I wanted to love this book so much. I have read a few of Saft's past books and loved them and, essentially, I should have eaten this up with it being dark academia, enemies to lovers, sapphic, dark folkloric, spooky but I had such a hard time getting into it. I loved the premise and requested it so quickly but it just fell flat compared to the other Swift stories I've read. It gave me the setting and the mood but the characters just weren't keeping my attention. I imagine there are plenty of others who will love this book and it won't prevent me from inhaling whatever comes next from Swift.

I'm so disappointed because this SHOULD be something I loved. Gothic, sapphic dark academia featuring spooky folklore? Inject it to my veins. But Saft's style is so... meandering and I was bored.

This was not my kinda book, but I am very aware that a book someone doesn't like doesn't mean it isn't perfect for others. I expected to like it more, a Sapphic enemy to lovers romantasy. I read 50% before calling it quits. None of the characters were relatable or even likeable which made me feel no connection to them or their story at all.

The tension. Pining. YEARNING. Swoon worthy.
This is my first Allison Saft book and I was blown away by her writing.
While I struggled with the world building in the beginning (my fault. Life was crazy and I wasn’t prepared to pay attention. Oops!), I was immediately enchanted by the dark yet magical atmosphere and the folklore sprinkled throughout the story. I felt like I was IN a fairytale, about to embark on some great quest. But also like, the scary kind of fairytale?

When it comes to the romance, there were many beautiful moments and lines that just melted me. Lorelei and Sylvia just fit together, the grumpy and sunshine academic rivals who also secretly admired the other. I thoroughly enjoyed watching them work together and along the way be forced to confront their true feelings for each other.
I only wished that, while I enjoyed Lorelei, we got Sylvia’s POV. She was such an interesting character and I would’ve loved to get a peek inside her head and see more of her in general.

There is murder, adventure, creatures (alps, nixies, and lindworms oh my!), and romance in addition to masterfully tackling topics of grief, loss, and prejudice. I highly recommend you pick this one up for fall!

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the arc and opportunity to go on this magical adventure (that I will definitely be going on again because I WILL be rereading this in the future!)

I was HYPED for Saft's adult debut, especially when I learned it was a sapphic fantasy. Unfortunately, this just fell flat for me. The quest element of the story felt predictable and I wasn't invested in the romance.

4 stars

This book had a lot going on. I was a little confused at first because you’re kind of just thrown into the story with not a lot of world building or explanation of the magic system. To be honest I was a little confused by this for the whole book. I had to go back and reread the synopsis because I was a little confused by the expedition the characters were going on. Once I actually got to the expedition I was a little more immersed in the story. After this point you’ve got murder mystery, political plots, expeditions, weird magical rivers, and a little bit of romance. I was honestly expecting the romance to be a lot more prevalent in this book but it really wasn’t a major part of the book in my opinion. There wasn’t a lot of buildup to it or much character development between the two love interests other than them spending more time alone together.
Romance aside, I did like both the main characters. They were both really interesting, complex characters with very different backgrounds. Their rivals to lovers relationship was fun and there were definitely some funny and sweet moments at both ends of this spectrum.
I did enjoy the vibes of this book. It was very eerie, magical, dark academia, mystery. The story was interesting and although I was a little lost at points it was an overall enjoyable reading experience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the ARC!

A Dark and Drowning Tide did some things quite well and fell short with others.

Pros:
- The writing is beautiful and engaging and created such an atmospheric setting.
- The main character Lorelai was complicated and quite bitter which I felt was an interesting LOV to read from. I do wish we had some more character development for her though.
- I loved the slow burn of the relationship between Lorelai and Sylvia

Cons:
- While the setting felt well established the politics and geographical landscape did not.
- The side characters felt quite one note which meant the murder mystery part felt very obvious and unsatisfying
- Because the politics of the world never felt fully explained in the end it seemed pro-colonialism? I say seemed because I still don’t feel like I ever knew what was going on politically. This also didn’t make the stakes of the quest feel very high.

