Philippa Gregory is very talented at writing strong, independent but slightly wicked women. In Dark Tides, there are many women to admire. The stoic, angry Alys, her sighted mother Alinor, the fiercely independent Sarah and then the delicious Livia. Each one is written so well, with flaws and ambitions, predjudices and feminine wiles.
I haven't read Tidelands which tells the story of Alinor but this book can stand alone or as a sequel. The dark, ominous stench and atmosphere of London and the glorious overcoat of Venice reveal things underneath most unexpected. Livia is a woman of beauty and brains and goes out of her way to manipulate. Alys is a respected business woman who longs for love, Alinor stays true to her son who she refuses to believe is dead and Sarah is the grand daughter who sees much more than indicated and shows extraordinary courage and cleverness on her trip to save her family.
This feels like Gregory has gone back to her roots of writing woman we admire and fear, like in Wideacre and The Wise Woman. Those were the novels that first made me a huge Gregory fan and this one is as good as those.
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC, this is my honest review.

Wow! While I found out this book was actually part of a previous book. I did not know that going into it and I must say I wasn’t lost. I was able to keep up and get totally engrossed in this story.
This is my first book by this author ( I honestly don’t know why) and I can tell you it won’t be my last !

Dark Tides is the sequel to Tidelands, both by the outstanding author, Philippa Gregory. Each can be read individually, both both tell a compelling story. To reveal details about Dark Tides would give away plot points of the first book, which I am loathe to do. Suffice it to say, Dark Tides is an engrossing story, rich with details of 17th century Old and New World life. I hope she’s planning on writing a third book in the series and I look forward to reading it.

If I had been able to rate this 4.5 stars I would have.

i am quite a fan of Philippa Gregory. As anticipated, this book did not disappoint!

I found the first part of the book dragged just a bit for me (hence leaning towards 4.5 rather than 5 stars), but when it picked up it was a highly enjoyable, “un-put-downable” read!

Characters from The characters that readers connected with in the first book in this series hold center stage again, with the well developed addition of a mysterious dark haired beauty and her son, Matteo, who arrive on the doorstep claiming to be the widow of Alinor’s son, Rob, who, she claims, died by drowning in the marsh lands of Venice, Italy.

Fans of Ms. Gregory’s writing will be delighted with this book, as will fans of good historical fiction or, simply, fiction in general!

Special thanks to Atria books for the opportunity to enjoy an ARC from a favorite author!

Good continuation of the story from Tidelands.
Though it moved slowly at the beginning, it got better the more it went.
I especially liked the ending. I do hope to hear more of Ned's story one day.

It's midsummer 1670 London. I liked the characters,dialogue and descriptions. I liked the environment.

I have always loved Philippa Gregory's books. I received the ARC for Dark Tides, but I had not read Tidelands so I went back and read that one first. I enjoyed the storyline in Tidelands, but didn't like some of the characters very much. I was hoping they would redeem themselves in the next book.

Unfortunately, the next installment of The Fairmile series didn't give them a redemption story. Alys and Sir James were both still very unlikeable and she added the despicable Livia. I really wanted to see something good for Alinor and the author hardly spent any time on her.

The way the book was written as so choppy and with each chapter flipping back and forth to totally different stories just didn't work for me. I know the book is about the family but Ned's story just didn't work for me in this book. It was so drawn out with nothing really happening.

I enjoyed getting to know Sarah and Johnnie, but it still left so many unanswered questions for me.

Overall this was ok, but if there is a third installment I will skip it. I'm just not invested enough in the characters and the story.

I was not exactly pleased with the cliffhanger ending of Tidelands, but I hoped the sequel, Dark Tides, would explain more and resolve everything. The first book ends on such an unsatisfying cliffhanger, when both Alinor and Alys were both secretly preggers (Alinor was pregnant for ages!) and then revealed to be pregnant, Alys's wedding was cancelled, and they were run out of their depressing marshy town as slutty witches. The second book opens with them living in London, with two young adult "twins" who are either Alinor's, Alys' or one of each, kept very vague for maximum drama. Actually, that sums up the whole book, full of intriguing hints, but kept quiet for maximum drama, for ages and ages.

