At first, I thought the beginning was a little slow, but once the expedition started the story picked up. I loved the mystery between these 5 noble friends who are friends of the King... one of them had to have killed the head leader of the expedition on the first night. Lorelei, the main leading character, is viewed as a lower-than-low being, but she is the leading scholar of this expedition to find the Ursprung magical spring, which contains the main source of magic. If she succeeds in finding the spring, then she will have a place in court and be safe. Lorelei has to now find the murderer on this trip so that she isn't accused of murder. It's life or death for her and to top things off, her rival Sylvia von Wolf is one of the 5 nobles on the trip. It doesn't help that she somehow is also attracted to Sylvia. The two end up having to work together to solve this murder and find the spring. I enjoyed their banters and tension. I liked the magic in this book and the different creatures. Sylvia reminds me of Luna Lovegood. You can't hate her and she carries a sabor with her. I gave this book a 3.5 stars. I liked the story and enjoyed reading it, but it wasn't grabbing me at the very beginning.

Thank you Random House Publishing for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I can’t I’m in love with these two, I’m absolutely obsessed with Allison Saft’s writing, and even though I’ve only read two of her books my point still stands. I was so excited when I got a digital ARC of this that I might have shed some tears... This became a top three of my most anticipated books of this year after reading A Far Wilder Magic by her earlier this year (which I also loved and still think about), and it was so worth it omg. Thank you thank you thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC

The rivalry between Lorelei and Sylvia was too good! I mean the bickering!!! And then them having to team up together even though Lorelai has such a strong “dislike” for Sylvia? I lived for it! Lorelei is such a complex character, which honestly I kind of dig, but it was nice seeing her open herself up more after being guarded for so long. And Sylvia coming to be that person for her that Lorelai could trust, the pining, was just lovely.
It was pretty magical, it had similar vibes to the Emily Wilde books, which I loved! I enjoyed the way it was written and the building of it was captivating.

Moody, atmospheric, and memorable. An engaging and twisty read that sticks with you. Also, the cover is gorgeous and draws you in, which doesn't hurt at all.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
Having read and enjoyed all of Allison Saft’s previous YA titles, I was excited to hear she was writing an adult book, not to mention that it would be a sapphic fantasy! While there has been danger with me hyping books in the past, I ended up really enjoying this one. I loved the blend of the fairytale and folktale themes.
The world building isn’t the most obvious, especially at first, and I admit I was a little lost, especially being thrown in as I was. But it definitely suits the vibe Saft is going for, with the fairytale thing, and as I came to grips with everything, I ended up liking it.
Lorelei and Sylvia are intriguing characters, and while I did feel that there was a sense of…distance (if that makes sense?) in how the text depicts them, as you get a sense of what they feel, but it’s not a true emotional connection. The prose style likely played a role in this slight distance. However, I still more or less empathized with them, and loved their developing romance, with them starting off at odds and growing into more amid the dangers on their expedition.
There’s a lot going on, with not just the romance and the incorporation of the world’s politics and external dangers, but the murder mystery, which kept me consistently turning pages to find out what would happen next.
While this is (as far as I can tell) a standalone, and Saft mainly writes standalones, I am not opposed to her writing more in this vein or in this world. Fans of Saft’s prior work, especially those looking to cross over and try more adult fantasy won’t be disappointed with this book, and I’d also recommend it to readers interested in a sapphic fantasy with a fairytale vibe.

I was anticipating this book so highly. Unfortunately, it fell flat for me. I am currently over 30% through the book, about 100 pages in, and I feel I have no connection to the characters. There also seems to be too many characters, it’s hard to keep track of who is who and who did what to who. It’s a murder mystery, but I don’t really care about who did it.

I wish so badly that this book worked for me. It had so many things I love, a sapphic relationship, a mystery, and dark academia. However, it just didn’t click with me.

Thank you so much for the ARC!

