she just manipulated with very little effort? What are we doing here?

Regardless, the book loses itself halfway through once James proposes to Livia — at that point it completely stops making sense. Tell and not showing strikes again. I typically don't like being so far removed from the characters, but having a baffling storyline on top of that made for a frustrating and painful read.

Philippa Gregory brings her rich insight into human behavior, her deft touch with narrative and her extraordinary knowledge to the period to a novel which follows up on her previous TIDELANDS. While love unrequited was the touchstone for the earlier novel, DARK TIDES is spun around deception--which makes this a grimmer read in many respects. It isn't absolutely necessary to have read TIDELANDS before this, but I suspect it helps. A wonderfully wrought, complicated and ambitious novel for any lover of historical fiction.

Dark Tides by Philippa Gregory

480 Pages
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: November 24, 2020

Fiction (Adult), Historical Fiction, Family Drama

The story begins on Midsummer Eve 1670. Livia, Rob’s widow, has come from Venice to London to live with his family. She is horrified to find they are a poor family and sets her sights on marrying into nobility. Alinor sends her granddaughter Sarah to Venice to find out if Rob is really dead. Ned has left England for the colonies. Winter is approaching and he is trying to adapt to the cold weather and relations between the colonists and the indigenous people.

The theme of first book in the series, Tidelands, was unrequited love. This book is all about deceit. It is written in the third person from three different perspectives: Ned in New England, Sarah in Venice, and the three women in London. The story is fast paced, and the characters are well developed. There were twists in the book that I did not see coming and the ending makes me long for the next book in the series to see what will happen next. This book did not disappoint at all and I highly recommend it.

The Fairmile #2

This is the follow up to Tidelands.

The year is 1670. Midsummer Eve. On the poor side of London’s wharf area two women work hard to survive. They have both been treated horribly by the men in their lives and they must make their own way in the world.

I really think you should read the first book before this one. I was in the dark most of the time.

London at this time was no place for a woman. Men ran the world and treated women as less than human.

When an old lover shows up no one is happy to see him. There is some backstory there I never got.

Next a brash woman from Italy who claims she has the older woman’s son's child and the son has died.

I have to say I wanted to like this, but it was so depressing and dark. I thought the grandmother and the granddaughter were the only decent characters.

We will give the next one a try, however.

NetGalley/ November 24th, 2020 by Atria Books

I wanted to love “Dark Tides” because I love Philippa Gregory’s lyrical style, deft storytelling, and famous attention to detail. Given that I loved book 1, right up until it became a cliffhanger for book 2, and everyone’s character seemed to do a 180, I was determined that Gregory would make all right in book 2. All the elements are here: intrigue, well-drawn characters, and a plot that weaves in and around London, to Italy, and back to London...but goodness, it is slow, bloated. (Also there is the alternating story of Alinor’s brother, Ned Ferryman, who has gone to New England to start anew. Which felt disjointed from the London story and read like it should have been a different book entirely—if only I had cared about any of those characters.) Anyway, what I found most frustrating about this novel was that it is obvious from the beginning to Alinor and Alys (to me!) that the widow from Italy is not telling the truth about Rob’s death, yet she is welcomed into the house almost at once. Add to that, Sir James Avery, for all his returned lands and title, is still the same wet noodle he turned out to be in book 1–and despite how much I wanted Alinor to find true happiness, it was not to be in this novel.

Thank you, Simon & Schuster, Atria Books, for this advanced copy from one my favorite authors...Just not my favorite book.

I would like to consider myself a huge fan of Philippa Gregory. I loved the Order of Darkness series. So, I dove into this book thinking how wonderful I get to read another great book, but sadly that's not how it turned out for me. I'm not one to tell you what the book is about, instead I give insight to how it makes me feel or what kind of impression the characters made while reading. This leads to my explanation about Dark Tides. The beginning of the book gave me a solid introduction to the characters. There are two story lines that play out. One takes place in London. The other in New England. It took me until I was 46% into the book that the story started to pick up. Normally, I would have given up on the book. And I don't do this often. Leading up to my 46% I found myself skimming. I abandoned the New England story line after this point. I didn't feel it was relevant and I definitely did not miss out on anything pertinent. The London story was far more interesting and became my focus. The main characters are strong women which is a good thing when done right. I just didn't feel engaged. Instead I'm left disappointed. Thankfully Gregory has other great books to make up for this one. A special thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in advance for my sincere and honest opinion.