The atmosphere of A Dark and Drowning Tide is exactly what I needed as the days started getting darker earlier. This sapphic fantasy contained all my favorite elements: enemies to lovers, academic pursuits with otherworldly beings, magic, and danger. The FMC's deep self-loathing makes sense when you look at her history and the darker elements of discrimination that she constantly faces. With that said, her self-loathing became a bit annoying at times, just like Sylvia's neverending hope and determination to see the best in everything around her. But I do suppose Lorelei and Sylvia are the perfect match with their personalities taken into account. I loved the mystery and the cast of characters who loved to loathe while reading. The twists and turns were a bit predictable, but not so much so that I didn't want to keep reading to see if my guesses were correct. This is the second title I've read by this author, and I honestly loved the new adult book much better than the YA book I read!

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing, and Allison Saft for allowing me access to an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I have to DNF 10% in. I hardly made it through the first chapter, this was 100% not for me. I found the writing jarring, the characters both annoying yet flat, and the world building to be rushed. Right at the beginning, way too many characters are just thrown at you with no explanation. Lorelai was an exhausting protagonist that I tried so very hard not to hate but I did. And I won't even talk about Slyvia because wtf was her character.

Another point I want to make is that I am Jewish and reading this, I honestly felt a bit insulted. The "Jewish" representation came of as stereotypical, victimizing, and it just didn't belong in a book like this. I get using heritage as influences, but this book was the not the correct place to use her Jewish references. As a Jew, this saddened me greatly because I was so excited to read a book representing me, but I ended up feeling offended and upset by the outcome. This should of had sensitivity readers because it just wasn't ok.

Though I read very little, I could not stand to continue on. I hate DNF'ing but sometimes I have to suck it up for my own sanity. What a dissapointment.

In A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft, Lorelai Kaskel is chosen to be the folklorist and second in command on an expedition to find the Ursprung, a fabled, magical spring that the king of Brunnestaad hopes will secure his reign. Lorelai is determined to use this opportunity to become a naturalist and secure her safety in a kingdom that isn’t very welcoming to Yevani. However, when Lorelai’s mentor is murdered aboard the ship, Lorelai must balance leading the expedition with investigating her remaining companions, five eccentric nobles each with their own possible motive. The only person she knows is innocent is her bitter academic rival, Sylvia von Wolff. Can they work together to uncover the murderer as well as locate the spring?

Something that I loved about this book is how it doesn’t fit into one standard trope. There are moments of dark academia, yes, but it doesn’t stay there. The characters also navigate court politics, a murder on a ship, and a weeks-long expedition on foot through wildelute (faerie) infested mountains. The murder mystery portion reminded me of a darker version of Freya Marske’s A Restless Truth, while the expedition felt more akin to Heather Fawcett’s Emily Wilde series.

Saft’s writing is atmospheric and lush, and some scenes felt so immersive I often forgot that I was reading. I was sucked into this one straight from the beginning and could hardly put it down. I loved the folktales that Lorelai recounted throughout.

I also enjoyed that Lorelai was an unreliable narrator. She misread others often, especially Sylvia, and struggled to understand her own feelings as well. I ultimately really appreciated Lorelai’s overall character arc. She is able to acknowledge that Sylvia’s methods have value and even uses them herself to get out of more than one sticky situation. However, she doesn’t completely change, and is still sharp and looming and guarded. She knows it, though, and actively chooses to build relationships despite her instinct to distance herself from others.

I appreciated the Jewish representation that Saft wove into the Yevani people. She included traditional foods, the day of rest, and mourning customs in addition to more difficult pieces of Jewish history, like ghettos, and wearing badges, and antisemitism. The latter may be challenging for some to read about. (I did find myself wishing that Saft had changed all of the names of these; she did change some of the names to make them fit in the world, but others felt like anachronisms.)

I did feel uncertain throughout the book about how old the main cast of characters were supposed to be. The nobles, in particular, have all been to war already before they go to university. It’s unclear by the time the expedition starts how long they have been at school; they could have been undergraduates or they could easily have been graduate students or the fantasy equivalent of postdocs. The novel is definitely adult, I just couldn’t put my finger on whether it was new adult or older adult.

