Thank you to @netgalley , @tordotcompub
and @freyamarske for this advanced copy in exchange
for an honest review.

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske

Do you like historical sapphics? How about on a boat?
Solving a murder mystery? Oh. and there is
✨MAGIC✨

When I saw that a new sapphic fantasy was coming
out, I had to get it and I was thrilled when NetGalley
came through with the ARC. In this brilliant murder
mystery, we follow Maud Blyth (sister of Robin Blyth
from A Marvellous Light - the first of the trilogy) as she
is trying to keep an eye out for Mrs. Navenby as she
travels across the Atlantic Ocean with a key piece of
the Last Contract, but poor Mrs. Navenby is offed in the
first chapter, so now Maud, and her accomplice Violet
Debenham (a magician) must try to solve the murder,
along with others in their crew.

If you like mysteries with a bit of sapphic spice, this
book is for you. If you love to read about the yearning
for love that is forbidden within society and happenings
behind closed doors, this is the book for you. I loved
the characters, even the foul-mouthed Dorian the
parrot. If you like low fantasy, where magic is among
the non-magical folks, then this is also the book for
you. I cannot wait for the third part of this trilogy.

I do want to preface that I have not read A Marvellous
Light (I do own it though) and I was able to follow along
pretty well without having read the first book, so if
you're looking simply for sapphic fantasy, I highly
recommend it. However, I do also want to note that A
Marvellous Light is queer MLM as well. I will be going
back and reading it now that my review has been
finished.

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

#bookstagram #bookish #bookreview #sapphicbooks
#queerbooks #wlw #lgbtqbooks

Despite its intriguing premise (what if we kissed on a boat while trying to solve a murder mystery and we were both girls????), I found this series continuation a bit too dull to grab my interest. That said, the writing style is light, cheeky, and very readable if you can get yourself in the mood to continue, and I do find the author's characters consistently easy to root for. I think I just have to accept that I dislike historical fantasy set in this particular era! I believe fans of Alix Harrow and Lev Grossman will absolutely eat this series up, and I hope the author continues to delve into the stories of side characters and expand upon this world for her doubtlessly widespread fans.

One of my most eagerly awaited sequels of all time, and it didn't disappoint! A Restless Truth pops you right into the action, from the very first chapter the game is afoot and the mystery is waiting to be solved. Maude is such a delightful character, I was beyond excited when I realized this sequel would be a sapphic tale with her in the lead. While the story can sometimes feel thin compared to the spicy aspects, I do find this book balanced the romance and plot a bit better than the first did.

When I read A Marvellous Light last year it abruptly and unwaveringly became the standard for it’s genre. It was MARVELLOUS *wink wink* in every aspect.

When I first heard the series would continue with a sapphic lead I was ecstatic, I couldn’t wait to dive back into the spectacular world of The Last Binding, to get lost again in the mystery and mayhem of it all. BUT although excited, the critic in me wasn’t sure if I’d be as enamored with TRT as I was with TML (only because the severity in which I loved Robin and Edwin was quite the unmatched experience- nothing could compare to that wonderment and overwhelming love that I felt for them).

The expansion of the world in this second installment wasn’t much but evidently far more brilliant and elaborate than I could’ve imagined. Here we follow Maud and new characters that were DELIGHTFUL. I fell more in love than I would’ve thought I would and I immensely enjoyed the mystery, the hilarity of unexpected obstacles as Maud attempts to retrieve parts of The Last Contract and most of all the romance was just as sweet and swoony as the first.

The only thing that I wasn’t too keen on was the boat setting. To me, it felt like the story was confined to one place in a claustrophobic sense. It felt like it didn’t allow for the story to go it’s full potential and because of that the book did drag for me a little bit. It wasn’t much though and I still deeply enjoyed it in its entirety
.

Overall, Marske is absolutely brilliant and incredible and I cannot wait for more in this series!

There’s a phenomenon whereby sometimes multiple pieces of media will pop up at almost the same moment with almost the same premise. Your Antz and A Bug’s Life. Your The Prestige and The Illusionist. Those two casual sex rom-coms in which Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher, confusingly, are not costars. Usually when this happens, you’re just like “Huh.” But if you happen to be a person who really digs historical magicians or animated insects, it’s like Christmas coming twice.

That is how I feel about what I’m calling a spate (it is two) of murder mysteries set on board a ship that also—unfortunately for the murderer—contains a relentlessly determined queer detective. The second one of these will be the second Knives Out movie, whose title I refuse to learn, and the first, of course, is Freya Marske’s A Restless Truth.