Philippa Gregory is one of my favorite authors. It therefore makes me sad to say that I had to give up on this book 3/4 of the way through. Blame it on the enforced quarantine that has left us with little to do but read, or say that the repetition of the two narratives that make up this novel became to much to endure.

In Tidelands, the first book in this series, we left Alinor and Alys 25 years ago, both pregnant with bastards. Alinor nearly died after being drowned as a witch, and she and her daughter escaped to London. Alinor's brother, Ned the Ferryman has gone to the Massachusetts Colony where he lives closely with both the colonists and the Native tribes.

Alinor and Alys run a wharf and storage facility and work hard for their living. Her son's widow arrive s with his baby and moves in. Alinor doesn't trust her or believe her when she says her son Rob, drowned. She's also not too sure that baby is her grandson. The widow is up to no good. We all know it won't end well. She makes a play for James, returned to make things right with Alinor for his betrayal of her and to acknowledge his son and heir.

Neither will it end well for Ned in his half of the narrative. So it goes, on and on, until you simply don't care any more. I gave it up. My sincere apologies to the author. It's probably my fault.

Thanks to Atria for an ARC copy of this book to read and review.

What a fascinating story! Actually it is three different stories set in two dramatically different locations. Two of the stories are about a woman run household in England in 1670 and 71. The women have a wharf and small warehouse they use for trade. They are reputable, honest and well received by their neighbors and those with whom they work. The third story is about Ned, the brother of the eldest woman who is a Ferryman and who has moved to the new world following Cromwell’s defeat and is attempting to assimilate himself there by living and working with both the settlers and the natives. Back in England, Livia, a widow from Italy who tells the women she was married to the brother of the younger woman and that the child she brought with is his son. She convinces the women to take her and her entourage into their home and family. Going any deeper into the plot will lead to spoilers, but I highly recommend it. Thanks to Net Galley and Atria for an ARC for an honest review.

This book is so rich in the descriptions and characterizations of the most basic of all human emotions. Greed, betrayal, love, family loyalty, survival -- i could go on and on. The sections about Ned, brother to Alinor and uncle to Alys and Rob showed the slow but sure beginnings of the betrayal and ultimate massacre of the North American Indians in the New World. Sections of the chapters of the frienship between him and his friend who "lived between two worlds" feeling that he was failing at this almost impossible task by trying to keep peace between the settlers and his people by having the English keep to their treaties brought tears to my eyes. Alinor's love and tenacity in believing not in Livia's lies about her husband Rob drowning in Venice was a strong element throughout the novel and made the ending joyous. Livia's greed and duplicity was very aptly portrayed. She was a beautiful, utterly selfish and greedy manipulative woman out for all she could get including the now remorseful and lonely James Avery who I believe not only never forgave himself for his abandonment and earlier betrayal of Alinor but uttlerly got his comeuppence in the end. I have read all of Philippa Gregory's books and have never been disappointed. Dark Tides is another masterpiece. Many thanks to Net Galley and Atria books for allowing me the pleasure of reading this new addition to this marvelous series.

I wanted to like this book truly I did. I really liked the first one and I was excited to read this one. However the characters did not have the same resonance with me as in the first book. I hated Livia and I had trouble connecting with Sarah and Johnnie and Alys. And I really didn’t care for the Ned storyline either. It was well written and the story flowed, I just did not care for the characters and I read it quickly so I could get through it.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and Atria.

This book is basically life coming along and dropping a big cket of dung on poor Alinors head at random intervals.

Now this is actually a good thing! See I like Alinor and I want the best for her!

It's just a lot to process.
So if you like deep-dive historical books you're gonna love this one!