Wow, I have been waiting for a book like this in my life. It has all the elements that make for an immersive and entertaining read. There's much more to the plot than just the romance. The physics-based magic system isn't hard to understand, coming from someone who never took that level of maths. Every character is written incredibly well and by the end of the book, I felt like I went on this journey with them.

Biggest mahalo's to Holiday House and NetGalley for this e-arc!

First, this cover is stunning omg. Second, the vibes!! Wow the summer, coastal creepy vibes were unreal and I was obsessed. A great debut and looking forward to what this author does next!

Immersive and beautifully dark, this debut depicts a love story lost and found through the hands of time. The prose were lyrical while remaining fast paced and intriguing, especially for the target audience. I loved the eldritch horror aspect, it's one of my favorite subgenres and the author did so well. I'm eager to see how her writing develops over time!

"Our love crosses galaxies. Defies the laws of physics... Maybe we're stronger than magic too."

4.25★

ooo this gave me the PERFECT summerween transitioning into fall creepy coastal vibes, i was so here for it!

a small town on the northeast coast that hides something dark in its shores 🌊 briar has always hated her birthdays, after her losing her twin brother on their 6th birthday. and now it's her last one before her best friends all leave her behind for college.

but strange things are happening, and something even weirder is up with her best friend finn (who she's totally not been avoiding since they finally kissed).

what ensues is a magical murder mystery, a race against timelines, and a bit a (dark) practical magic.

the vibes and aesthetic were so much fun as someone who is beach goth, but the love story and found family were definitely the heart of this. i wasn't expecting to get teary eyed and i was definitely in my feels after this one.

also shout out to the bi rep: oops! i'm kind of into my arch nemesis! oops! why is the evil villain so hot?!

this was an excellent debut read and i'm excited for de elizabeth's upcoming books!

Briar Winters has a secret she's cannot share. Not even with her three best friends. Just before Astrid, Kai, and Finn leave her behind for colleges across the US, they go to the carnival. After waking the next day, Finn is suddenly gone and his phone is out of service. Briar is racing to find Finn as dark secrets threaten to catch up and as her nineteenth birthday approaches.

The yearning, the starcrossed lovers, the town buried in dark secrets! And this is a debut novel? This was such an achingly heartbreaking and lovely YA dark fantasy book. De weaves in idyllic coastal town unease, eldritch secrets, and the sudden disappearance of Finn. Give this a read if you like:
- there's something evil in the sea
- coastal Massachusetts/haven from witch trials
- sacrifices for the ones you love
- the threads of time

Thank you to Holiday House for an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. This book will be published on 9/23/25. I'll be posting to Instagram closer to publication

📖 plot & pace: the magic system detailed was amazing! especially with debut novels, i always worry that systems won’t make sense or will have gaps but this one was fully fleshed out!

👥 characters: i absolutely loved Finn! i did feel like both Finn and Briar were relatable and real characters

☀️ setting: haunting setting! very peachy-dark aesthetic, i think it’s a great transition from summer reads to october/spooky reads

🤩 tropes: found family, mental health representation, friends to lovers

This was a twisty read with great pining from all the characters. I really loved the creepy small town setting that came to life on the page. Briar and Finn are both wonderfully flawed characters who make you love them despite their faults.

Thank you to Holiday House Books and Netgalley for the eARC!

To say I’m disappointed by this book is a huge understatement. And partially I think it was the marketing of this one. This should have been solely marketed as a horror - maybe a horror romance. It’s so very loosely a fantasy and there ain’t no physics-based “magic system” - it’s run-of-the-mill multiverse hopping. 😅 Theoretical physics at best - you know, stuff that is not practical. As an engineer, I definitely thought we’d be getting practical physics: statics, dynamics, F=ma, hell, fluid mechanics even. And the way they use the “magic” in this book is not a system. 😩 I feel like I was misled. Why not just call it a time travel / multiverse book? Why even mention physics?? Or why not specify that it’s THEORETICAL physics??

Sigh.

Anyway, I have way more issues with this one.

- Briar is the worst protagonist I’ve ever seen. Her best friend and the guy she is supposedly in love with disappears from the timeline. She finds out she’s going to die. Then she also finds out she’s descendant of a witch. What does she do? Has sex with the girl she bullied for 13 yrs! 🤨 Obviously. 🙄 And everything that happens, she turns back to herself. She constantly thinks the world revolves around her. It is infuriating!!! And two people are in love with her???? Why, Finn??? Why???? This girl sent $500 worth of flowers that DIE to a girl she bullied whose mom died of cancer! 💩 to make herself feel better!! Because charity what? Giving it to the person herself, what? Nahhhh flowers! 🌺 That’s soo nice!!! 🙄

- Morgan was… unnecessary. I hated her character too. She felt like a plot device, not a human. What person would be tortured for 13 yrs by a girl and then be super up for getting it on with her?? 🤦‍♀️ We needed more backstory.

