This book just wasn't for me. It reminded me a lot of Where the Crawdads Sing, which also wasn't for me. I later saw that other people shared they saw similarities which would have put me off this book to start with.

This book is slow-burn mystery. It took me a while to get into but the last 20% for the build-up to be worth it. I did think it was a little unbelievable but it kept me entertained.

This books packs a punch right in the beginning, with the death of the town's beautiful doctor. What follows is the search to find out what happened to her. The book is told from different perspectives, in different years. It's a little bit much to keep up with the different time periods, but all-in-all, it was a good read. The end was more than a bit predictable, but there was a "happy" ending, so all is good.

This review was also published on Goodreads.

This was overall a good mystery. I found it slightly predictable but I liked the character development and twists.

I am most impressed with this debut novel by Sarah Crouch. The story was plausible and I enjoyed it all the way through. My only complaint was how the story jumped between characters and years in the timeline. I had to backtrack several times to check the header of the chapter to see what year we were experiencing.
I especially enjoyed the happenings in the trial and Pastor Mills, he was a delight. This is a murder mystery with a twist. Comes in with 5 stars.
I thank Atria Books along with NetGalley for providing this Galley edition for no requirement other than my offer to provide an unbiased review.

Middletide is a great debut with an enticing plot that kept me invested throughout. I definitely look forward to more from the author!

The atmospheric vibes are *chef's kiss* SO GOOD! This debut was definitely a slow burn for me and was full of loss, grief, and mystery as well as very character driven.

This book becomes a mystery as an investigation ensues to determine if the doctor's death was a suicide or murder. When investigators learn that her death mirrors a homicide in Elijah's poorly selling book, eyes turn to him....

I really enjoyed this novel, until the ending.....the ending felt rushed to me.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It was slow and too many details. The plot was bland characters boring and the murder was just ridiculous

Oh this one was so good! Beautiful writing! I couldn’t put it down. It had me hooked from the first page.

I’m all for a slow burn read, in fact they are my favorite type of thriller/mystery books to read, but this was a crawling-almost never getting to the actual mystery read. And when it did get to the point, it just fell flat for me. Maybe just too much build up to get there. The characters, the main character to be exact, was not like able at all. He seemed very childish. And the jumping timelines was confusing for me to keep track of when something happened. I know this is a debut novel so there is definitely room for improvement and I will read from this author again. Thanks to Netgalley and the author for the ARC.

This book had a solid premise, but it absolutely failed to deliver in every single way. The mystery was boring, the court case was unrealistic, the pacing was painfully slow, tthe PNW weather/wilderness somehow failed to become a character despite everything being set up for it to be, and the characters felt hokey. This felt like a rip off of Where the Crawdads Sing that didn't hold up in any way (setting aside the issues with that book's author).

Most of all though, the author created a Native tribe from thin air and stuffed the story full of colonizer stereotypes about Native people. And I just... did this not go through a sensitivity read? Did ANYONE read this book before it was published? This was a Book of the Month pick and I'm incredibly disappointed in them too. Every single Native character embodied the "noble savage" stereotype. Are there Christians who are also Native? Of course, there are. But why create a tribe and then basically limit their values to loving nature, being Christian, and basically nothing else beyond this stereotype? There was no nuance here, no real reflection of culture or history. There were real no comparison discussions against the non-Natives. Did the author take what the Quileute have said about the harm the Twilight series has caused their communities into account and decide this was a better option? I don't know, but this was awful in every single way.

We have Native authors who write wonderful books that reflect their history, culture, and current reality. Read their books. I don't think I could recommend this book less.

A huge thank you to the author and the publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

This book starts with a murder that looks like a suicide in 1994. Then it jumps back in time to give us Elijah's life story. "Atmospheric" is code for "too much description about nothing much", unless you are just really interested in reading about his failed career and his ability to homestead. Basically Elijah sucks. He has convinced himself he can only live with the girl who he abandoned years ago, she moved on and got married, but (conveniently, I guess?) she is now widowed. They have a fight, at which point the recently divorced town doctor starts dating him. Throughout the book, there are glimpses into the investigation, if it can even be called that, as the two cops take the most convenient and obvious evidence at face value and use no critical thinking skills whatsoever.

This book was kind of jarring to read, the murder was the main plot but also a background story somehow, and it just didn't flow well. I appreciate the ARC from NetGalley and the publisher.

This was a great book, one of my favorites of the summer. I enjoyed the imagery and detail to the story that Sarah Crouch portrayed. I think fans of Where the Crawdads sing will enjoy this read!

3.5 stars rounded down

Middletide follows Elijah, a now 30-something who left the Pacific Northwest in his youth to pursue writing, leaving his family and high school sweetheart Nakita behind. Having failed in his writing career, Elijah returns home and tries to rekindle things with Nakita. When his ex-girlfriend Erin is found dead on his property in the same manner as his novel, Elijah becomes a main suspect and has to fight for his freedom.

Middletide had an interesting premise and delved more into the legal system than most crime thrillers I read, something I really appreciated. It was well written and I loved the setting of the book. I felt like I could imagine Elijah’s house and its surroundings quite well.

This novel is told in many different timeframes and follows several characters. At times this was difficult to keep track of and I can only imagine how confusing that could be to an audiobook listener. Once I got used to the characters, however, I was able to keep track of the plot. The twist was quite predictable and the ending was a bit too neatly wrapped up. There was an epilogue that, while cute, could have been left out.

Overall this novel wasn’t for me, but I would recommend it to fans of crime thrillers with an emphasis on the legal system.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for access to this ebook in exchange for an honest review!

