DNF

I really wanted to like this book. And the reason why I stopped was a personal dislike of the writing style esthetic. I can tell that it was a choice to match the 1910 NYC atmosphere, and it was unfortunate that I just didn't connect with it.

What an amazing, fantastical, beautiful story! When the Tides Held the Moon is a multi-genre masterpiece. It’s a gay romance, a historical fiction novel set in 1911 NYC, focusing on Coney Island, a fantasy featuring a merman dubbed Rio, and a window into our country’s abysmal history of xenophobia, racism, classism, eugenics, and organized crime. I chose this book to fulfill a reading challenge prompt of an illustrated book, and the ink drawings scattered throughout are gorgeous renderings of the cast of characters (members of a freak show) who populate the book. This oddball assortment of carnival sideshow attractions (or the dehumanizing term “exhibits” coined by their unscrupulous boss Sam Morgan) welcomes fellow misfit Benny Caldera into their chosen family after he helps capture the merman who will live in the elaborate tank he created. Benny has spent his entire life being rejected for who he is: an asthmatic, brown-skinned, Puerto Rican gay man whose self-esteem has plummeted as a result of loss and unwarranted hatred. It isn’t until he befriends and is championed by Rio that he finds the strength to stand up for himself and defend the people who he has grown close to. When tragedy strikes, will he be able to save those he’s come to love and save himself as well?

If you like gay romance, romantasy, and a glimpse into the spectacular, yet also sordid and corrupt underbelly of early 20th-century NYC, you’ll love this phenomenal, magical novel. Highly recommended.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Erewhon Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

I really enjoyed this beautifully illustrated queer historical cozy fantasy! Thank you so, so much to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for allowing me to read this title!

Blurb:
Benigno “Benny” Caldera knows an orphaned Boricua blacksmith in 1910s New York City can’t call himself an artist. But the ironwork tank he creates for famed Coney Island playground, Luna Park, astounds everyone, especially the eccentric side-show proprietor who commissioned it. Benny’s work earns him an invitation to join the show’s eclectic crew of performers—his first welcome in the city—and share in their astonishing secret: the tank Benny built is a cage for their newest exhibit, a living, breathing, in-the-flesh merman stolen from the banks of the East River under a gleaming full moon.

The merman is more than a mythic marvel, though. Benny comes to know Río as a clever philosopher, an observant traveler, and a kindred spirit more beautiful and compassionate than any human he’s ever met. Despite their different worlds, what begins as a friendship of necessity deepens to love, leading Benny’s heart into uncharted waters where he can no longer ignore the agonizing truth of Río’s captivity—and his own.

A cage is no place for a merman to survive. Though releasing Río means betraying his new family, bankrupting their home, and losing his soulmate forever, Benny must look within for the courage to do what’s right, and find a love strong enough to free them both.

"When the Tides Held the Moon is a beautifully illustrated novel with artwork throughout by Venessa Vida Kelley, known for her stunning romance and fantasy art. This novel includes two different full-color endpapers for front and back, fully-designed chapter headers, and 27 pieces of detailed illustrations throughout, using beautiful two-color, aqua blue and black inks.

When The Tides Held The Moon- Venessa Vida Kelley
Narrated by Joel de la Fuente and Lee Osorio

Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice .5
Narration 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧

Everything about this book is absolutely stunning. The writing, the cover, the narration, the illustrations. This will definitely be a top probably 3 book of the year for me. I loved it so much. I wanted to draw it out and make it last longer but at the same time I *needed* to know what was going to happen between Benny and Rio. Their love was SO beautiful. Their chemistry burned like a blazing fire…or rather flooded like the sea…because Rio’s a merman. 😂 I was very intrigued by how the events in the book, while fictional, correlated to actual real life events that happened on Coney Island. Everyone just needs to read this book. I could ramble for days about everything I loved about it and why it was so good but please do yourself a favor and just read it for yourself.

This narration was incredible! I’m not sure if all the side characters were performed by the same narrator or if the two narrators split the side characters, but one, if not both of them have some insanely good accent chops. There were *so many* different accents in this as you’d expect to hear in Coney Island, and they were all perfect. The narrations for Benny and Rio were absolute perfection.

I can't believe I almost DNF'd this. This book.. this story.. the art.. was everything. This book is a literal piece of art from the cover, the inside artwork and the words. I loved this so much 😭. The beginning is a slow and almost made me DNF it, but once the story started and everything came together.... I was absolutely hooked. Growing up on the Atlantic always made me feel a special connection to the ocean and this book embodied that feeling. This is an absolute must read.