Alinor's ex reappears, offering a pile of money, marriage, and adoption of whichever child is his heir. Then Rob's widow appears, a Venetian noblewomen with a baby and tragic tale of Rob's drowning death, and starts telling obvious lies and spending all their money.  I found myself skimming because there were just so many scenes of Livia being shady and Alinor silently, skeptically handing over money to her. This is interspersed with a second, equally slow-moving storyline of brother Ned in New England. Again, we have hints of coming tension, dragged on and on.

I read all the way to the end, because I kept thinking I must be missing something, or that something would pull it all together. By the end, when all the drama exploded in about an hour of book-time, I realized I no longer cared to see justice done. I was on Team Nobody by the end.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for my eARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Dark Tides is the second book in the Fairmile series and if you are familiar with Gregory’s work, you know that she is able to spin such historically interesting stories that it does make it hard to put down the book. Dark Tides involves a family living in both late 1600s England and America. One half of the family headed by matriarch Alinor is hard to work attempting to move out of poverty while Alinor’s brother, Ned, lives in newly settled Hadley in New England, working two worlds of white settlers and Native Americans. Alinor also learns of the death of her son, Robert, from his Italian widow, Livia, who shows up one day with Rob’s son in tow.

Livia is the perfect villainess. Just watching her in motion is both a joy and a lesson in “If it seems too good to be true…” The advantages she takes, the opportunities she keeps an eye out for, it would sound very exhausting for most people, but she thrives in such a life. It didn’t really click for me at first regarding her cunning, but when that ball start rolling….hooonnnnneeeeyyyyyy. Now, Sir James…..hmmm. Such a gentleman and I say that with love. /s I actually liked Felipe Russo even with all his calculations. It did my heart some good to watch him and Sarah interact.

Ned’s understanding is what we need more of in this world. It’s hard to think that a lot of the racism and discrimination that was faced by POC in the 1600s still lives on in 2020. I simply wish that he showed more strength. Good intentions are just that….intentions.

Gregory has a way of writing women that I appreciate. They do not fade into the background, they are not just women of their time, you can feel how real they are in a sense. It doesn’t matter if her female characters are “good” or “evil”, they are women living in a difficult era and fighting tooth and nail every day to make that day better than yesterday. I have been a Gregory fan for a long time and I see no reason to stop now. I look forward to the next published work.

This book was so interesting and I feel like it was very well written. I was drawn into this story from the beginning and didn't want to put it down.

First line: The ramshackle warehouse was on the wrong side of the river, the south side, where the buildings jostled for space and the little boats unloaded pocket-size cargos for scant profit.

Summary: Twenty-two years have passed since the events at Foulmire. Alinor and Alys have established themselves in a warehouse along the Thames with a decent income from sailors and merchants. But on the same day two people happen into their lives that will change it once again. Sir James who has spent years in exile is looking for his child. And Rob’s widow from Venice arrives with their young son. The women try to deal with these changes the best they can.

On the other side of the ocean, in New England, Ned has traveled in the hopes of starting a new life where he is free and far from the reaches of the King he hates. But even with an ocean between his old and new life he finds that things are still the same. He has befriended the native people and learned much from them but he is looked down upon for this from his fellow Englishman. He is stuck between two worlds and doesn’t know which side to choose.

My Thoughts: Once again Philippa Gregory writes a stunning book! I loved this just as much as the first one in the trilogy but for different reasons. The first part was very character driven and where the landscape plays an important role. This one is more plot driven but has strong characters and amazing locations. From the very beginning I was strongly invested in the story. At one point I had to put the book down because I was so frustrated with the characters.

I loved being back with Alinor even though she was not the main character anymore. This centered more on her brother, daughter and granddaughter. A new generation of the Reekie family in a new time. The picture of these poor women striving for a living along the Thames is perfectly done. And then we visit Venice in the second half of the story. I can picture the canals, gondolas, and beautiful buildings. I visited Venice years ago and loved the city on the water.