Marske’s sophomore novel continues the story begun in A Marvellous Light, which saw Robin Blyth and Edwin Whatsit boning in libraries and uncovering a conspiracy by a bunch of rich jerks to co-opt all the magic in England for their own devices. In the second book, Robin’s sister Maud and a scandalous heiress called Violet bone in ship cabins and carry on hunting for conspiracy McGuffins and the murderers who will stop at nothing to acquire them. Maud came aboard with the intention of seeing the elderly Elizabeth Lazenby safely to England. Instead, Mrs. Lazenby is murdered on the first day out of port, and it’s up to Maud—unmagical and alone—to ensure that the killers don’t get their hands on the magical silver object Mrs Lazenby died to protect. Which Maud has never seen. Which makes securing and protecting it pretty difficult.

I do not subscribe to any birth-order-based psychological theories, but even so I feel that Marske has channeled the muse of younger siblinghood in Maud. Striking out on her own for the first time, Maud is determined not to botch the one true responsibility her brother Robin has ever entrusted her with. She copes with Mrs. Lazenby being murdered by press-ganging a motley group of strangers into an ad hoc, surrogate, murderer-hunting family. I cannot overstate how true to life this is. Younger siblings have a near-supernatural knack for finding people with older-sibling vibes to take care of them while also consenting to be bossed around. (I am both an older and a younger sibling, and therefore nobody can fuss at me for this take, which is factually true.)

Maud’s collection of allies includes the aforementioned Violet, a former burlesque dancer who has just come into money; former magician Lord Hawthorn, who was an absolute asshole in the previous book, but in like a sexy romance hero kind of way; and a journalist called Ross, who has some Intense Eyebrow Interactions with Lord Hawthorn that led me to certain conclusions about book three. By contrast to the first book, which was just Edwin and Robin against the world, A Restless Truth gives us a proper, classic team-up, complete with getting the band together through kidnapping and bribery. It’s Maud’s agenda and Maud’s principles that drive the whole thing—she’s not willing to be dishonest out of fear that she’ll turn to the glittering, callous dishonesty of her parents—and you get the sense that everyone else just sticks around out of morbid curiosity for what Maud’s going to do next.

Where Maud’s an open book, Violet Debenham has taught herself to hold her cards close to the chest. People who know you are people who can hurt you, and she’s much better at putting on her persona of sparkling charm, keeping everyone at a distance by withholding the truth of herself. She can’t quite admit it to herself—at least not at first—but she’s frightened of Maud, who goes through the world like a hurricane being exactly who she is and openly pursuing exactly what she wants. When Maud, very sweetly and forthrightly, propositions her, Violet’s attracted but not prepared to risk herself and her walls for a girl she hardly knows, no matter how pretty she is or how much pornography she’s been reading aloud to her team.

In my personal life I am not a fan of chaos, which frays my nerves and leads to me unknowingly swimming 1.5 laps at the YMCA with my new cell phone in the pocket of my swim dress. In fiction, a spot of chaos can be just the thing to tip characters out of their comfortably accepted daily lives and shake new experiences, feelings, and desires out of them. Maud has never had sex and Violet has never had intimacy, and neither of them felt those things as particular lacks until they are on a boat with murderers and tigers and pornography and nobody can leave. The chaos of the murder investigation has already pushed them both out of their usual social circles and miles out of their comfort zones. Not only are they thrown in with people they wouldn’t have spent time with in the real world, very much including each other, but they’re in a constant state of heightened emotion, murderers are after them pretty frequently, and they do end up with really just an absolute truckload of pornography. Small wonder Violet lets her guard down; small wonder Maud begins to contemplate what it would be like to kiss a girl and like it.

Despite its claustrophobic setting (I love it, I’m obsessed with it, every murder mystery should take place on a boat), A Restless Truth smoothly expands the world Marske established in A Marvellous Light. Marske’s efforts to navigate the perennial challenge of writing historical fiction while white are not vastly more graceful than in the prior book, but we continue to catch tantalizing glimpses of worlds beyond the white upper class our protagonists inhabit. Violet’s magic use is inflected by her time among lower-class theaters in America, and the investigation of the mystery requires our heroes to navigate the thorny class divides of nineteenth-century England, as they try to access areas of the ship that are physically barred to them as well-born women.

