The Dark Tide – 3 stars

This was a quick, entertaining, read. The story revolves around the impending doom of an island about to be drowned under a massive tide… unless the queen sacrifices her true love by drowning them. This is a tradition that has occurred with previous queens whenever such a tide threatens. Quite morbid, really, but there you go.

In this iteration, Queen Eva is a witch, her sister having died to prevent the previous killer tide – and she has no interest in loving anyone or sacrificing herself. The population of the town has no ability to control their fate, basically relegated to sitting around and hoping their queen drowns their love to save them.

When Eva kidnaps Lina as part of a bargain Lina strikes to save the boy she (thinks) she loves, the inevitable occurs, but Lina and Eva are great, kick-butt, heroines with complex motivations, and I really enjoyed their story as it unfolded. Overall, though, I would have really liked a little more depth to this story to explore the characters’ motivations and dilemmas a little more thoroughly. ⭐⭐⭐ from me