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.

“It wasn’t wise to take your eyes off a dying thing.”

“A Dark and Drowning Tide,” by Allison Saft

Lorelei, a folklorist, is on an expedition with six royals to find the magical spring holding untold power. When her mentor is mysteriously murder onboard the ship, she must find out who the culprit is. Each of them has their own motives to want to murder the mentor and all point fingers at everyone else.

I liked this book a lot. It reminded me of the game clue but on a ship and with magic powers and magic creatures. The vibe of the book was dark academia and whimsy which added to the period of the murder mystery era. The academic rivals’ slow burn situation was alluring and sucked me into the story the entire time. The way Allison Saft wrote the book is very poetic. 4 out of 5 stars.

-Magic
-F/F
-Academic Rivals
-Murder Mystery
-Slow Burn

Thank you for the ARC, Netgalley.

I really enjoyed the. magic system in this story and wish it got fleshed out more! Same with the different creatures. They were so cool! I enjoyed the characters and plot but feel like I may have enjoyed everything more if it was a duology.

Good book, rating lower because I just could not connect with the characters. A lot of it felt surface level, and I was hoping for more depth in the characters and the story. Not a bad book, just not for me

I had a good feeling about this book when I requested the ARC from Netgalley (what can I say, I love a good cover) but I had no idea it was going to be this good.

Lorelei is a breath of fresh air as a protagonist. She's clever, she's relatable, she misses every cue that Sylvia might possibly not hate her as much as she assumes, and best of all, and this is terribly underrated in a mystery novel - we get to read about her thinking. There is nothing more deserving of an eyeroll to me than a detective character that suddenly clicks the entire plot together, who solves everything off screen and quietly, leaving the reader a clueless Watson, trailing behind. Lorelei is smart. She considers all of the angles. And more importantly, sometimes she is wrong. She corrects herself, and starts again, letting the reader follow along without feeling stupid for missing a clue. Instead we're beside her, nodding along in a "That feels wrong, but she's got a GOOD point there...". We're right there with Lorelei, scrambling for it to all make sense, and its so good!

And her chemistry with her counterpart, Slyvia is a wonderful rivals-to-lovers. As obviously besotted they are with each other (Lorelei PLEASE no one thinks about their rival like that) the tension was drawn out perfectly throughout the story, and better yet they still bickered all through the end! They lost no personality into their slide from rivals to lovers, making the two a very believable and delightful pair.

I would highly recommend this novel to fans of Emily Wilde based on folklore and tone, which is written beautifully into the lore of the world. My most highlighted passages were mostly prose on the scenery, our heroines just existing in the space, in the world they belonged to. The perfect beginning-of-fall read to kick off the autumn season.

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC of this novel! And thank you Allison Saft for writing it <3

Sapphic academic rivals and a murder mystery? I was super excited to obtain this ARC especially after enjoying Saft's A Fragile Enchantment.
This book, however, didn't deliver as I hoped it would. I found myself skimming quite a bit and had to refocus myself several times. I felt lost and disconnected from the characters. I really struggled with the enemies to lovers aspect of the book. I just didn't feel like they were believable as love interests. I love side characters and I wish there was more depth to them. I also was expecting more to the murder mystery side of things and that kind of fell flat for me.

The descriptions of the world were lovely and I didn't have trouble envisioning the setting. The author does a wonderful job with her writing there. I did like the mythical creatures in the book!

This book just wasn't for me. I do think that fans of Saft will enjoy her adult debut.

4.5/5

This book had a bit of everything. Magic, whimsy, pining and longing, sweet romance, grumpy/sunshine, rivals to lovers, adventure, action, murder mystery. It touched on how trauma can impact someone’s every move and thought, and how to overcome the weight of it. I enjoyed this novel a lot - the only thing that could have made it a full 5 stars for me was more atmosphere and more romance. It felt like we were getting bits and pieces, but not enough to make me FEEL what I was reading. That said, it was a wonderful novel and I’d recommend it to anyone who asked.

What can I say I’m a sucker for rivals to lovers and add a murder mystery, I’m a goner!
The beginning of the story felt a bit slow, but afterwards it kicks off. I loved every interaction between Lorelei and Sylvia, Allison Saft KNOWS how to write banter and charm into a story!
It’s a slow burn that builds up to such a tender love story. I wish we would’ve had at least a snippet of Sylvia’s pov, that would have just been a perfect addition to this book.

Thank you NetGalley for an early e-copy to review!