Ned’s life in New England reminded me so much of Gregory’s book, Virgin Earth, with her beautiful descriptions of the forests of America before the settlers cleared the lands. The plants, the people and wildness of the land comes alive in her telling. It is so hard to read about the past at times when you see all the injustices that were done. Settlers took advantage of the natives and treated them terribly.

FYI: This is book two in the Fairmile Trilogy.

I was unable to finish this book, which is painful for me to admit. I love Plilippa Gregory but really struggled with this book and "Tidelands". I'm not sure what is off for me but I listened to "Tidelands" and read "Dark Tides". We meet the characters from "Tidelands" twenty-one years later and the reader will be quite confused if they haven't read the first book. I had a hard time getting into this one and stopped a quarter of the way through. Not my favorite Gregory book, I am sorry to say.

Fantastic atmospheric historical fiction; no one captures the time period and rich historical retelling like Phillipa Gregory. The sequel to Tidelands is a must read. Beautifully written and doesn't disappoint. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to review this ARC.

My most anticipated read of the year!! And it was SO GOOD. 4.5/5

Alinor Reekie used to be a midwife and herbalist, like her mother and grandmother before her. Years ago, she fell in love with a man she shouldn’t have, and her life fell apart. Now, she is an entirely different woman, sickly and frail, living with her daughter Alys Stoney by the dirty waters of the river. It has been twenty years since Alinor and her children, Alys and Rob, left their beloved home in the tidelands. At the beginning of this story, a beautiful and mysterious Italian woman named Livia arrives at their door with baby in tow, dressed in black mourning clothes, claiming she is Rob Reekie’s widow. Alys welcomes her in, but Alinor isn’t convinced her son is dead. Also! Out of the blue, James Avery shows up to outrage and no-fanfare-whatsoever, after twenty long years of no word at all. He desperate to make amends with Alinor after allowing unspeakable horrors to happen to her long ago. But none of these women nor their circumstances will make it easy for him to reacquaint with Alinor.

Before anything else, I want to say that I LOVE the way Philippa Gregory writes women. The women in this series are such badasses. At first glance, they don’t seem to have much and they seem like their lives matter very little. But these women have a strength that is larger than life and they can handle far more than anyone in their world wants to give them credit for.

This story is not at all like Tidelands in terms of atmosphere and tone. The main POV’s have shifted around a little bit and the world is much larger. The first story took place in a very small community in England, but this story has spread to London, Venice, and New England. It was super compelling and all I wanted to do was read it. (I thought about it nonstop when I couldn’t be reading.) The chapters are short, which made it easy for me to sneak a few pages here and there throughout the day: while I was in the line at the grocery store, while dinner cooked, in between subjects while homeschooling my kids.

Here’s the thing: I had a hunch that something was up with Livia from the beginning. She was coy and her story often didn’t line up with reality. (I loved to hate her!) I kept hoping everyone would wise up to [what I assumed were] her schemes, and then when things really picked up, I couldn’t wait to see how everything would unfold for these characters.

GAH, it’s going to be a long wait for the next part of the story!! The ending thankfully isn’t a cliffhanger, but there is definitely more story to be told. I’m really happy for some of these characters and I really feel like some of them got what was coming to them.

Sidenote: I can’t wait to reread Dark Tides via audiobook. Right before I started this one, I reread Tidelands via audiobook and it was fantastic. Louise Brealey narrated and did such a fantastic job. Her accent is beautiful and I cannot wait to hear her bring Dark Tides to life.

As a fan of Philippa Gregory’s royal family novels for 25 years, I was really looking forward to reading this book. Tidelands (Book 1) was queued on my Kindle but I hadn’t made time to read it. When I was gifted an ARC of Dark Tides (Book 2) by Simon & Schuster via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, I had to make time. I love historical fiction and love Gregory’s writing style. I was anxious to try this new series as I had taught about the English Civil War but had never read a novel set in this period. However, both these books just seemed to fall flat. I realize Dark Tides is only the second book in a series and there are more threads to pull together to create the big picture, but I pushed myself to finish it and I’m so disappointed. I really wanted to like this series.

