A review by luckykosmos
Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle

mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I liked the pacing, the overall plot, the characters. Lacelle's prose is also really promising. There were two issues I had throughout.

One was just worldbuilding jargon - there was a point where it didn't feel natural, like something someone would say. It felt like Lacelle held on to the alignment/sign/etc verbiage with white knuckles and wouldn't let go. Maybe this is more a flaw of this kind of fantasy, but as much as I loved the magic system, tied to moon cycles in a very specific way, it did take me out. 

The other was
the mystery of how Emory came to be Eclipse-born. While I'm actually thrilled it wasn't just an oopsie, the assumption Emory had to make for most of the book (and what a coincidence there happened to be an eclipse the day before - I probably would have preferred it without this tidy distraction), it felt like the latent-Healer-to-Eclipse explanation was a little too tidy, especially packaged with the revelation that Emory's mother had a larger part in the narrative under a false name.


I loved the Collapsing switcheroo and the characters involved there. I think there's a lot of potential in book 2, because with a bit more editing, I would have adored this. 
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