- Finn’s two personality traits were “smart” and “obsessed with Briar.” 🤷‍♀️ idk why. It doesn’t make sense. Six year old seeing an angel? 😐 Ok.

- The villain was non-existent to me - he was a voice inside their heads, not an evil being. He felt like an afterthought when advertising made me think he was going to be Darkling-level of amazing. Nope. We didn’t even actually get to SEE him defeated. He just kinda didn’t exist anymore. Yay?

- This book felt like book two in a series. I had no chance to get a sense of Briar and Finn’s relationship bc he just disappears. And no idea why tf Morgan and Briar even remotely see each other in a romantic aspect. Six year olds falling in love. Obviously. A 6yo who is so cognizant of things that she decides never to tell what she saw to anyone…. Umm my 7yo would have told me in five seconds k.

- The action was never IN the story!!! I always felt like I was being TOLD about the action. The entire book felt like I was watching people watch other things. Or watching people tell me about world-building that made no sense. It was all atmosphere and no action.

- The ending was too nice. Too clean. Too picture perfect. A book where we get some crazy grotesque horror and they’re just like “yay, love wins!” Please. Even Bly Manor made it bittersweet.

Ultimately, here’s the deal. If you liked A Study in Drowning and Skyla Arndt’s books, you’ll like this one. This is first and foremost, a horror.

If you want a better “I’ll find you in every multiverse” book: go read A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray. I liked that more.

This Raging Sea is a stunningly atmospheric debut full of heart, hope, and longing. The physics based magic system felt natural and original, and I love the touch of mystery threaded through the story. Perfect for readers who love mystery, magic, witches, spooky atmosphere, and a love story to tug at the heartstrings.

3.75 rounded up

Thank you NetGalley and Holiday House for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This Raging Sea is a YA horror debut that takes you into a seaside carnival and a world of physics-based magic with a side of a bisexual romance that haunts the pages. Readers follow Briar's journey with a friend group that's being held together by a loose thread and a best friend she's in love with who has vanished from time.

There are a lot of things to love about this story. De Elizabeth has a wholly bewitching, atmospheric writing style. The salt of the sea works its way through the pages and onto your skin. It's a book that makes you forget you're reading because it takes you so deep into it. The carnival lights in the background illuminate the eerie locations and situations Briar gets herself into as she works nonstop to uncover the truth of where Finn went and why he's gone.

The magic system was one of the aspects I was most excited about. I absolutely loved falling into this exploration of time and physics. Though this book is a horror story, we also get a love story doomed by time (which is something I will always love). This story spends some time diving into a world of time travel and twisting threads. It shows us a world that isn't as simple as most people would expected it to be. Everything about the magic system and how it played a role in both the horror side and the romantic side of the story was absolutely fascinating.

Although there are so many things to love, there were a few things I struggled with as well. The characters as individuals were great. It was a couple of the dynamics, though, that pulled me out of the story a bit. I found some of the dialogue between all the characters to be frustrating at times. Briar interacts with some enemies and her relationship with her friends is struggling, so there some inevitable arguments between them. But I thought a few of them felt unnatural and/or unnecessary. There was also a dynamic she had with one character in particular, that I'm trying not to go into for the sake of avoiding spoilers, that made it harder to root for the romance. When Briar and Finn were together in one space, their romance was perfect. The time they spent apart, though, had some moments that made their relationship feel less believable.

There was also one small thing, and this is a bit of a petty complaint, that took my focus away from the storyline. The town they live in is closely related to the Salem Witch Trials, which is mentioned quite a few times, but it gets the facts of the trials wrong. There are several mentions of/references to people getting burned at the stake, which never actually happened in Salem. I know this is such a small thing so I didn't let it affect my rating too much, but it was something I noticed more than once.

I can't say this book was perfect for me, but I can say that it's a book I won't hesitate to recommend. De Elizabeth is a talented storyteller and I can't wait for more people to fall in love with her gorgeous writing. I know I'll be continuing to pick up every book she releases and letting myself disappearing into her stories. If you want a eerie but romantic book with an ending that will haunt you, This Raging Sea is the story for you.

Review on Goodreads (sophreadingbooks https://www.goodreads.com/sophreadingbooks) as of 8/18/2025
Review on Instagram (sophiesreading https://www.instagram.com/sophiesreading/) expected 9/20/2025

I am veering away from romance-driven YA and romance-driven SF&F, but this will absolutely hit for its intended audience. Recommending for fans of Our Infinite Fates and Your Blood, My Bones.

