A review by abbief
Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle

adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

 This book took me quite some time and some mental gymnastics to finish. The mystery and the magic system is very unique and overall a great concept, but the pacing of the book really dragged it down. The plot took too long to build up, and didn’t pick up until around 40% into the book. The two main characters could be insufferable at times, but they grew on me. Though I did not feel any chemistry between them until the 75% mark. The plot twist on the villain is… unsurprising to say the least.

Especially when this book is duo pov making it too certain about who is the love interest for the FMC

(That’s why sometimes I don’t like duo pov, it takes away the joy of speculating.) The writing also didn’t help, a lot of the dialogue are painfully obvious to be just worldbuilding and juvenile. 

With all that being said, the journey towards revealing the mystery is quite interesting, that’s why I stuck with reading the book. The world is also really interesting. And I love Romie! She barely appears in the plot timeline but still occupies such a great presence, rightfully so. I can’t wait to see her and Emory interacting in the next book.