3.5 stars

Sapphic dark academia folklore with a murder mystery is something I would devour. While the writing is beautiful and the world seems really interesting, there are a lot of elements that I think needed some more polishing to bring together more cohesively. Once I started looking at Lorelei and Sylvia as a Wednesday x Enid reimagining, I was a lot more invested. I wish the investigation had more evidence searching earlier on. Why would you not search the compartments immediately after a murder?

There were lots of info dumping parts that were really offputting and random folklore bits that were lovely, but the way they were integrated was jarring, though that could be a result of the formatting. I wanted more interaction with the creatures like the mara and nixies. I wasn't blown away by this one, but I'd be willing to try another of the author's work.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

This was my most highly anticipated read of the year and IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT! This was the first book by Allison Saft that I’ve ever read and it won’t be my last. As a queer Jewish woman this book hit me in the gut and had me so emotional. I resonated deeply with Lorelei and she easily has become my favorite character of all time. Lorelei slowly realizing how deeply in love with Sylvia she was felt organic and exciting to read.

The writing was lyrical but still easy to read and accessible. I loved all the different elements in this book such as the murder mystery, the Jewish folklore, the ROMANCE and the themes of antisemitism and survival guilt. Saft was able to weave all of that together to create such a beautiful book. I will be thinking about this book for a long time and it’s hands down my favorite book of the year!

I suspect I might have a better time will this if I tried it again later; I’m struggling to read anything right now, so I’m not convinced that my ambivalence is all the book’s fault.

On the other hand, I really hate the German-inspired setting. It’s completely petty, but all the German terms a) sound very ugly to me, and b) give me flashbacks to high school German lessons, which were hands-down the most awful of any classes I’ve ever had. (It’s possible a and b are related.) The magic system disappointed me – it seems really simple, and I don’t have any interest in water magic for its own sake. And the magical quest object…it all felt really basic and obvious – which isn’t very like Saft, so again, I’m wondering if the problem is more my headspace than the book. Maybe it wouldn’t feel as meh if I wasn’t feeling meh…?

I love that Saft has given us fantasy!Judaism again, but nothing else about our MC Lorelei interested me – her passion for natural history was told to us, but I wasn’t seeing it on the page, which is a shame because characters with passions are one of my favourite things. There’s also the problem of ‘wow, EVERYONE here is terrible!’ – and not in interesting ways, either. The ‘eccentric nobles’ are just privileged assholes, which is definitely realistic, but doesn’t get me invested in them.

I want to try this again sometime – maybe when it’s published – but right now I have no desire to keep reading, so I’m not going to.

I enjoyed the dark academia setting, the rivals-to-lovers romance, the suspense of the murder plot, and the commentary on antisemitism. The story was engaging and addictive.

A Dark and Drowning Tide is a fantasy/dark academia/murder mystery about an expedition trying to find a magical source. When the academic mentor and leader of the expedition is mysteriously murdered, academic rivals Lorelei and Sylvia come together to find the killer and continue the expedition. Listen, if you tell me there is going to be folklore in a book, I'm in!! After reading the book description, I immediately thought this sounded like a combination of Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries and A Study in Drowning, which were two of my favorite books of last year, so I had very high expectations coming into this book and was so excited to have an ARC!

I'm really sad to say that I was ultimately left disappointed by this book. Lorelei is the POV character and she was very unlikable to me. A lot of that came from self-sabotage, but she also seemed to hate people in general. Seeing the fantasy world through her lens made me not like any of the other characters as well (except for Sylvia. I liked Sylvia!) I really struggle when I don't like the main character of a book, and this book was no exception. Living in her head was a lot of angst, anger, grief, and frustration, which was not a fun place to be. Although Lorelei was a folklorist, I didn't see any love or enthusiasm for the genre. I liked that folklore was sprinkled within the book, but it often surprised me when they came up because it took me out of the story. This was really disappointing to me as I love when folklore is incorporated, but it just fell flat here.