Marske retains her knack for conveying a wealth of information about characters and moments through a perfectly evocative detail: Possessed by a ghost, Maud holds herself “like a person who’d tripped on a cobblestone and righted themselves again, but for a few more minutes would be inhabiting the startled vision of themselves sprawled in the gutter.” At another point, Ross’s accent becomes “rougher…as if coming up against Hawthorn’s cut-glass aristocracy had bounced him reactively a few rungs down the ladder.”

Personal preferences aside—I like Violet and Maud better than Robin and Edwin, because I like angst better than fluff, and I like spiky women particularly—A Restless Truth is a tighter, more assured book than its predecessor. Plot points and magical rules from the prior book are concisely and unfussily explained for the forgetful reader (it’s me, I am that reader, because see above wherein everything is chaos and especially the US midterm elections). The emotional and logistical challenges that stand in the way of Maud and Violet’s HEA are sharp and specific, and tightly linked to the unraveling of the central mystery. Insightful, funny, and unexpected, A Restless Truth is a stellar successor that ably continues the mystery begun in A Marvellous Light and leaves the reader eager for the series conclusion.

8 Compelling Sci-Fi and Fantasy Murder Mysteries to Curl Up With

Murder mysteries carry a unique yet familiar set of tropes and archetypes; cracking the spine on one is like opening a board game of Clue. There are locked rooms stalked by inspectors and suspects, unexpected murder weapons and devious red herrings, missing memories, and sympathetic motives. But while that genre has its beloved classics rooted in contemporary realism, more and more sci-fi and fantasy authors have turned to this formula and framework—to continue the metaphor, like a special-edition Clue with fun new speculative trappings.

In the past five years especially, there has been a rise in SFF murder mysteries, stories set in secondary fantasy worlds or near-future cities or in the cold infinity of space (where, yes, someone can hear you scream and can try to solve what made you scream). Some of these SFF sleuths are detectives and inspectors by trade, conjuring up futuristic versions of Columbo and Sherlock Holmes. Others are amateur investigators (paging Jessica Fletcher and Phryne Fisher) thanks to their lucky proximity to an unreasonable, nearly comical amount of foul play and seemingly random deaths.

These eight engrossing mysteries entangle angels and demons, clones and hyper-insomniacs with some good old-fashioned murder. Whether you want to dip into a brisk whodunnit novella, or curl up for hours unraveling every clue and motive in a thicker volume, we have all the pieces for you to play.

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske

What Freya Marske loves about murder mysteries set on cruise ships is the forced proximity to strangers warring with the temptation to toss everything (clues, suspects, self-styled meddling detectives) overboard. What I love about A Restless Truth, the second installment in her fantasy romance trilogy The Last Binding, is how her protagonist Maud Blyth shares a similar aversion to lying as Knives Out’s would-be murderer Marta—it doesn’t make Maud vomit, but it makes her so uncomfortable that she would rather twist herself in knots to mostly tell the truth… just obscured in key moments, like when she’s trying to outrun some murderous magicians on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic.

Pair Maud with Violet Debenham, an actress and magician who can’t fathom making herself vulnerable enough to be truthful with anyone, and their romance unfolds along the same breathless plot beats as solving a murder that could shift the balance of all the magic in England.

Being trapped onboard a ship with an unknown murderer is a frightening enough prospect on its own, without adding powerful magic to the mix. Luckily Maud Blyth is just as undaunted in the face of overwhelming odds as her brother Robin. I just reviewed A Marvellous Light, Book 1 in Freya Marske’s The Last Binding trilogy, the other week and went straight from finishing that one to reading the sequel. A Restless Truth, the second book in this fantasy romance series came out at the beginning of November.

Maud Blyth has been sent by her brother across the Atlantic to find an old woman who possesses part of the magical Last Contract and warn her that she is in danger from a group of powerful magicians who want the Last Contract for their own purposes. However, Maud’s warning fails to prevent Mrs. Navenby from being murdered on the very first day of their voyage back to Britain. The old woman is found dead in her stateroom, and Maud is left trapped aboard the ship with her murderer for the next week and with no idea which of Mrs. Navenby’s belongings conceal the disguised piece of the Contract. All Maud has to work with are the vague drawings and notes from her brother’s visions, which seem to hint at important moments and people aboard the ship. Armed with these predictions and her own innate boldness, Maud sets out to play detective while trying not to attract the attention of either the murderer or the non-magical authorities on board. She gathers allies to her clause, including an enterprising jewel thief, the haughty and powerful Lord Hawthorne, and an actress-turned-heiress named Violet, who delights in causing scandal. Scandal might be just what Maud needs in her (up until now) quiet and sheltered life. But even as Maud gains an enlightening education on pursuing her own desires, she doesn’t lose sight of her larger goal: finding the missing piece of the Contract and keeping it from falling into the wrong hands.

