Review by graffitithesky - A Dark and Drowning Tide

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graffitithesky 's review for:

A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft

2.5

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book had good bones and a very promising premise. However, it collapsed under its focus on a poorly-executed romance. It could have been an interesting political fantasy novel and was set up to be, with interesting world-building and a unique magic structure, but it just falls flat because it wasn't given enough attention and opportunity to really thrive. The romance tried to be an enemies-to-lovers that was mostly just a protagonist that could not tell the difference between hate and fondness, and the switch to lovers was quick.

It also went from 0 to 100 at one point with a spicy scene that felt entirely unnecessary and poorly timed.

The ending was fairly disappointing as well, because there was no real resolvement of the political strife/entanglement that drove most of the character's primary motivators. I'm giving this a 2.5 because it had interesting draws that I liked and because it was queer. But I was quite disappointed overall.

Content Warnings