Reviews

Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle is an absolutely incredible debut into the world of fantasy and dark academia.
Readers will get to experience both lost and found family, estranged friendship, forbidden magic, romance, betrayal, a secret society, and many twists and turns.
The story mainly takes place at a school of magic, where students are sectioned into groups based on their magical affinity. The magic system itself is fascinating, centered on the phases of the moon, with users having access to their powers based on what phase they were born under.
There is, of course, forbidden magic, which causes no amount of emotional angst for several of the characters.
The story is slow moving at times, but the writing and descriptions are beautiful and detailed, while avoiding being overly flowery. The pacing of the second half of the book really accelerates, and while there is a heavy amount of foreshadowing regarding one twist, the story still has several surprises in store for the reader.
Ending with a breathtaking cliff hanger, readers will look forward to the second book in this stunning duology.

imalionheart's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.0

I was very prepared to inhale this and make it part of my personality but I got a bit lost in the magic system and the characters were kind of boring

manicotti's review against another edition

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wasn’t a fan of the characters and i was bored… i wouldn’t say this is a bad book through just not for me personally

dlynn07's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

serafinassong's review against another edition

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3.0

First the good: The prose has moments of beauty. The magic system had potential, even if it didn't live up to it for my taste. Some of the characters were interesting, I especially loved Baz.
However: As many have said, Emory is insufferable. Baz deserves better (and Kai is right there).
I expected Emory to get Chosen One all powerful magic, but it seemed like every kind of magic could do whatever the story needed. It defeated the purpose of having very distinct schools of magic, which could have been interesting. Baz's time magic was especially egregious for this.
Overall, some good ideas and framework, but the execution did not work for me.

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