MoodReads - Romance Book Discovery

Beta soft launchEvery book’s tags are being checked by hand ✨ some categories are fuller than others while I work through them all ✨

Cover of The Dark Tide

The Dark Tide

by Alicia Jasinska

🌶️fade to black·spoiler

Why Read This?

You'll experience a haunting, yearning love story that challenges sacrifice and power in a richly built magical world.

Synopsis

A gripping, dark enemies-to-lovers LGBTQ+ YA fantasy about two girls who must choose between saving themselves, each other, or their sinking island home. Every year on St. Walpurga's Eve, Caldella’s Witch Queen lures a boy back to her palace. An innocent life to be sacrificed on the full moon to keep the island city from sinking. Lina Kirk is convinced her brother is going to be taken this year. To save him, she enlists the help of Thomas Lin, the boy she secretly loves, and the only person to ever escape from the palace. But they draw the queen’s attention, and Thomas is chosen as the sacrifice. Queen Eva watched her sister die to save the boy she loved. Now as queen, she won't make the same mistake. She's willing to sacrifice anyone if it means saving herself and her city. When Lina offers herself to the queen in exchange for Thomas’s freedom, the two girls await the full moon together. But Lina is not at all what Eva expected, and the queen is nothing like Lina envisioned. Against their will, they find themselves falling for each other as water floods Caldella’s streets and the dark tide demands its sacrifice.

At a Glance

3.42 ★ Goodreads
Spice Level🌶️fade to black
Endingspoiler
PairingF/F
Romance Pacingslow burn

Top Tropes

forced proximitysecret relationship

Mood

darkromanticatmosphericmelancholictense

Book Details

Goodreads Rating

3.42 ★

Page Count

336 pages

Published

2020

Primary Genre

Young Adult

Pairing

F/F

POV

Third Person

Romance Pacing

Slow Burn

Cliffhanger

spoiler

Audiobook

Available

Yes

Format

Standard

Narrator

Lori Prince

Narrator Count

Single

Tropes

RomanceMagicActionAngstWorld
Theme Constellation

Mood & Vibe

Mood

sign in to see writing style, pacing & more

Characters

sign in to see more

Spice Details 🌶️

sign in to see more
deathviolencecaptivitydubious consentgrief

World & Setting

sign in to see more

Reading Context

sign in to see more

Similar Books

Cover of Crier's War

Crier's War

Crier's War, #1

Nina Varela

🌶️·dual POV
adventure romancerevenge romanceforced proximity
Cover of The Unbroken

The Unbroken

Magic of the Lost, #1

C.L. Clark

🌶️·third person
military romancesecret relationship
Cover of This Is How You Lose the Time War

This Is How You Lose the Time War

Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

🌶️·multi-POV
hidden identitysecret relationshipbet/wager romance
Cover of Girls of Paper and Fire

Girls of Paper and Fire

Girls of Paper and Fire, #1

Natasha Ngan

🌶️·first person
princess x bodyguardsurvival romancehidden identity
Cover of Sweet & Bitter Magic

Sweet & Bitter Magic

Adrienne Tooley

🌶️·dual POV
contract/transactional romanceforced proximitymagic bond
Cover of The Midnight Lie

The Midnight Lie

Marie Rutkoski

🌶️·first person
hidden identitysecret relationship
Cover of Atmosphere

Atmosphere

Taylor Jenkins Reid

🌶️·dual POV
forbidden lovesecret relationshipslow burn

Short Takes

quick 280-character reactions for this book. drop a thought, rate the vibe, keep scrolling.

Sign in to share your take.

Loading...

Book Chat

Talk about The Dark Tide with other readers

this page is just the start

  • import your Goodreads or StoryGraph TBR—we tag every book with spice, tropes, CWs, mood, all of it
  • tell us a vibe (“enemies to lovers fae, high spice”) and BookMatch finds the book
  • 3,600+ romantasy books searchable by 40+ fields
  • covens, pacts, book chat—readers who get it
free account, 30 seconds