I really enjoyed this book and was impressed to discover it is Sara Crouch's debut novel. Yes it starts a bit slow but kept me turning pages to unveil the mystery. It has a mixture of romance, crime drama, mystery and courtroom drama...what more could you ask for? In my opinion, it's not getting the credit it deserves so I will be recommending it to my reader friends. My thanks too the publisher for providing a review copy via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This is a debut book for this author. I believe she has a lot of potential and I will look forward to more of her work. This one was good but not great. It let me down in a few ways. It was not a thriller but was a mystery and while I enjoyed reading this book I did believe all along who was responsible for the Doctor's death. Though I did think it was for other reasons so the author did get me with that.

Elijah wanted nothing more than to be a writer. After his novel was deemed a failure he returned to his hometown and set about fixing up the cabin where he and his father had lived. He also set about fixing things between him and his first love Nakita.

Nakita lived on a reservation and had fallen in love with Elijah. When he left to go to college and begin his writing career she waited. He was suppose to return to their special place on a certain date. He didn't.

For what was suppose to be such a great love I was very disappointed. It took Elijah seventeen years to return. He thought he would just come back, apologize, and everything be alright. Nakita would just fall into his arms like a love sick pup. Right...

I didn't believe most of this story. Yes it was interesting and it was fairly good. But. A love story or a return to a love story. I didn't buy that. Nakita would not have been swayed by him again. I just do not believe it. She married and had a good life. She loved the man she married. He died in a horrible accident and she mourned him. Then she and Elijah became a couple again. Like nothing happened. Yes she made him suffer a little, but not nearly enough.

Elihah was very childish in my opinion. He just didn't do it for me. I think he came across as more of a teen than a man in his mid to late thirties. At the ages they were I just can't believe they would not have had an intimate relationship once they did get together. That was just unrealistic.

The investigation into Erin's death was so poorly done also. While I did expect that the book would come into play at a later date didn't help though. Why the police didn't check into who sent it raised questions for me. I know that was an important part but still. Sloppy job on the cops behalf. It didn't seem like they ever looked for anyone else or any other cause.

This was an interesting book and it was a fun read. There was just to many things that didn't add up for me. It never wowed me in any way.

Thank you #NetGalley, #Atria, and the author for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

3/5 stars. Read for yourself and decide. It's worth reading.

3⭐
Middletide by Sarah Crouch
Genre ~ Mystery thriller
Publication date ~ June 11, 2024
Page Count ~ 288


Middletide by Sarah Crouch was a book that found its way into my hands over a few nights as I settled into bed. I quickly invested in the characters and found the author did a great job of bringing each to life for me. This included our tertiary characters like Elijah's dad and best friend Chitto, Nakita's dad and also Jeremy, who I was happy to see mature throughout the story. What I didn't like is our protagonist, Elijah, is hellbent on reuniting with Nakita even when she turns him away. No, means no, eh? And her dad supporting this (actually relating it to a biblical story!) is absolutely cringeworthy IMO. I found the timeline transitions to be a bit confusing at times and had to reorient myself to where I landed in the story.

All in all, a great debut from this poetic author and a book I'm glad I spent time with.
Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for the EARC. All opinions expressed are authentically my own.

📖 Book Review 📖

🎧📱 "Middletide" by Sarah Crouch

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
published June 11, 2024

This debut mystery novel was not at all what I expected and I am so glad I didn’t judge a book by its cover 😉 Beautifully written, full of descriptions of the land, and just a lot of details made me feel like I was in the book.

One peaceful Saturday morning, in the small, Puget Sound town of Point Orchards, two fisherman find the lifeless body of Dr. Erin Landry. She is hanging from a tree on the property of Elijah Leith, way back in the woods, only accessible in high tide if you came by water.

Sheriff Jim Godbout’s initial investigation points to an obvious suicide, but several clues just don’t line up. When foul play is suspected, and he discovers that the circumstances of the doctor’s death are eerily similar to the plot in Elijah Leith’s own novel, the small town Sheriff has a lot on his plate.

At 33 Elijah returns to his childhood home where is father has recently passed away. Elijah went away to college and had big city dreams of being a great writer but after his novel wasn’t successful he has lost hope. He decides to restore the cabin and hopefully rekindle his relationship with Nakita, the beautiful girl from the nearby reservation whom he loved and left after high school.

Point Orchards begins to doubt Elijah’s innocence- just too many things point to him as the murderer. He must fight against whoever is framing him for a reason he doesn’t even know.

Book 3 of July 2024
Thank you to @netgalley for this eARC

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“Middletide” is an atmospheric, moody summer slow burn debut that focuses on the complexities of a small town and the events following a suspicious death of their beloved doctor.

Read if you like: books with lots of layers, subtext, twists and details.

What I enjoyed: Elijah and Nakitas relationship was the most interesting part of this book for me, I found myself invested in these characters and the relationship development between them.

What I didn’t love: The summary to the crime and mystery component of the book felt a little too convenient and rushed for me. There was evidence that didn’t make sense combined with the stereotypical “dumb ignorant small town cops” angle.

Overall the book had an eery, poetic sense to the writing style that I enjoyed. If this is your vibe then definitely give it a try.

Thank you to Atria Books, Sarah Crouch and Netgalley for the EARC.

Publish date: available now

Some will describe this as a slow burn but it was mostly slow with very little burn. The first 30% was really setting up the characters. Maybe I’m just easily confused, but I found there was a steep learning curve to getting all the timelines straight - it jumped forward and backwards, years or months or days, which took some time to get the hang of.

The highlight for me was concept. Kudos to Sarah Crouch on this, a great debut!

TLDL: Good concept, poor execution.

Ironically, I’d give Sarah Crouch the same criticism that the MC Elijah Leith received.

I’ll leave you with a few wise words of wisdom from my favourite character, Chitto:
“‘Nobody cares’… It frees you up to fail. At the end of the day, no one gives a rip.“

3⭐️