A Dark and Drowning Tide

By Allison Saft
** Publication Date 17 September 2024**
4 stars

​Can we please make this a series? I absolutely loved this novel. The characters! The setting! 


Lorelai Kaskel is an outlier. Handpicked by Ziegler to learn how to manipulate aether and follow in her footsteps, she does not fit in with the popular crowd. She is Yevanisch. A culture of people who have no homeland, while her fellow classmates are all upper class, some royalty from the lands. Yet all of them have been chosen to search for the magical spring that their king is after.


Ziegler is the leader of the pack, Lorelei the assistant. Her nemesis, Sylvia von Wolff is the naturalist that will help them navigate the wildelute they will encounter along the way. When Lorelei finds Ziegler murdered aboard the boat, she is tasked with solving the murder and returning to Brunnestad with the location of the magical spring. Can Lorelei survive the trip with the others all vying for favor with the King? Or will there be yet another murder?


I really enjoyed this. It was slow to start, as all fantasy novels can be until you get the locations and lingo down. What a fabulous story of love, power, entitlement. In many ways it mirrors our world, with its divisiveness. Excellent and fun read that I wish would be a series. I want to know where our adventurers are off to next!