By the time the murderer was revealed and everything was explained, while I didn’t necessarily wish the villain had won, I found their motivations extremely compelling. In the end, it felt as though Lorelai and Sylvia were on the cusp of realizing that the anti-Yevani and anti-Albisch sentiment in the kingdom should be challenged, but didn’t quite get there. I wished the conclusion had been a little bit more anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist than it was, but I understand why the characters made the choices they did.

Overall, I had a great time reading this book! Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey/Random House for sending me this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

CW: panic attacks, blood, violence, murder, death, antisemitism

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the eARC of this book. I enjoyed the atmosphere and quest part of this book, as well as reading how Lorelei worked through the murder and all her thought processes. I also really liked the way the characters were presented and written, you could truly feel their disdain for Lorelei. I did feel like the romance came out of left field. They spent the entire book putting each other down with cheap shots, only for one to confess their love in the last 20%. I thought the reveal of the killer and the motivations behind it all was climactic and well done. Overall, the writing was lush and heavily atmospheric, perfect for the start of fall.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I mean… come on. No one is surprised that I loved this. I literally have no words and also all of the words so bare with me while I try to make this coherent. I picked up an Allison Saft novel on a whim following a very vague recommendation online. Now, she is an instant buy author for me and regardless of the fact that I have now read this story, I will be in stores on release day to pick up a physical copy.

A Dark and Drowning Tide was a breath of fresh air from Saft’s other novels. While the story still had that distinctive Saft style that I love so much, you could sense the shift into the adult genre with this one. The concoction of folklore, fairytales, fantasy, romance, and in a more subtle way, dark academia, was just so incredibly engaging that I found myself in a constant state of giddy to get back to the story every time I had to pause. I also loved how Lorelei will often use old stories as A Dark and Drowning Tide’s own folklorist to help connect to present events and feelings (including using them to shade other people).

Allison Saft is simply just a gorgeous writer. The way she is able to spin together sentences and paragraphs is just unmatched. The lyricism of her word choice quite literally jumps off the page and makes her characters feel incredibly real. I had to include some of my favorites because how could I not!

“Lorelei couldn’t picture Ludwig angry, but she could picture Sylvia with perfect clarity: tearing barefoot through the fields with a pack of wild dogs at her heels, lightning dancing around her, her hair unfurling into the dark like a war banner Lorelei would follow to her own death.”

“The sound of her name drew her up short. It was the first time Lorelei had ever spoken it aloud, and now she feared she might never stop. Sylvia, Sylvia, Sylvia. It felt like the rhythm of her own heart. Like something she could not survive without.”

“Sylvia was practically sparkling, her hair pooled like molten silver around her. Lorelei wanted forever to bask in the light of her smile. She wanted to be carried on the current of her whims. She wanted to argue with her until she was breathless. She wanted to hurt her exquisitely, again and again, for as much time as they had. The depth of her hunger frightened her.”

“But Sylvia had peered into her very soul and did not shy away.”

And mountains more. I mean, my highlighted section of this ebook was actual insanity.

Truly my biggest complaint about A Dark and Drowning Tide is that there wasn’t MORE. Tell me more about Ziegeler, more about the relationship between Sylvia and her mother, more about Wilhelm’s history and the upbringing of each of our main characters. Saft could have made this a 900 page book and I would have devoured it.

Cannot wait to scream about this once it drops to every customer I encounter buying fantasy at work 🤩

A deeply atmospheric fantasy treasure hunt, murder mystery, and sapphic romance, which I really enjoyed being sucked into, despite some general misgivings.
I really enjoyed the setting and atmosphere of this book, with its dark, haunting world of folklore and fairy tales, as well as the academia driven setup. The rivals to lovers, I-hate-you-and-am-obsessed-with-our-rivalry-but-don't-know-why-I-feel-so-strongly-about-it sapphic romance setup was really wonderful. I also loved how everything was a bit water based, with the rivers and springs and magic and kelpies of it all. As I said, I do have some misgivings about the characters and plot, namely that the resolution seemed to take a bit of a strange stance, given the story's allegories for things like antisemitism and imperialism, although for the most part I enjoyed the exploration of these concepts within the rest of the story. I also thought the characters were a bit flat for being a group dynamic, especially the "bad" characters. I've been trying to reason out how I still could have enjoyed reading this so much, and honestly I think it just says a lot about the atmosphere, setting, and probably the prose as well that pulled me in and kept me there simply because it was so beautiful.
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review this ARC!