I really loved the prose in this one and the writing style was absolutely for me. The prose carried the book for me in a few ways - especially when the characters felt a bit flat in their decision making. I might be in the minority, but I liked the inclusion of the other not-quite-love interests! It makes the theme of choice hit harder.

I did enjoy the bi representation here, too. If people have issues with the bi representation in a M/F relationship, I'm a little disheartened. I feel like it's worth remembering just how many people are sadly turned off when a male lead in a romance is bi and how many people don't think a woman is 'really' bi when she's with a man..)

4 stars, definitely recommending this one! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

omg i think i cried for what feels like hours reading this book. i think i cried for almost the last 100 pages (probably less, maybe actually the entirety of them). i still don’t even know how to put all my thoughts together. i needed to process what i read and get my bearings together before i was able to give a proper review.

i love this book so so much. the found family in this was so good. i love briar, finn, kai, and astrid so much. the fact that they weren’t perfect made them so real. i love that de didn’t shy away from their flaws. they were all messy, but their love for each other transcended everything and i could feel it. they were all so desperate to find finn who was lost in time. i was left wanting more not just from briar and finn, but kai, astrid, morgan, and our villain, the death king as well.

immediately i was swept up into the world de wrote. this book was so beautifully written. it was dark, tragic, and hopeful. i have been wanting to read this book from the moment i came across it on de’s instagram page, so its such a huge honor to be a part of the street team for this book! an amazing debut! hats off to de! i’m excited to read everything she writes.

if you hear someone yelling, it’s me on the rooftop telling you to pick up this book! if you’re looking for good bi-rep, an atmospheric town, a unique magic system, this is for you!

my eyes hurt, my head hurts, my heart hurts, and i loved this book in it’s entirety <3

thank you holiday house books for the arc!

Haunting and romantic, with a lot of twists and moments that had me guessing what would happen and how it would end.

*book hype incoming* FIVE STARS!!

To all my dark fantasy lovers out there, I have found your next obsession. This Raging Sea by De Elizabeth so quickly stole my heart. I don't think I've read a book this fast in a long time.

The dark, seaside ambience was everything I wanted it to be and more and the TWISTS just kept coming. The complex character dynamics explored in the novel were so captivating and pulled at all the heartstrings. 11/10 would recommend you pre-order this 2025 debut!

Goodreads synopsis:

Historic Loch Creek is a witchy New England tourist trap—but it’s just a trap for Briar, who’s convinced she’ll die there among the waves that devoured her twin brother thirteen years ago. But when her best friend who she's loved since childhood, Finn, vanishes from the seaside carnival, there’s only one person who can help Briar find him: Morgan, her biggest enemy who knows her darkest secret.

As Briar uncovers hidden truths as deep and dark as the water that haunts her, it quickly becomes clear that Finn has gone much further than anyone could have imagined. He’s lost in time, and neither of them are safe. If Briar and Finn look too hard, they might find terrifying answers—not just about what’s buried beneath the shores, but also the threads tying them to each other. As past and future collide, the seductive yet evil underwater entity that intends to claim Briar still needs its sacrifice . . .

And it’s too hungry to go unsated.

Equal parts epic bisexual romance and pulse-pounding horror, This Raging Sea is a dual POV dark fantasy as sweepingly powerful as the ocean that threatens to consume everything and everyone Briar has ever loved—prepare to be devoured.

This Raging Sea had me feeling all the emotions!!

The relationship between Briar and Finn is so special to me. It's the perfect example of a true friends-to-lovers romance, and the platonic and romantic aspects were perfectly balanced. I also loved the relationships with the other characters. Kai and Astrid really round out the group, and Morgan's character was a lovely addition. The friendships are just as important as the romantic ones.

The plot was fascinating. I was a little worried when I started reading because the book is constantly marketed as having a physics-based magic system, but it's not discussed in a lot of detail, so it was easy for a non-math person like myself to understand and enjoy.

The ending had me screaming into a pillow! I can't say much without spoiling the whole book, but WOW.

