Review of Lore of the Tides by Analeigh Sbrana

<< Contains light spoilers!>>

Lore of the Tides is artistically different than Wilds, be ready

Book one in the duology, which I often shorthand as Wilds, reads like a soft moonlit night spent in a cozy house. It is a gentle lamb of book, and it reads steady like the phases of the moon. The plot of Wilds does cycle into darkness, but only momentarily.

Tides, on the other hand, flies close to the sun. It is Tyger, Tyger burning bright. A roaring fire. Unpredictable and bursting with flame. It hurts sometimes. Like the sun, this adventurous book does not stop blazing, nor does it run out of fuel.

The major differences between Wilds and Tides is by design, of course! Wilds mirrors the lunar-themed grimoire (called The Deeping Lune) that Lore possesses in book one, whereas Tides mirrors the fiery Book of Sunbeams (also known as Auroradel) that Lore searches for in book two.

Justice Themes

It is tempting to call Lore of the Tides by Analeigh Sbrana revenge fantasy, but Lore is driven by justice not vengeance. Lore of the Tides is (refreshingly) a justice fantasy.

Seeing Lore’s version of justice play out on the page – entirely on her terms – was a great reading experience, but not an easy one. Justice, after all, is not an easy thing. Analeigh Sbrana does not pull any punches in this book. Admittedly, there were some particularly despairing and violent moments where it was comforting for me to remember that I was reading a genre (Fantasy Romance) with a guaranteed HEA.

Seamless stop & start between books

Lore of the Tides picks up right where Lore of the Wilds’ cliffhanger leaves us. No beats are skipped. At the end of Wilds, Lore is rendered unconscious by Syrelle’s magic, as he hints at setting sail. When Lore awakens on the floating prison of Syrelle’s ship at the beginning of Tides, it feels like the story has just been taken off a temporary pause.

It’s apparent though, from the moment Lore wakes up, that a lot has changed inside her in a short time. The betrayals and losses of in Wilds have chiseled away her softness. She is grief-hardened. I could feel right away that Lore would not have the same capacity to marvel and wonder at the world around her. Her whimsy in Wilds would be clouded by grief and anger in Tides.

Seeing Lore’s character in a state of grief was difficult, but necessary. For the record, Analeigh Sbrana never lets Lore’s sense of joy completely wither. Her love for her friends, books, and good food never disappears. Lore just gets stuck in grief and focused on justice. Which means we see her exasperated, we see her spiral, we see her desperate for relief. Her character expands a lot in book two.

I love the clever, cute, and meta structure.

At its core, this duology is about a duology! Lore of the Wilds is the book about Lore acquiring The Deeping Lune grimoire. Lore of the Tides is the book about Lore risking life and limb to acquire Lune’s sister book, another grimoire. This one is called Auroradel, The Book of Sunbeams.

Juicy Metaphors

Analeigh Sbrana’s talent for writing metaphors shined in this sequel. My favorite metaphor appeared in a Chapter 4 moment where Lore’s anxiety gets paired up with millstone imagery. Her anxiety is a stone that’s constantly “grinding serenity to a fine dust.” Chef’s kiss!

Keep an eye out for my other favorite metaphor, a Chapter 1 moment where Sbrana pairs molten anger with plugged geysers. There is some great writing to savor in book two!

Hello adventure! See you later cottage core!

Tides has a grand adventure plot. Sbrana packed so much travel into this story. There’s a sea voyage, an underwater kingdom to explore, excursions to a deep sea volcano, spelunking, and more. Be ready for anything and be ready for hard things, like fleeing monsters, fighting, and even surviving a a frightening Salem Witch Trial-esque moment.

Not to be missed or glossed over

There’s the most direct, incredible, and just perfect representation of period pain in the field in Chapter 32. Brava Analeigh Sbrana for not shying away from this topic!

A Deep Read: Elegant Reversals

Spoiler light, I want to share something I loved that highlights how playful and detail oriented Analeigh Sbrana is as an author in this sequel.

In Lore of the Wilds, grumpy Finn secretly kept an eye on Lore. In Lore of the Tides, this dynamic elegantly shifts. Lore is the grumpier one, and she’s the one that keeps an eye on Finn, something she’s able to do with her magical gift of second sight.

10 Things I loved from Wilds that are still very present in Tides or explained in Tides:

Visual art and artists are still steadily present in many scenes.
Lore and Finn are just as bookish in Tides as they were in Wilds. In fact, their bookishness soars to new levels.
Tides has more libraries, more whimsical flora and fauna, and more yummy food and coffee descriptions.
Tides has more praise kink.
Analeigh Sbrana continues to play with tropes. I LOVE how she takes on the mate bond/mindspeak/ telepathy trope in Tides. ¹ (see footnotes for a very light spoiler).
Ember, Lore’s shape-shifter fox friend, is back and cuter than ever!
We find out why Lore’s hands turn an inky black.
We find out why humans left Shahassa and came to be in Duskmere.
More love triangle energy! This actually really surprised me because I was done with Syrelle at the end of book one. But Sbrana doesn’t let us be completely done with him, and I like how she executed his character’s redemption-like arc.
Continued exploration of Wilds‘ themes, like the importance of history, knowledge, and telling stories.

Themes So Relevant to Today

This duology has a lot to say, but one of my favorite themes is that libraries, private and public, are places of refuge and safety. This book says over and over again that libraries literally hold the knowledge that will save a society from collapse. This focus makes me teary with gratitude for Analeigh Sbrana. In 2025, with our libraries under so much threat from the current administration, it’s just so meaningful to see a library theme play out this triumphantly.

Favorite Motif to Annotate: Thread Imagery

Thread and fabric imagery is very multifaceted in this book, and fun to annotate. It has a constant presence in the story beginning with Lore’s clothes. Unlike Wilds, Lore enjoys luxurious clothing in Tides. Analeigh Sbrana pours her imagination into the bespoke clothing Lore gets to wear.² I honestly looked forward to every outfit description!

Aside from clothes, thread imagery emerges in other details in the book. I annotated a litany of examples: spider webs, webs of magic, mending symbolism, stitching details, bonds between people represented as rope or cord, puppet strings, hand sewn book bandings, and Lore’s endearingly errant curly tendril of hair. Best of all, this motif culminates in powerful thread imagery at the end when Lore metes out justice with a single thread of magic.

Thank you Net Galley and Harper Collins for an advanced reader copy to review. All opinions are my own. Lore of the Tides by Analeigh Sbrana is out July 8, 2025.

⚠️ Light spoiler warning: Analeigh Sbrana’s take on the mate bond/mindspeak/telepathy trope delighted me. For once, it’s not the controlling, feral fae male with the endless well of magical power who enters his human woman mate’s mind to speak to her. Nope, in this book, it’s all reversed. Lore has the endless well of power. She enters her fae love interest’s mind. And he is essentially powerless because of a curse. It’s all topsy turvy and I love it! Huzzah! ↩︎
The way I want Lore’s cloak with the moth button! ↩︎