Curious Tides

Thank you Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the opportunity to receive this ARC.

Reading this book felt like a breath of fresh air.

The beautiful world building is one of a kind, creating a different plane of existence and playing around with the concept of liminal spaces, while teasing the possibility of other realms.

The magical lore was a highlight of this book. The intricate rules and various abilities, all unique to each other, while balancing the complex topic of prejudice.

Let’s not forget about the beautiful chapter heading art.

I can’t wait for the second instalment.

Curious Tides was brilliant. Tidal and moon magic is a great concept, which was very exciting to explore.

Some things I loved:
- The length. It's a big, juicy fantasy, that bookworms will adore sinking their teeth into. - The character growth. Emory and Baz are different people by the end of the book. Sometimes protagonists (especially "heroes" like we kind of have here) can be completely immune to their own shortcomings, but Emory and Baz both self reflect and grow.
- The way the magic was described. It was otherworldly and beautiful and sometimes terrifying.
- It had everything a good fantasy needs: a map, a chosen one/s, and a few names I can't pronounce.

Who I'd sell this to:
- People who love fantasy but haven't read it in ages, and want to get back into it. A duology isn't as big a commitment as a trilogy or longer.
- Grandmas who know their grandkid likes "that Maas woman" but would be mortified to gift a book with sexy bits.

This was beautifully written, with what I would describe as poetic world building.
It started off and played right through as a mystery, building off of relationships and character developments. It was a slow building story, but with with a large crescendo.
The last 30% of this book became a really page turner and I couldn’t put it down but for more coffee.
It has a very unique magic system, that was easy enough to understand, and made me excited to explore.

A thoroughly enjoyable read 5/5

I’m looking forward to seeing what else this Author puts out into the world

Absolutely beautiful story - the writing pulled me in and kept me tightly wrapped in the vivid imagery. The development of the main characters was well balanced, with there being just enough information for me to care but not overly heavy deposition to cover their past. I received an ARC and the detail within the ebook is gorgeous - black print pages, the images of the Moon phases, the maps and the interwoven story of Song of The Drowned Gods. So much attention to detail is really appreciated by me as a reader. I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy and read it all again. Then get lost in the other half of the duology!

I really enjoyed this one. The worldbuilding at the beginning of the book was a little overwhelming, but by chapter 5 onwards it was pretty smooth sailing towards the end. The plot was really well done, and the prose was really nice. As a bookseller this title is going to be really easy to sell to fans of most fantasy books. Theres a lot to love in this book and I’m looking forward to the next one!

Honestly when I saw the cover and blurb on Netgalley I instantly clicked request, this book both looked and sounded like it had manifested out of my wildest dreams. Almost as if Romi had plucked it straight out of my dreamscape. Like look at this cover guys, it is BEAUTIFUL. I was immediately tempted to buy a physical copy regardless of if I ended up disliking/DNFing this book, just because it would look so Tides-damn good on my shelf. Thankfully though, I absolutely loved this book. The concept of the magic system had me instantly curious, lunar magic that is heavily based around the ocean tides?!? Such a beautiful concept and as a major greek mythos/Artemis girlie I was vibing out.

The world that Pascale Lacelle has created for this book is SO Deep, you can really tell that she has put everything she has into it’s creation. The political system, the different regions, studies, mythology, multiple books both fiction and non-fiction within the world, as well as an entire magic system that has strengths, variety, as well as reasonable limitations. These are all really hard things to combine without plot holes or inconsistencies but it has been a really solid foundation for this book, and I would’ve expected much worse for a debut novel.

As usual for me with a new fantasy world to delve into, the first 100~ pages went by a little slower paced just as I wrapped my head around how the world worked, but once I got into it I struggled to put it down. I forced myself to put the book down a few times, just so I could savour it for a few more days. I ended up reading majority of the book during a Full/Blue Moon, which honestly just felt so fitting and wonderful.

The characters within Curious Tides are brilliant, as I’ve seen from a few reviewers most of us seem to have preferred Baz>Emory whilst reading the two perspectives. I am also within that boat, however I am prepared to eat my words as I feel like Book Two will be where Emory really develops into a character we all will love. Absolutely loved Baz and Kai, their friendship is just so great and you can really tell how well thought out their characters are.

There were a few plot twists, some definitely more predictable than others. SPOILERS - (view spoiler)

Also for anyone interested in a good LGBT+ read, this book features an expansive range of diversity. Whilst not the biggest theme in the book, there is gay/lesbian, bisexual, nonbinary/trans representation. There was only one moment where it was directly pointed out in an internal monologue about a characters sexuality, otherwise the rest was just very subtle with mentions of a partner or ex partner and the pronouns used when discussing. I personally prefer this more casual approach of mentioning sexuality/gender diversity while reading, as it doesn’t feel like a character is surrounded by large neon signs of ‘TOKEN GAY’ but rather just like in the real world there is a diverse range of people that are just existing all around you.

I am sorry that this has been a crazy long review, I am just so enthralled with this book and universe. I cannot wait for it to be released so I can get a physical copy or two up on my bookshelf, as well as for book two as I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT! Thank you so much Pascale for writing such a wonderful book, as well as putting up with my Instagram DMs while I read.

Content Warnings are for the following, and if you have any triggers within this list I’d be wary about reading the book as some are major topics/frequently mentioned: death, grief, branding/tattoos, body horror, mild panic attack, anxiety, depression, bloodletting, self-harm, alcohol/drugs, magical substance abuse, magical asylum/prison.

Thank you so much to Simon and Schuster AU for providing me with an ARC copy of Curious Tides – I am incredibly grateful!


This is easily my favourite book of the year! Curious Tides masterfully weaves a dark academia setting and plot into an incredibly immersive and detailed fantasy world with intriguing magic to top it all off! I am already a self-confessed lover of all things dark academia, so I was SO excited to read this based on the blurb alone. Having finally finished it, I can truthfully say that Curious Tides exceeded all my expectations!


Curious Tides is unafraid to place the reader directly into the action, which I am a massive fan of! Not only does this keep you interested from page one, but for me, it helped the pacing stay consistent and made the worldbuilding feel more natural, never ending up too much on the ‘info-dump’ side of developing a new fantasy environment. The rules of the world itself, with everyone at Aldryn College wielding magic based on the moon phase when they were born, were so well developed and felt very intentional, which was amazing. This fantastic fantasy environment interwoven with such a compelling murder mystery, a mysterious missing epilogue connected to the murder, and a cultish lunar secret society hooked me from the moment I picked it up! The twists and turns felt justified but not obvious and made for an immersive reading experience – I simultaneously wanted to devour this book in one sitting but couldn’t bear to finish it too quickly because I was so attached to the characters and world!


I also want to commend just how beautiful this book is! The cover itself is gorgeous, but the insides of this book are equally as incredible, with exceptional detailing on section pages and detailing atop the pages themselves (it took me so long to realise that the moon in one of the page corners was growing precisely like the moon phases as I progressed through the book but when I did my heart felt SO full – absolutely genius addition)!


I loved the dual POV from Emory and Baz, who are complex and exciting protagonists in different ways (I am very much a Baz fan; I adore him) and was so impressed that all the side characters felt very distinct, fleshed out and included some excellent gender identity and sexuality diversity and representation without it feeling tokenistic.


Overall, please do yourself a favour and read Curious Tides as soon as it’s available! I cannot wait to discuss this book in depth with everyone <3


PS. I need the sequel literally right now or I’ll simply combust xoxo