Dark Tides, book 2 of The Fairmile Series, continues to follow a family from a remote island in Sussex, England to the lagoon in Venice and finally to frontier USA. It’s a story about deceit and lust interwoven deftly with concern for money, unrequited love and prestige. Gregory has written in the third person sharing three different perspectives; three businesswomen in London during the Restoration, Ned forging a new life in New England, and Sarah intent on uncovering deceit in Venice.

You’ll read about no-nonsense, strong women on the banks of the Thames River who struggle to make an honest living, a deceitful widow who arrives from Venice with a child and attempts to inch her way into a family, a ferryman who rebelled against the Crown now living amongst the native tribes in New England and a wealthy man with royal contacts suffering from unrequited love.

Gregory knows her religion and history; it comes across in the manner the characters interact. However, I struggled with the timelines, identifying the protagonist, connecting with the characters, and was unsure at times why Gregory had added so much superfluous information despite clear, defined characterization and wonderfully descriptive writing. I felt it was not typical of Gregory’s work. I don’t anticipate reading another book in this series.

While I am familiar with Philipps Gregory’s historical fiction, this book Dark Tides is different . It focuses on the low-born Reekie family in London., and their Uncle Ned in the New World. Cromwell is gone and the King has returned, but those machinations are far from the intrigue the Reekies experience. This book was slow to draw me in, but once in, I couldn’t wait to read more. Be persistent in reading this book and you will be rewarded. Ms.Gregory hasn’t lost her touch.

Although the story was a bit slow moving, I enjoyed the progression of characters and the mystique. I think ned’s storyline could have instead been its own book. The back and forth between places and character groups slowed both stories progression. The ending was a satisfying conclusion to all the different character troubles,

I somehow missed that this was a sequel when I requested it, so I have to admit I was a little lost to start. But after reading a synopsis of the first book in the series, I was back on track. I really do love everything Philippa Gregory writes and I was happy to see a new book from her that wasn't based on the War of the Roses.

This book takes place twenty-one years after the end of "Tidelands". I re-read that, just to remind myself how it ended so now I can remind you. It ended with the town attempting to drown Alinor Reekie for being a witch after the miller's wife discovered money missing, and some of the trinkets Alinor collected in its' place. It turned out Alinor's daughter Alys had taken the money because she was short on her dowry, and it was her wedding day - she knew the family would not allow her to marry their son without the full payment. After the town tries and fails to drown Alinor, Alinor and Alys escape and leave for London to start over.

Now, twenty-one years later, James Avery shows up once again, this time eager to claim the child that Alinor was carrying when they tried to drown her. He needs an heir to his estate and he is a widower with no children so he is ready to accept Alinor and his offspring. At the same time, a beautiful Italian woman in widow's garments shows up carrying a baby saying she is the widow of Alinor's son Rob. She claims he drowned and she is penniless and has nowhere else to go. Alinor refuses to believe Rob is dead and feels something is off about Livia, but she isn't sure what just yet. It is obvious through the entire book that Livia is up to something shady, something to do with her antiquities, or possibly she isn't even who she says she is, but you are not sure what. Livia immediately begins sinking her hooks into James Avery, after realizing he is a wealthy man, and I spent the rest of the book on the edge of my seat as she built her shady house of cards, hoping something would happen to expose her before it was too late.

Interspersed throughout the book are parts about Ned, who has also left the tidelands and is now in New England, where he is living among the Indians and trying to adapt to the new way of living over there.

I have to say, I enjoyed the first book more, but this one was still good. I felt like this seemed to drag at times. Also, I really Like Alinor and there was not much of her in this book and Alys is very unlikable and she is one of the main characters in this one. I really enjoyed Aly's daughter Sarah, though. She had a lot of spunk and I hope to see more of her in future books in the series.

A great sequel and in typical Philippa Gregory fashion, her characters and story are rich with detail and depth. She’s a fantastic storyteller; one of my favorites. This one was a little slow for me compared to some of her other works, but still worth the read!