Although this is a fantasy world, Lorelei is Jewish (although called by a different name, she's very clearly Jewish). Her people have a similar past to this world and she feels a lot of wariness and resentment towards people of dominant cultures, which I totally understood. I really liked that Jewish folklore was represented and considered alongside "traditional" German folklore. I also liked that Lorelei was a character from an urban culture, which I feel like we almost never get to see in books based off of Western folklore.

I feel like the pieces were here for such an amazing book, but it all just didn't come together in the end for me. I'm not even super sure what happened. I did think the epilogue was adorable, but that was pretty much the only happy part of the book. The vibes were so dark and there was not a lot of joy to offset it. This made it difficult for me to care about the characters, world, and plot. I found myself pushing through while hoping it would get better. This is the first book for me by the author and I'm wondering if her YA novels might be more of what I'm looking for. As it is, this was just too dark and not enough academia for me.

Overall, I recommend this book if it sounds up your alley and you like unlikable/morally gray main characters. 3.5 stars from me rounded down to 3. Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the eARC, my thoughts are my own!

I liked this better than Saft's third book but less than her first and second. As this was her adult debut I think I expected a bit *more*... more romance/spice, more complex worldbuilding/fantasy, even more violence and gore. There was a little of each thing but not enough for my expectations. It was still enjoyable though and I would recommend to Saft fans and fantasy fans alike!

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book early.

A Dark and Drowning Tide follows Lorelei, a folklorist on an expedition with her mentor and a few others to find a fabled spring when her mentor is murdered and the only innocent one is her rival, Sylvia.

I really enjoyed the structure of the book, with the heavy focus on finding the Unspring. I liked how the crew journeyed around on the ship and on land, stopping at inns and meeting the local people. The characters were also very vibrant and interesting and I was curious about all of their backgrounds.

I did wish the book was a bit longer or split into two parts and I felt like more could be explored in this world in greater detail and I just wanted so much more from it!

Thank you Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley again for the chance to read this early.

A Dark and Drowning Tide is a folklore heavy, atmospheric, sapphic academic rivals to lovers romantasy.

What works really well here is the atmosphere, the setting, and the individual characters. The cover says pretty much all you need to know about the atmosphere. There is dark, unknowable nature magic plus a murder mystery. I also felt really grounded in the world and appreciated the deep dive into the cultures that were the subject of colonization in this story. One of the MCs is a folklorist and a Jewish woman and a main conflict in the book relates to the history of antisemitism, how it is passed through stories, and how it continues to affect her.

Because I found these parts of the book to be so well done, the potential was so high, so I was particularly disappointed with the issues. First there were multiple, major continuity errors that I am hoping are fixed before publication, but they really took me out of the story. Second, there was a lot of telling, not showing with the romance. So much so that I was not invested in it. I think there needed to be more of a foundation for their rivalry and their romance. Finally, I won’t spoil anything, but I don’t think any conflicts were resolved in the end except maybe the immediate threat of danger.

Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy.

This was a very interesting book but it infodump in some areas and left us wanting for info in others. They kept saying how this expedition was childhood friends and how they fought in a way together but its only ever told and not shown. I was kinda expecting it to come all out as a lie that they were never actually friends.

I did like the representation and real life depiction of being Jewish in a Medieval/Renaissance type land. I also liked the idea of exploring worlds to write books about magical creatures. Overall an interesting story I think many will like.

I am a huge fan of Allison Saft, so I was very excited to receive this ARC from Net Galley. I find her writing to be both easy to read and lyrical, and I was very excited for the "sapphic naturalists get involved in a murder mystery ala Agatha Christie" plotline.

While it took me a few tries to get into this book, I think it's mostly because I am a mood reader, and when I found the right mood, I flew through it.

The book follows a group of scientists (kinda), who are sent on a quest to find the "Ursprung," aka the source of magic and power in this world. But while aboard the riverboat that will take them there, someone is murdered (Death on the Nile, anyone?). Our protagonist must figure out whodunnit, or else be blamed for the murder herself, all while trying DESPERATELY to ignore the growing feelings she has for her rival scientist, and pushing on with the journey to find the magical spring. Oh boy.