Thank you netgalley and Hambright PR for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is a really sweet/cozy historical fantasy romance with found family, vivid imagery, and beautiful prose. As a bonus, the author also does beautiful illustrations throughout that book that really bring the story to life. Benny and Rio and all the side characters stole my heart.

Thank you Kensington Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy.

I was going into this book fully expecting it to emotionally wreck me. Did it? Just a little🥹 Was this a captivating read and experience? Yes, it absolutely was. I loved the storyline and all the characters. My only complaint is I wanted more background and story behind that ending. I was just craving a little bit more detail in the end. Otherwise, this was a solid read and easily one of my favorites this year. I’ll be thinking about this book for a while.

A really enjoyable read, not like anything I’ve read before! I loved the 1910s setting, and the overarching plot of finding home whatever that looks like to you

I did find it slow to start, but once the story picked up I didn’t want to put my kindle down! Anything with found family automatically melts my heart. There are some frustrating moments (I wanted Benigno to step up several times!) but overall a heartwarming story. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the arc!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was absolutely stunning. It broke my heart and put it back together so tenderly.

While at times it was clear where the plot was heading, I still thoroughly enjoyed every single second of it. Personally, I loved the slow pacing as it really allowed for the both the main and side characters to shine.

I especially loved the thoughtful, nuanced exploration of Benigno's journey - from his struggle as a Puerto Rican immigrant to learning, slowly, to find his own voice and strength. The way he had to learn to blend in, by impersonating accents and staying small, to stay hidden as a matter of survival.

"I'd lost track of all the times I had melted myself down just to recast myself as someone with a slightly better shot at belonging someplace..."

"But it was kind of you... And kindness is its own food."

The illustrations throughout were also an incredible treat, along with the heartwarming found family and slow burn romance.

What a delicious read.

This historical fantasy had the best longing and angst and I ate it up.

Benny is a young Puerto Rican blacksmith who falls in love with Rio, the merman he is tasked to care for.
I really enjoyed the slow progression of their romance. How when Rio realized he was falling in love with Benny, he forgot he wanted to be set free. I was also falling in love with Benny as I was reading along.

But how can they be together when Rio wants to be set free and Benny needs him to stay to restore the waning business of the sideshow?
And how can a human and a creature be together?
You'll have to read to find out.

"don't waste your damn life trying to smother spark that want's to be a blaze"

"I think I am the fish and he is the net"

"the more I learn about Benigno the more he teaches me to swim"

The art is stunning, the story is beautiful, the characters are perfectly flawed and relatable. I loved this story and was in awe of the art the entire time.

I was drawn to When the Tides Held the Moon by its lush premise: a Boricua blacksmith in 1910s New York, a mythical merman caged in Coney Island, and a love story steeped in longing and impossible choices. The ingredients were all there for something magical, lyrical, and emotionally rich. But sadly, this one didn’t hold me, and I had to set it aside around the one-third mark.

The writing is undeniably poetic—sometimes beautifully so—but often leaned so heavily into its lyrical style that it lost narrative momentum. I found myself rereading passages to grasp the meaning, not because they were complex in a rewarding way, but because the prose felt overwrought and meandering. The atmosphere was rich, yet the pacing dragged, and the story struggled to find its footing beneath the weight of its language.

Benny is a character with depth, and his connection to Río has the makings of something powerful and tender. But even as their bond began to form, the emotional resonance didn’t fully land for me. The romance, while thematically strong, felt distant—more told than shown—and I didn’t feel anchored enough in their relationship or the surrounding plot to push through the slow unfolding of events.

This is the kind of book that might work better for readers who love slow, dreamlike historical fiction and don’t mind prioritizing mood and metaphor over plot. But for me, When the Tides Held the Moon felt like wading through poetic fog—beautiful at a glance, but hard to navigate.

DNF.

A beautifully written and atmospheric debut, When the Tides Held the Moon draws you in with its lyrical prose and vivid sense of place.

While the “fated mates” romance leaned a bit too sappy for my taste, it fits the genre and will appeal to readers who enjoy intense, destined love stories. The plot was a bit predictable and the ending slightly rushed, but the smooth pacing and stunning illustrations made the experience feel magical.

Overall, a heartfelt and immersive read I’d definitely recommend.

What a beautiful story this is! It was my first with merman & blacksmith trope which was a unique idea for me. Although Benny (the blacksmith) which turns into the caretaker of Rio (merman) it was well-written with gorgeous illustrations.
It took me a while to get into it but when I found my pace, I was in a whole new world where we get to see a circus and Rio is made point of attraction while benny taking care & falling in love with him.
The way they fight for each other & for their love is heart wrenching!!