A Restless Truth plays with a classic plot from the murder mystery genre: a shipboard murder, where the murderer, investigators, and more potential victims are trapped together in an isolated setting for an extended period of time. This premise has been used in books ranging from Agatha Christie’s 1937 classic Death on the Nile to modern thrillers like Ruth Ware’s The Woman in Cabin 10. As a fan of detective novels (a newly burgeoning genre in the era when this book is set) Maud shows a certain amount of genre savvy. Upon finding Mrs. Navenby’s body, Maud immediately thinks of the mystery novels she’s read and tries to imitate their star detectives by coming up with logical, systematic ways to search for clues. Self-taught and studious, Maud gets all her best education from books and gets a thrill whenever she can apply this knowledge in real life. Eventually, however, she must leave her book-learning behind and learn to trust her instincts once the stakes get higher and she finds herself facing threats of violence and imminent danger.

In addition to being an action-filled murder mystery/thriller, A Restless Truth—like A Marvellous Light—is a nuanced and thoughtful queer romance. Interestingly, while the first book in this series featured an m/m romance, this love story is f/f and centers on Maud Blyth’s queer awakening. Though romantic relationships, especially relationships with women, are new to Maud, this newness isn’t the central conflict. In fact, Maud is ready to dive headfirst into new experiences, but both she and Violet have deep-seated fears that they need to unpack in order to truly open themselves up to each other. As Violet points out several times throughout the book, Maud is particularly good at recognizing the fears and weaknesses of others—a skill which Maud’s manipulative mother had used to hurt others, but which Maud does unthinkingly in her attempt to fully understand the people she cares about. She discovers pretty quickly that Violet—who became an actress to run away from her past—is afraid of being honest and of showing her true self without putting on a performance. Maud, on the other hand, is radically honest, but she fears becoming like her parents, wondering if deep down—despite her deliberate choices to do the opposite of what they would do—she might not actually be a good person. Maud must wrestle with the conflict between refusing to act selfishly while still pursuing what she wants. Maud and Violet’s relationship blossoms quickly over the course of their seven-day voyage, which is mostly spent investigating a murder and trying to outwit their enemies, yet they still make time to explore the most hidden parts of themselves and each other.

A Restless Truth can be read with or without having read A Marvellous Light, though I have been truly enjoying the whole series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for providing me with a digital ARC of this book!

Previously pitched as a sapphic murder mystery on a boat, I have been eagerly awaiting the follow-up to Freya Marske’s A Marvellous Light since I read it earlier this year and absolutely fell in love with this series. I’m a sucker for historical fantasy, and add a sapphic romance at the forefront and a Titanic-esque setting? That sounds right up my alley.

A Restless Truth easily proves itself to be an enticing second installment in the Last Binding series and, in some ways, surpasses expectations by expanding the mystery and worldbuilding in a unique way. Over the course of Maud Blyth’s increasingly dangerous transatlantic journey, we see different ways of conducting magic beyond the standard English cradle methods introduced in the first book.

As always, I adored Marske’s writing style. They manage to create these lush, expansive environments full to the brim with beautiful description and imbibes characters’ internal monologues with excellent and lyrical prose. It perfectly suits her current niche of historical fantasy with the Last Binding series, but I would honestly read anything by her.

I loved A Marvellous Light and enjoyed Robin as a character, but I do think that Maud is a more interesting and engaging protagonist. Perhaps that is because she has a greater sense of agency than Robin throughout the story; both of the Blyth siblings were unceremoniously thrown into the world of magic, but I think that the difference between Maud’s early path and Robin’s is that Maud has a greater sense of the magical world at the start of the story. Maud knows magic is real and is tasked with a clear quest, even if that does go awry in the wake of Miss Navenby’s murder. Comparatively, Robin is thrust into this world without any clear understanding and put under a curse that effectively removes any choice to participate in the unraveling of a grand magical scheme. At many points, Maud internally voices that she feels useless compared to her companions, Violet Debenam and Lord Hawthorn, but the narrative itself disputes that belief.

Violet was an intriguing character and it was fun to watch her perform and even more engaging to see her peel back these superficial elements and bare true parts of herself to Maud. There’s a complexity to her that feels so refreshing for a character that, at first glance, seems to parallel characterizations of Pansy Parkinson in certain fanfiction (if you know, you know).