I would recommend this book for fans of Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven and anyone looking for a book that highlights platonic love,

⭐⭐⭐⭐

THIS RAGING SEA by De Elizabeth (Sept 23)

Thank you Netgalley and Holiday House for the earc

Loch Creek is a witchy town, it's also where Blair Winters thinks she's going to die---like her brother did 13 years prior...among the waves. When her best friend, Finn Adler, disappears, Blair must seek put her enemy to help find him. Together, they unearth secrets and darkness that makes up the town.
THIS RAGING SEA is a YA sci-fi esque mystery filled with rage, heartache, a tinge of romance, and a mysterious force at hand---witches and magic. This book is the epitome of atmospheric, and it reminded me so much of something some of my favorite authors would write: nature stirring everything up, in this case with "the raging sea." It was almost lyrical as the author told the story. I loved that it was dual-pov, because Finn's pov added to the book. And I loved how everything just sort of flowed...almost like a sea.
With everything positive, there comes negative. I had to take breaks reading this book because of the length. It was long, the chapters and the book in and of itself. As I pushed through, the second half was where its at---where everything flowed nicely as I mentioned above. The pace of the book picked up, and everything began to unravel. And as revelations were made, nothing was as it seems. And then that ending---specifically those last few chapters brought tears to my eyes. Love, loss, magic, if that's what you want to read, this this is for you.

Going into this, I was expecting an upper YA/New Adult mystery fantasy. Based on the author's social media, I was really excited for a physics and math-based magic system and bisexual representation in the story. This did not deliver.

What I liked or met expectations
- There were some beautiful sentences and parts where I thought the writing was well done/quotable
- There was a 1 page moment where the bi representation felt authentic (this is also a con - I felt like the bi rep was mostly performative and to check a box, but this one page captured my experience as a bi person well).
- The writing had the YA audience in mind, mostly. More of a upper-YA as there are a few scenes where sex is heavily implied and some on-page making out. Which is fine, just something to be aware of. This would be in the more 16/17+ YA side of things in my opinion.
- About 1/3 of the way in I started to get "Stranger Things" vibes

What I disliked:
- TIME TRAVEL/TIMLINE HOPPING - this was not mentioned anywhere in the blurb or marketing. I really dislike time-bending/non-linear timelines so I really forced myself through this one. This would have been great to know about in advance.
- Overuse of the phrase/variations of "she bit/chewed her cheek". It could be a drinking game for the first half of the book
- The magic system was a HUGE let down. The author marketed it as a math-based and physics-based system. Saying this magic system is based in these things is like saying The Amityville Horror was based on a true story. It should be inspired by at best. Using ideas like equal and opposite reaction, using the term chaos theory, googling a formula, doesn't make something based in it. I might be a little overly harsh here, but as someone with an extensive background in math and physics, I had really high hopes for a magic system that was based in math and science and it just wasn't.
- (Warning, this point has a spoiler) The relationship between Blair and Morgan. It was every cliche wrapped into a few run-ins. The relationship (and Blair being bi) felt like it was forced and was there specifically to make their eventual partnership happen. Their partial chapter of a romance was everything I don't like about romance books wrapped into one - fated enemies to lovers, social enemies to lovers, one bed, grumpy sunshine. I was literally rolling my eyes.
- The bi representation was tokenized and felt really inauthentic. It's hard to do bi characters' experiences justice because there is so much nuance and undertones to the lived experience of it. Given the upper-YA nature of this book, I expected more of the nuance to come through vs it being there strictly as a vehicle to get Morgan to help.

Overall, this is a book I will not be recommending. It just missed the mark on key elements for me.

It's clear that De is an excellent writer, she knows the craft & understands the audience. This book will be loved be a lot of people, I'm sure of it! But unfortunately I am not one of those people, because it's also clear that this was written with tropes in mind, which in itself is not bad, but it feels like that leads to some boredom & disengagement here. It feels like the characters (especially Finn, to me) lacked depth, and certain audiences are being pandered to.

Physics-based time travel and witchy small town lore meets a soulmate romance that defies time in this haunting YA fantasy debut.

I loved everything about this — from the found family, to the seaside setting, bisexual rep, phone calls from the in-between place, and the ultimate sacrifice of love that knows no bounds.

I can’t wait to see what De Elizabeth writes next after such a stellar first impression.

4.5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC for an honest review.

This raging sea is an utterly unique urban fantasy and a stunning debut novel from De Elizabeth. It is a beautiful romance of lovers lost in time, steeped in eldritch horror and mystery, and laced with lovely prose.

Fans of “The Haunting of Bly Manor,” A Study in Drowning, This is How You Lose the Time War, and “Life is Strange” will enjoy this hauntingly heartbreaking story of love and found family transcending the boundaries of time.

I first heard about this book on TikTok and was pulled in by the concept of a math and physics based magic system. Do I know anything about physics? No. Am I able to understand complex mathematical equations? Also no. But that didn't hinder my enjoyment in the slightest. In fact, stories that explore and play with the physics of time are always my favorite, and they're so hard to find! Throw in the fact that the characters are all bi/queer and I'm sold!