Ninth House meets A Deadly Education in this gorgeous dark academia fantasy following a teen mage who must unravel the truth behind the secret society that may have been involved in her classmates’ deaths.
Emory might be a student at the prestigious Aldryn College for Lunar Magics, but her healing abilities have always been mediocre at best—until a treacherous night in the Dovermere sea caves leaves a group of her classmates dead and her as the only survivor. Now Emory is plagued by strange, impossible powers that no healer should possess.
Powers that would ruin her life if the wrong person were to discover them.
To gain control of these new abilities, Emory enlists the help of the school’s most reclusive student, Baz—a boy already well-versed in the deadly nature of darker magic, whose sister happened to be one of the drowned students and Emory’s best friend. Determined to find the truth behind the drownings and the cult-like secret society she’s convinced her classmates were involved in, Emory is faced with even more questions when the supposedly drowned students start washing ashore—alive—only for them each immediately to die horrible, magical deaths.
And Emory is not the only one seeking answers. When her new magic captures the society’s attention, she finds herself drawn into their world of privilege and power, all while wondering if the truth she’s searching for might lead her right back to Dovermere…to face the fate she was never meant to escape.
Thank you, Simon and Schuster, for the free digital book!
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🎃 Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle 🎃
- One-word review: Immersive
- Emojis: 😢🌑🪄🌊😥
- Rating: 4.5 🌟s
My thoughts:
Wow! Curious Tides took me on quite an incredible journey, and I loved every second of it.
The world-building is incredible. I’ve never seen a magic system like the one in this story, where the basis is what moon you were born under. Your precise magical abilities under that moon are determined early in your life, and your path is chosen based on that. The magic skills themselves were not unusual, but how they are determined is.
I love the dark academia aspects of the story. They help drive the world-building, being a microcosm of that world. The comp titles are Ninth House and A Deadly Education – I read both and agree. It’s an exciting combination of those two books but done in such a way that it is uniquely its own story.
The pacing is pretty quick, and the narration supports that with a third-person perspective focused alternately on Emory (the main character) and Baz. I loved the twists and turns the story took, as I didn’t see any of them coming. I was happy to be along for the ride and not spend time trying to predict what would happen.
I look forward to the next book in this series, and I was happy to find the ending of this book to be a very soft conclusion and not a true cliffhanger. Two thumbs up to the author for the choice!
16 responses to “Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle #BookReview #Dark Academia #Fantasy”
Glad you enjoyed & hope you get to read the next one, great review 😊
Me too! I want to know what happens!
Fab review, glad you enjoyed it. I love the cover! 😍
It is a good cover 😍
I had this preordered, so now I’m even more psyched for the mail to arrive. Fantastic review!
I hope you love it. I’ll be curious to see your thoughts.
That book cover is compelling. One glance and I was sucked in to learn more.
The magic building related to the moon sounds really cool. Glad you enjoyed the read!
It is pretty cool. I loved the ways in which it is unique.
I’m still bitter about not getting an ARC for this one, lol. I’m definitely adding it to the TBR. Great review, Tessa!
I’m bitter for you! You should have. This is right up your wheel house.
Great review, and well worth a read.
Thank you!
😀
The world building indeed sounds intricate and fresh. Fantastic review, Tessa💜
I think it is – at least from the books I’ve read. It’s pretty cool!
I haven’s read many dark academia. This sounds intriguing. Definitely adding to wish list.