Quite surprisingly, I ended up enjoying the expanded role of Hawthorn in this book. I found him interesting in A Marvellous Light, but we as the reader don't spend that much time with him and, when we did, it was through the eyes of Robin and Edwin. The dynamic between him, Maud, and Violet Debenam ends up evoking elements of the double act—namely Hawthorn as the straight man. I think that suits his personality well and also helps to make the moments where that dynamic shifts... where Hawthorne breaks from that mold and reveals the glimpses of knowledge and experience that escalate the tension... even more impactful.

I think Maud was the perfect character to help break down the seemingly passive yet thorny walls of Hawthorn. One of my favorite moments in the book comes after a scene in which Hawthorn challenges Maud to a game of chess in the hopes of getting her to stop pursuing the piece of the Last Contract and, despite being on a path to victory, willingly surrenders his king. There's a short, quiet moment when Maud is leaving and Hawthorn reveals his hand: "My sister..." He grimaced. "She was a little like you."

The setting of the R.M.S. Lyric is an integral part of this story, isolating Maud Blyth in the liminal space of a ship surrounded on all sides by the Atlantic Ocean. Maud is effectively left to her own wits and persuasion in order to solve the mystery of Miss Navenby’s murder and recover the second piece of the Last Contract.

Nineteenth and early twentieth-century passenger ships have such an interesting aesthetic and sociocultural nature with the distinction between first-class and third-class passengers in a very physical sense – there is a literal separation built into the design of the ship to prevent a co-mingling of these two groups in areas designed to be pleasurable for the wealthy first-class passengers. Moving between these groups comes at a social risk for first-class passengers… With the watchful eyes of members of English and American high society on board, the Lyric almost feels like a panopticon at certain moments, which is used by and against the characters of A Restless Truth.

The plot in of itself is not as complicated and there is less intrigue, but such is the nature of some series. We learn in the first book the reason why this shadowy group of magicians were targeting Robin and their motivation for doing so, but there are still some gaps in the knowledge around the Last Contract that this fills in for Maud and her group of lovable first-class rogues. The pacing dips a little bit in the middle chunk of the book, but overall it didn't bother me too much.

Now that each side has one piece of the Contract, I’m interested in how Marske will manage to build a compelling and engaging conclusion to this story. Personally, I hope Hawthorn gets the main character treatment in the next book.

A Restless Truth is, I think, a book which benefited from my having a clearer idea of what this series is aiming to be. That is, I would primarily call this a romance series, with a little plot which links the books together. I didn’t understand that while reading A Marvellous Light, but now I do. As such, I think I enjoyed this one a lot more.

The story picks up not long after the ending of A Marvellous Light, only this time we’re following Maud, who is journeying back from America in the company of one of the people Robin and Edwin have been searching for. Only, things come a little unstuck when the lady winds up murdered.

As I said at the start, knowing more about how the book would go actually helped my enjoyment of it. My main issue in the first book was the lack of balance between the mystery and romance aspects of the plot, along with some handwaving over the worldbuilding. The latter is still there, obviously, but the former has improved twofold: firstly, due to what I expected from the book, and secondly, I genuinely think this one has a better balance between those aspects.

It also helped that, while I did like the cast of the first book, I so much more liked the cast of the second. They really hit every sweet spot, and make me so so excited for book 3 (that is, if I think who the leads are going to be is correct, and I’m reasonably certain of it). I can’t wait to see what happens when these four collide with Robin, Edwin and Adelaide. I predict chaos in the best way possible.

The plot too, I think, was better paced than the previous book—I just remember a large chunk of that where anything mystery-related and therefore, presumably, quite time sensitive, took a backseat and I got bored. There was none of that here, really. Yes, there were scenes which, despite the fact I liked them, I was a little confused how they added to the plot, but overall it was much better in that respect.

This sequel to A Marvellous Light follows Robin’s sister Maude Maude is supposed to be accompanying an older woman back to England with an important magical artifact.
Unfortunately, she is almost immediately murdered shipboard.
Part murder mystery, part love story, part treasure hunt (as Maude and her nee friends are not sure exactly what the artifact IS) this follow ip novel was a lot of fun.
I really enjoy the unique magic system set up in this world. It’s hard to find something new, and the origin of magic and how it is performed was very cool.

Okaaay so I loved A Marvellous Light because queer historical romance with a murder mystery going on and magic! It’s like a combination of all the things I love in a book and it was kind of the perfect book for me, you know?