Lorelei Kaskel is a folklorist on an expedition with six eccentric nobles in search of a fabled spring. The king wants to harness its magical power to secure his reign in Brunnestaad. Lorelei wants to prove herself, but her mentor is murdered on their ship. The remaining expedition members have motive, and the only one Lorelei knows must be innocent is her rival Sylvia von Wolff. Now in charge of the expedition, Lorelei must find the spring. Even without the threat of a coup, there are dangers to contend with. The forest can rearrange itself at night, dragons are hiding in the river, and shapeshifting beasts are out for blood.

The different nations rapidly conquered by Brunnestaad all have a sort of magic, which here is the ability to manipulate water and its properties. The spring they are all looking for is the source of magic, and using it will give untold power. The king wants this to cement his rule and is far more ruthless about it than he appears. The different regions can be compared to European countries, and Lorelei is Jewish coded for how her people are talked about and derided and the traditions mentioned. She's motivated to prove herself and her people, and the others on the expedition are all representatives of different regions. They each have the expertise to help find the spring, as well as motives to stop its discovery.

The book is a murder mystery as well as a travelogue for a fantasy nation. Most of the characters don't all trust each other despite growing up together, given their different backgrounds. Lorelai is aware of her differences from them, the precarious position she's in, and that her life would be forfeit if she doesn't present a solution to the king. The travels were dangerous due to magical creatures, their own mistrust, and difficulty finding the spring. The story took a few turns I didn't expect as well as a few that I could. It kept me riveted the entire time, and I thoroughly enjoyed this story.

Thank you netgalley and publisher for the ARC in exchange for a honest review.

I really wanted to love this book. The story and book cover really drew me in however I found that I could not connect with the characters or story. I love a sapphic fantasy and this was a good start but I felt like it could have been better with a little more time.

Dark and twisty! Interesting folklore and very atmospheric. This was a really good sapphic fantasy story. There is also a lot of mystery and intrigue. I rated this a solid 4 stars

If you’re looking for a tall woman to be mean to you, this is the book for you. Excellent world building, compelling central mystery, engaging lead characters - what more could you want!

A special thanks to Netgally and the publisher’s for the arc.

Wow, I had really high hopes for this book because the cover is gorgeous and the storyline sounded interesting. Sapphic rivals to lovers who have to solve a murder mystery while dealing with mystical creatures?? SIGN ME UP.

I however could not get behind the message this book presented. I’m supposed to root for the guy that wants to unify entire nations under one rule and basically kill any culture that does not match his views??? I’m supposed to support colonization???

No, thank you. That is all.

Welcome to a world steeped within the world of German folklore and bits of German history. "A Dark and Drowning Tide" by Allison Saft is a sapphic, dark academic rivals-to-lovers romance steeped in the slowest of burns. Our FMC is the Folklorist Lorelei Kaskel, a Yevani (heavily implied fantasy version of Jewish) who has spent her academic career fighting against Sylvia Von Wolff (and prejudice) for an esteemed roll under her mentor Zeigler. As a team led by Zeigler, Lorelei, Sylvia and their 4 companions head out on an expedition to find the Ursprung - a lake believed to be the source of all magic and said to harbor untold power. That is, until Ziegler is found murdered and the only people who could be responsible are the 6 remaining academic counterparts. But that is just the start of their tragedies as one thing after another starts to fall apart on their quest, the possibility of any of them surviving quickly starts to become a dream.

I don't know if how "A Dark and Drowning Tide" is how Allison Saft typically writes her stories but I unfortunately just did not connect as fully as I wanted to. I unfortunately just felt like every element was just scratched at the surface and never fully dove into and explored. The murder mystery aspect of the story never became a real investigation, Lorelei simply seemed to just be throwing darts at a wall hoping to get a bullseye. The expedition I had hoped to be filled with folklore and explore the fantasy aspect of this fantasy romance book felt awkwardly crammed in with brief explanations that just didn't fully land. Unfortunately with our narrator Lorelei, she spent so much of her time not wanting to feel anything, I ended up not really caring for the characters. She hated them, they were cruel and indifferent to her, therefore I was indifferent to them. I felt almost as if we had entered an already existing story toward the end of it and never really got the context that connected it together. I wanted to care, I wanted to get engrossed in the story and the characters and the complicated relationships that existed but it was just missing some deeper factor that could pull me fully in.

I enjoyed the premise, the information we were given of the characters and how Saft handled the antisemitism and hatred that exists in our reality and brought it to this world, especially since we are existing in a German influenced world.

None of this is to say this is a bad book, perhaps I had different expectations when one of the main advertisers is rivals-to-lovers when I entered this story. It just didn't wow me or pull me in as much as I wanted it to. I just wish there was more, more to give time to connect with the characters, more to let the fantasy to sink in.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for the arc of this book.