𝔸ℝℂ ℝ𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨 𝕠𝕗 𝔸 𝔻𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝔻𝕣𝕠𝕨𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕋𝕚𝕕𝕖, 𝔹𝕪: 𝔸𝕝𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕠𝕟 𝕊𝕒𝕗𝕥

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

𝕋𝕣𝕠𝕡𝕖𝕤:
+ dark academia
+ traditional folklore
+ enemies to lovers
+ murder mystery
+ forced proximity
+ whimsy
+ slow burn romance

Summary:
Academic rivals stuck on a ship together with a killer with a magical traditional folklore twist and whimsical setting.

This was a solid adult debut by Saft. Lorelei and Sylvia were both enjoyable MCs. I loved the authors descriptive writing. The overall plot was solid but was disappointed to find myself bored at times.

What I enjoyed:
* murder mystery
* Prose
* Slow burn romance

What notched a star off of this read for me was the world building was a bit messy and the ending felt rushed and unsatisfying. I really enjoyed the concept but wish the world building had been fleshed out more.

If you enjoyed 𝘌𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘦 but wished it was sapphic? Your wish has been granted.

Thank you NetGalley and Ballentine Publishing Group for providing an eARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Release date: 09/17/2024

3.5 stars. I liked but didn't LOVE this one. There is a lot of world-building and backstory for the characters, which is to be expected with most fantasy, but it just dragged on a bit too long for me and didn't feel necessary to the plot of the book. I really enjoyed all the Germanic influence! And the prose overall is very lovely to read. With as much investment as we got into the world and the many characters, I was expecting this to be at least a duology, but alas!

This was my first book from this author, although I do have quite a few of the others on my TBR as well. I'm really at a loss as to how I feel about this book because there were a lot of things that I enjoyed but enough that I didn't like that it hampered my enjoyment overall. So to start with what I liked - I really liked the folklore and atmosphere of the story, and the writing was easy to read and engaging. I really liked the themes explored throughout the story about power, colonization, racism, and finding your place in the world. I also mostly enjoyed the romance between Lorelei and Sylvia, although at times it also seemed a little like it came out of nowhere. The characters were all well written but I can't really say that I liked any of them aside from Sylvia. And with Lorelei, she really finds it hard to express any emotions and her internal thoughts are very negative, both about herself and those around her and she always just assumes the worst of people. I did find that believable considering her background and experiences with how others have treated her and her people, but it did irritate me that she instantly thought the worst of Sylvia when I thought it was clear Sylvia had no bad feelings/intentions towards her, and in fact stood up for her quite frequently.

Now for what I didn't like. My biggest complaint is that I think there was almost too much backstory for all the side characters, to the point where it confused me how old any of them are. For example, they're all war heroes and well respected researchers in their individual fields and have published many articles and stories about their travels, however they literally JUST graduated from college. Once I realized that I found it incredibly hard to believe that these people went to war presumably in their early teens and ALL became war heroes then went to college? It felt like it didn't really fit well with the rest of the story. And about the war, it's said that they were best friends with the prince turned king since they were all around 6 or so, which would mean at the time they were all princes and princesses in their own countries and then...went to war against their parents for the prince? It's made very clear that they sided with him in the 'unification', but that 'unification' was their own home countries. So...this was pro-colonialism, but I don't think it's meant to be? There were just too many holes in that story for me to fully believe it and I wish there had been some other backstory there to explain their connection to the prince/king. My other main issue has to do with the mystery itself. Maybe this is a marketing thing, but I went in expecting the mystery to be The Point of the story, and it kind of really wasn't. By the second half of the book it becomes more of a subplot to the relationship developing between Lorelei and Sylvia, and there weren't ever really any clues to follow to help you as the reader make conclusions and assumptions about who the killer was like with a true murder mystery. It's really more the catalyst for Lorelei finding her place in the world.