So you can imagine my excitement when I discovered there were going to be two more books! Yes, this book at least, doesn’t follow Edwin and Robin which is kinda sad because I love them dearly, but the mystery and the quest for the other parts of the Last Contract continues! Plus I loved Maud in the first book so I was excited to get to see more of her and hello?! It’s a murder mystery on a ship!? With, I repeat, MAGIC!? What was not to love!?

First things first: I LOVE THIS WORLD! I truly do, it’s historical but there’s magic so seamlessly slotted in, it’s brilliant. I was so happy to slip back into it and pick back up with the hunt for the contract pieces. This one doesn’t mess around either, because we’re straight in with a murder to kick it all off and there’s quite a few suspects because…giant ship. Titanic level ship, even.

As I said, I LOVED Maud in the first book and continued to love her in this one. She can and will stand up for herself, she’s strong and intelligent and wonderfully stubborn when it comes to getting what she wants. I feel like she really comes into her own in this book, away from Robin, and she’s not the only brilliant character! We also have Violet, another wonderfully independent strong woman who happens to be heading back to London to claim her fortune after working in a theatre in New York. I can’t tell you how much I loved getting two wonderfully strong, badass independent female characters in a historical book and the ROMANCE?!

It’s spicy. Dare I say, even spicier than Edwin and Robin? I seriously loved the two of them, and I shipped them immediately. They’re quite the formidable match, though it takes them a minute to get there!

I also really loved new character Ross, our reporter/purveyor of spicey literature who ends up joining their little team and I truly do hope we get to see more of him because I lowkey ship him with *drum roll* Hawthorn. Oh yes folks, the grumpy asshole makes a return and we get to see quite a lot of him. I actually found myself taking a bit of a shine to him, despite said grumpy asshole-ness. I’m now wondering if he might be our third book?

Anyway, the writing is brilliant and entertaining, pulling you into the world of the book and while you might be able to get away with reading this without having read the previous one…it’s probably going to end up being a little confusing if you haven’t! The mystery of the Last Contract deepens slightly and there’s a few more reveals about what went down as well as some twists and betrayals to keep you on your feet!

Considering the entire book takes place over the course of a few days, however long it takes to sail from the US to London (I think it was like 3?), the plot is solid and very tight. There’s no room for faffing around and there’s so much going on alongside the romance, plot twists and budding friendships to keep you occupied.

There’s magic, murder and quite literally lions and tigers and bears running amok all over the place. There’s even a casual seance and a jewel thief. When I say there’s never a dull moment, I truly do mean it and this is a brilliant sequel to A Marvellous Light! Marske is truly an auto-buy author for me now and I can't wait for the next book!

Fantastic storytelling here, it builds on the first novel but would be wonderful on its own as well. Characters had depth and were easily entertaining.

I was so glad we got a sequel for this one! I loved the first book and this one carried right on through! Can't wait to read more from Freya Marske!

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

I tried several times to love this book, but unfortunately, I don't think I'm the reader for this series. I believe that people who loved the tone and style of the first book will also like this one. The writing is similar! I thought I would enjoy this one more because of the change in characters (I was interested in learning more about Maud), but the style this is written in still does not work for me. There is an interesting premise-kind of a murder mystery on a boat-that I believe will appeal to many readers.
I will probably still recommend this one to an audience who likes denser writing, elements of humor, magicians, and mysteries. And of course, to anyone who loved book 1!
I'm a little disappointed by not enjoying this read, but I think there are people who will!

I love the premise of a locked-room murder mystery on an ocean liner (it feels like a historical version of a cruise ship, vibes-wise), and I love the characters and romance in this story. There is a depth of emotional intelligence here that makes that aspect of the book really rewarding. Somehow though, the restricted setting of the story, even though it was appropriate in terms of genre, didn’t quite work for me - I felt like I needed some variation that I wasn’t getting to break up some of the monotony of the plot. I loved A Marvellous Light, and I have been enjoying plenty of cross-genre mysteries lately so I’m not sure what went wrong for me here. Lots to enjoy, but this wasn’t quite the 5-star read I had been expecting.

This book was an absolutely stellar sequel to Marske's previous book in the series, A Marvellous Light. It was equal parts fun, heart-pounding, and wonderous.

The book has a relatively simple premise: Maud must find an item key to the survival of magicians across England with only the hazy visions her brother has given her while stuck on a trans-Atlantic ship for six days. Along the way she encounters plenty of wild characters - some new and some old - and lots of twists and turns.

I really think the highlight of this book lies in the characters. Quite frankly, I adored them all. Maud begins the book quite naive (and at times a bit annoying), but her character really develops into someone fierce and cunning. Violet was such a fascinating juxtaposition to her, as well as all of the other side characters.