There's a lot to love in this book: intriguing characters, passions, secrets and it could be a page turner but it's also very slow at times and I struggled as my adhd was not happy.
A good read in any case, recommended
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

“Before I left, I put my hand against the glass. A promise to return. He came and placed an argentine palm on the glass against mine. A promise to wait.”
🌊
When the Tides Held the Moon is a historical fiction set in 1910’s New York City, where our main character Benny works as a black smith scraping by. He is commissioned to create the iron frame of a giant tank for an eccentric amusement park owner. An odd request, made odder when Benny is roped into catching the tanks new inhabitant: a merman.
Through catching a merman called Rio, to preparing the attraction for opening night, we get such a lovely story of loneliness, love, forgiveness, and a reminder we have the ability to choose our own paths.
🌊
This book is the perfect mix of lighthearted and tragic! The found family is messy and thoroughly entertaining, and the queer rep was diverse and such an important part of the story! If you are a sucker for nicknames you are going to DIE reading this.
🌊
5/5 stars!
Thank you to Erewhon Books and Venessa Vida Kelley for the ARC copy! 💙

You know, sometimes you start a book and it just feels like it might become a favourite of the year. The writing style draws you in, the characters intrigue you, the world calls to you. This is what happened with <i>When the Tides Held the Moon</i>. I really really enjoyed this one when I started it because it had so many things I adore: historical setting with fantastical elements (merpeople!!), carneval/amusement park/freak show vibes, intriguing main character and a flowery kind of writing style. I loved it, I was into it.
I enjoyed getting to know Benigno and was immediately captivated by his plight, and I couldn't stop reading once Rio the merman got involved. It was heartbreaking, it was exciting and I couldn't wait to witness their relationship blossom.
The amazement did fizzle out a little the more I read on, though. The pacing is rather slow, the story is predictable from start to finish, the love story happens wayyyyy too quickly for my liking and the side characters, which I very much enjoyed despite some stereotypical ideas, where for the most part completely sidelined until they were needed for the story progression again. Which is why the found family aspects never worked so well. The author also chose to simply glaze over central conflicts in the story, especially regarding the romance: There should have been so much more conflict between the Benigno and Rio based on the fact that Benigno wasn't just a part of Rio's capture and death of his mother, but instrumental in it by building the cage that traps him. But Rio more or less forgives after a single conversation and it felt like two pages later they were in love already. Where is the nuance, the conflict, the struggle, the organic development of feelings rooted in such a traumatic event? That was the interesting stuff and it was simply pushed to the side for instant romance instead. Which is, more or less, when my enjoyment of the story quickly fizzled out.
Benigno is also just a bit toooo perfect to stay interesting for the whole book. He basically has no flaws other than maybe being a little naive. I also personally didn't enjoy the ending "twist". Yes, it allowed for the perfect happy ending (which I know most people will enjoy) but it also took away the more interesting, dramatic aspects of the relationship. It was magical, at least.
So in the end? There is beauty in this novel. It's a cute, magical love story with stakes that never really do feel like stakes, with villains that are little less than caricatures, with sprinklings of found family and a saccharine romance that I know will speak to a lot of people, especially romantasy fans. It's a good little read for a rainy weekend though probably won't stay with you for longer than that.
2,5 stars, I think, rounding up mostly for the strong beginning.

Beautifully written! I enjoyed the story though there were moments that seemed to lag for me. I enjoyed the family that Benny found within the troop and I enjoyed each one of their characters. The ending leaves a lot to interpretation, but you get a sense of everything even though the author doesn't tell you exactly what happened. I still have questions that weren't answered in the way that made things clear, but dang was that ending cute! And very intense! My heart!

I really enjoyed how whimsical this book was! I’m such a sucker for historical fiction mixed with magical realism, and I think this book pulled it off beautifully. The way the author blended the historical New york with a touch of fantastical made the world feel rich and vivid, and I was completely drawn in.

Benny is such a well-crafted character — I loved getting his perspective on things, especially because he’s not a straightforward “good guy.” He’s still involved in capturing Rio, and you can see his flaws and the compromises he makes, but his personal journey throughout the book really made me root for him. He’s complex, layered, and his growth felt authentic.

The found family element was also chef’s kiss — it gave the story so much warmth and heart. I love when a group of misfits comes together and builds something stronger than blood ties. That said, I did feel like a few of the side characters fell into somewhat stereotypical roles, and I wish they had been given a bit more depth or nuance. Still, they were enjoyable and served the story well overall.

In short, this book was a delightful mix of charm, magic, and emotional depth, and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who loves historical books with a touch of magical realism. I can’t wait to read more from this author!

Lovely work of art. The illustrations alone make the book worth reading. I loved the romance and I loved the found family even more.

Thank you NetGalley and Erewhon Books for giving me access to an e-arc for review consideration. All opinions are my own.