Overall, this particular book was really just fine to me, there was just too much going on with not enough attention to details that it ended up making the whole book suffer. However I did like Saft's writing and the atmosphere and ideas she has, so I'll still be giving her other books a try!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this novel. 3.5/5 stars.

This is the second Allison Saft book I've read, and it's a vastly different tone from the other one. I enjoy how the books are Standalones, and this had just enough dark academia vibes for it to be the perfect book to start off fall with.

I loved the elements of the world building and magical creatures (hello very German influence) but I found myself liking the world more than the plot. I appreciated the Jewish elements and how it tackled discrimination and myths about Jewish peoples, but I think the plot got messy between the solving the murder, finding the Unsprung, the romance, etc. It was a LOT and while it all got resolved, it felt like it was a murky sort of book rather than one that kept me turning the pages.

I also liked the magic, but it was not explained very well. Is it just water? Is that the only magic? Did I miss something?

Also, this is not YA. At best, it's UPPER YA...if not adult. It's probably adult.

Bonus for queer rep.

Book Name: a Dark andDrowning Tide
Author: Allison Saft

ARC
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC

Stars: DNF

Thoughts
- Enemies to Lovers
- Sapphic
- Dark Acamedic
- Gothic Vibes
- Disappointing
- Slow Pacing
- Not Engaging

First, I apologize to the author and publisher for the lateness of this review.

While I love Allison Saft and Have Loved Almost ALL of her backlog this book failed to hold my attention. I have tried multiple times to get into this book. Restarting over and over but still not being able to push through. Ultimately this is a DNF for me. I hope her books prove to have a better pacing and overall focus moving forward

Due to the Negative Nature of this review, I will not be posting it to Goodreads or retail sites with respect to the publisher and author.

Unfortunately I just don't think this author's writing is for me. Like her other books, I really struggled with her world building not being fleshed out enough. You're just kinda thrown in the deep end of this world, without enough explanation - everything is just a bit too surface level. And not being able to really understand the world (in this case beyond it being some comparison to post WWII Germany?) really fought against my engagement with the story. Which is a shame because I think conceptually there were some interesting things going on with the storyline: research team, mystery, romance etc but I really need to understand the world to be motivated to continue a book.

**Thank you Random House Publishing- Ballantine and NetGalley for the arc! All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The Storygraph
Posted on: 3 September 2024

4.2 (rounded down to 4) out of 5 stars.

“This was its own kind of torment, knowing how it felt to have Sylvia pressed against her. It was a cruel vision of something not meant for her.”

This quote was pulled from the author’s instagram in a promotion post for the book!! It’s an AMAZING vibe for the yearning we see everywhere in the book though. ‘A Dark and Drowning Tide’ was such a different change of pace from the books I’ve been reading lately and I LOVED it! There was just something about the angsty lesbian lovers stuck on a ship with a killer while fighting feelings for each other and still trying to continue their mission for me. This is the first book from Allison Saft that I’ve read despite having almost her entire backlist, and it only convinced me to pick up her other books as soon as I can.

The prose in this book was so lovely! I am a sucker for flowery, tortured lovers and poetic writing. It was a nice mix of myth and romance, not leaning too heavy on the story to fudge out the romance and vise versa. As far as the mystery aspect goes, there’s a lot of flares about. Some things get mentioned or brought up and immediately you kind of know to keep your eye on it’s constant mention/its oddly specific mention. I don’t think it was too on the nose with the ‘clues’ for it, which I enjoyed as well because I love a good plot twist!
Just- all in all, I really enjoyed this read! It’s got a little bit of everything mixed in, but my absolute favorite bits were just the romance and the touches of folk stories. Saft connects some fairytales to characters and I really enjoyed those bits and references, but I think that was a personal preference.