Overall, it was an exciting romp and I am desperately excited for the next book in the series!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tor.com for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest and fair review.

3.00 Stars. Have you ever wanted to like a book, even after reading, a lot more than you actually did? This is how I felt about this book. I was really excited about this. I enjoy historic-fantasy books, but I don’t get to read them enough. I thought if this might be like The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry or The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics, then I would be a happy reader. I had not read the first book in this series, so I knew it might be an issue, but I had heard that the main characters from book one was not even in this book, and that this was a mystery that took place on a ship, so it seemed like its own contained story. While I do feel like I missed out on a few things, like not learning enough about the magic system, not reading the first book was not the reason why I didn’t love this like I hoped. This real reason, the reason why I just can’t rate this over 3 stars when I normally have a great track record with Tor books, unfortunately is that the book was just too long, and I was honestly bored at times.

I’m late in doing this review. If you follow my reviews, I’ve mentioned this but everyone around me, including my household, got Covid but me. I had to take care of everyone without catching it, and I was exhausted and not getting a lot of sleep. At night I kept picking this book up and I would get through a few pages but not enough happened to keep my interest over sleep. We all know when a good book makes us chose it over precious sleep and that was not happening here. As Covid started to lift for everyone, I was lucky enough to get the flu. Again, I tried and tried to read this book and I just could not do it and I turned to some audiobooks and some other books that were keeping my attention. Now healthy, I finally powered through this book in the last two days, and it was tough. My Kindle edition says only 400 pages but I’m finding it hard to believe. I guess it is all about the pace. There was 40% of this book that was well done and fun, interesting with even good steamy scenes, but the other 60% was like pulling hair to be honest.

In the end I can’t recommend this one, but I won’t say stay away either and here is why. For one, I read a good chunk of this while sick or exhausted so I can’t be the best judge because of that. And number two, because I did not read the first book, I could be missing out on parts that make this book shine better as part of a pair. So, while I can only give this an okay grade, this may work better for someone who wanted to read this because they loved the first book.

As someone who completely adored A Marvellous Light, I was so, so thrilled to hear there would be a sequel. I will admit to being a little disappointed when I heard this one wouldn't be about Robin and Edwin. However, I was still super excited cause I loved Maud's character in the first book, and I just knew she'd be a fun protagonist to follow. And I was correct!

A Restless Truth, while continuing the story of A Marvellous Light (just with different main characters), had a completely different tone and feel to it, which I loved. Each book contained a certain mystery aspect, but their settings and protagonists are very distinct to one another. This book felt like a victorian mystery novel with a dash of magic and romance. Because it took place on a ship, it also gave it that locked in feel, which is one of my favorite tropes!

The world of the Last Binding series is so fascinating to me. How they utilize magic is done in a way I haven't really seen before, and since I've read a lot of fantasy books, that's pretty cool. Even though this book did focus on magic, I feel like the mystery aspect took center stage, which I had no qualms against. For Maud and Violet's journey, this just made sense. Even so, there was still a lot of suspense built up around the magicians trapped with them on the ship, and the uncertainty of who they could trust. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.

Having a romance take place over seven days was an interesting choice, but one that Freya Marske expertly executed. The way Maud and Violet's feelings for each other developed was so natural and authentic, while never feeling rushed. Their journey certainly wasn't smooth sailing (hah, puns), but I was rooting for them the whole time.

Violet's character was a lot of fun because of how closed off she is to the world. She hides her true self behind a mask and very rarely allows anyone to get behind it. Maud, of course, begins to peek behind the facade, and that terrifies Violet. Both women are fierce and brave, but approach the world so differently. Maud is trusting, kind, and empathetic, whereas Violet is more cynical, harder to get to know, and more wary of others. This creates a wonderful dynamic between the two. They each push the other out of their comfort zones, but always for the better.

I adored their relationship! A lot of people still seem to think there aren't that many great sapphic books out there, but that is so not true. This is just one example of a fantastic sapphic book. The chemistry between Maud and Violet was electric, but they were also sweet and caring towards the other. While Violet was already secure in who she was and who she's attracted to, Maud had never considered the idea of being with another woman, so it's a bit of a learning experience for her, and one Violet is there to help her through the entire time.

In addition to Maud and Violet's dynamic, I also loved the found family vibes we got from Maud, Violet, Hawthorne, and Ross. I find Hawthorne's character so interesting. There's still a lot we don't know about him, but in this book we got a deeper look behind the gruff and uncaring man he presents himself as. His friendship with Maud and Violet might have been begrudging, but I loved their interactions. Adding Ross created the perfect group. All four are so distinct and varied in personalities and thoughts, so while their opinions may clash from time to time, they all work together really well. It also makes for some really funny moments that I won't spoil, but had me cackling with laughter.