There are so many interesting explorations of power, of identity and religion and sacrifice, and in the end, (in a mirror of real life) I almost felt like no justice was served. Not for the people of the Yvanverte, and not for Loralei. That change comes slowly, over time, is a terrible truth, but it felt even more terrible here. There is a scene <spoiler>where the exploration group is in Sylvia's homeland, and the people there both refuse to let Loralei stay at the inn and then burn an effigy of a Yeva in their festival the next day</spoiler>, and I had such a hard time reconciling that with the very public and reckless nature of Sylvia approaching their relationship. I think Saft did an excellent job painting all the ways the world can be unfair, and cruel, but with the hopefulness of change on the horizon. Still, it's a hard pill to swallow.

One of the things I loved most about A Far Wilder Magic was the dual POV between Wes and Margaret, and I wish this book employed the same, a dual POV between Sylvia and Loralei. I needed Sylvia's optimism to balance Loralei's cynicism. However, we stay in Loralei's head the entire time, which perhaps was better for the whodunnit element of the story, but didn't scratch my rivals to lovers itch in the same way.

All in all, a very good adult fantasy debut from Saft! I love that she writes standalone novels with so much depth, and characters to remember and love. There are so many trilogies and duologies and series, where it takes books and books to fall in love with characters and explore the world, but Saft continually manages it with a single book, and I find that extremely admirable and impressive!

I really enjoyed this!

The start was a little slow—there was a lot of information about the world, the various characters, their backstories and connections. I would have benefited from a map, I think. But once the main plot started, I found it gripping. I loved the moody and atmospheric writing, the unlikable characters that you actually can’t help but start to understand and even like, and the slow burn sapphic romance subplot. This was darker and more violent than I thought it would be, but it absolutely kept me guessing until the very end. I think my favorite part was the weaving in of jewish folklore inspired stories!

This had me at academic rivals with a beautiful gothic folklore and its sapphic! The MC Lorelei is so focused on her rivalry with the Sylvia that she is mad at herself when she notices that what she feels might be more of longing. She struggles with the fact that she is not a good person and does not deserve a beautiful story. The two come together when they are both faced with trying to figure our the murder of their leader and their expedition to help their king unite all. The romance is light and it is very enemies to lovers and grumpy/sunshine.

Thanks to Netgalley and Allison Saft for the eArc!

I really enjoyed the writing style and the characters in this book. However, I got bored of all the info dumping which made the book feel really slow. Still, I will definitely be picking up Allison Saft’s other books.

gothic vibes and slow burn academic rivals to lovers, jewish influence, folklore, and lots of pinnnniinnggg

plot: 4/5
really compelling plot with great pacing and some mystery to keep you hooked. the magic and world are absolutely fascinating. its got the whimsy of folklore but with a dark edge.
the political was a little shaky, the dynamics and world structure just didnt feel solid enough to quite believe. but the geopolitics of the world arent critical to the majority of the book so i didnt think it would matter much. but for the last 20% it definitely matters so i felt a little empty with some of the climax since there wasnt that established understanding of how the politics worked.

characters: 4/5
the main characters are absolutely brutal and delicious and broken. i adore them and want them to be happy but alas they are bloody and damaged and gruesome…
the side characters left me wanting a little more. there were quite a few of them and i had a hard time keeping track. i think with lorelai as the narrator, she didnt care about those people very much so of course she wouldnt think too much about them. but as the reader i needed some more to understand them and the parts the played.

writing: 5/5
i really love saft’s writing, she is a master of pining and pain and whimsy and darkness. she writes in a way that is so engaging and evokes so much emotion. the use of folklore and the tales added so much depth and color.

overall: 4/5

im really picky about my fantasy romance but this hit all the right notes for me so i would absolutely recommend it despite the minor things i didnt love.