Between the suspenseful plot, electric relationship, and intriguing friend group, A Restless Truth was a wild ride worth every second of my time. I can't wait to see where this story goes in the next book (and I have an inkling for who I think it'll be about!).

The Last Binding is without a doubt one of my favorite series. Historical fiction? Romance? Fantasy? Mystery? What more can a person ask for? Not to mention, Freya Marske's writing style is elegant and clean, making for an engaging and quick read.

If you haven't read A Marvellous Light or a Restless Truth yet, I highly recommend it!

Thank you to Pride Book Tours for providing me with a physical copy of the book, and to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

Read this without reading the previous novel. Works as a stand-alone. Perfect for Knives Out or Glass Onion vibes. Glad I got around to it!

Blog:
A murder mystery on an ocean liner cruising from the US to the UK in the early 1900s being solved by two women – one of whom is a magician. Both of whom are into each other. Things get spicy…and dangerous.

Summary:
When Maud voyages from the US to the UK on RMS Lyric, she finds a dead body, a disrespectful parrot, and a beautiful stranger in Violet Debenham, who is everything—a magician, an actress, a scandal—Maud has been trained to fear and has learned to desire. Surrounded by the open sea and a ship full of loathsome, aristocratic suspects, they must solve a murder and untangle a conspiracy that began generations before them.

Review:
I’m not sure how I ended up with an advanced copy of the second book in The Last Binding series – when I hadn’t read the first. I’m assuming either I requested it, not realizing it was a second book or it was sent to me based on my reading history with the assumption it didn’t matter. The series aspect is less “the story happens in a row” and more “everyone featured is living in these alternate history version of the early 1900s plus magic.” Apparently the first book in the series features a m/m pairing (Amazon, Bookshop.org), whereas this one stars a f/f pair.

I didn’t struggle too much to figure out what’s going on. The author does refrain from explaining much for the first chapter or two. But that’s because the book starts essentially in media res – with the murder happening. After that has occurred we slow down for a minute, and there’s a refresher of the rules of the universe. It didn’t take me too long to catch up and get into it.

One thing that did surprise me was the spice level of this romance. I was expecting very light spice with most encounters occurring off-screen after a fade to dark. That is not the case. Things get very explicit. Let’s put it this way….at least one of the scenes would have had to have been cut to manage to squeak in an R rating for explicitness. There are three scenes total, and each takes up a whole chapter. To me, this much spice feels like erotica jammed into a romance. I prefer the two separately.

The pairing here is grumpy/cheery. Violet is the grumpy, and I adored her. I liked Maud too, but Violet was someone I could see a whole book’s perspective on. Perhaps I’m biased since Violet is bisexual and the quintessential theater geek. I just really enjoyed her. But Maud is nice enough too. I liked their pairing well enough.

The mystery is substantial enough to hold up a plot. I enjoyed the animals and sneaking around the boat. I did think a bit more attention could have been paid to the class and race issues that sort of came up and got a bit glossed over. I don’t expect preaching in a book but it might have been interesting to at least have Maud and Violet see the second or third class areas of the ship on one of their many attempts to outrun their pursuers. (Somehow they always seemed to end up in the cargo hold instead). Maud talks with disdain of her parents only giving charity when others can see it, but Maud herself doesn’t seem to do much giving either. Violet, at least, offers to become the patron of an all-Black opera. (The real history of Black opera.)

Overall, I liked getting to know Violet, and it was an interesting world to visit. But the spice level was far too hot for what I personally prefer in romance, sliding more into an erotica category in my opinion. It also seems to me that the first book may have been quite different from this one, so readers of the first should come in aware of these differences.

Instagram and TikTok:
When it’s more 🌶 than you bargained for…..
If you’re looking for period wlw romance mixed in with three scenes that pack the full heat level, look no further than A Restless Truth.
Thanks to NetGalley for the free copy in exchange for my honest review.

GoodReads:
This is a well-written book, it just wasn't for me.

Overall, I liked getting to know Violet, and it was an interesting world to visit. But the spice level was far too hot for what I personally prefer in romance, sliding more into an erotica category in my opinion. It also seems to me that the first book may have been quite different from this one (I don't know for certain, because I didn't read it), so readers of the first should come in aware of these differences.

*I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.*