3.5⭐️

Thank you so much to Tordotcom and Netgalley for providing an advanced copy of this! All thoughts and opinions are still my own.

This one didn't quite live up to book 1 for me, but I still absolutely adore this world and series.

This is one of the most unique mixes of historical, romance, and fantasy I've ever read. And I love it. The magic itself is so unique and well developed. The characters are great, there's mystery elements, and plenty of humor sprinkled throughout.

I was so excited for this addition to the series because a murder mystery set on a ship with a sapphic romance element sounded right up my alley. In execution, it wasn't my favorite but there was still plenty to love.

Let's start with what I loved first.

We got learn so much more about the world and magic in this one. Which I really appreciated. This story could easily become overwhelming with its magic and history. But the way Freya Marske spreads out her world building makes it so much easier to follow and grasp (which I appreciate as a non fantasy reader).

The mystery was a fun and the isolated setting allowed for a lot of fun antics. There were so many laugh out loud moments with these characters (dramatic porn readings anyone?)

But where this book lacked for me was in the main characters and romance. Which is shocking considering that was the shining element for me in book 1. But Maud and Violet just didn't hit the same way as Robin and Edwin.

I never felt like I got to know these characters well. In fact, part of Violet's character is that she is always acting and doesn't let anyone get to know her. Which unfortunately meant that the reader didn't get to know her either.

And I have a hard time connecting to romances when I can't understand a character or their motivations.

I liked the moments between Violet and Maud. I thought their dialogue and discussions and encounters were well done. And I love a good sex ed moment.

But since we didn't get a ton of their personalities, I couldn't quite grasp why these 2 actually liked each other.

However -- where this one leaves off has me insanely excited for book 3. I have no idea how many books are in this series, but I need the next one asap. And I'm currently holding out hope that Hawthorne is one of the MCs (even though my heart forever lies with Robin and Edwin)

I've read some pretty great queer historical fiction this year, so I was really excited to add A Restless Truth by Freya Marske to that list! Luckily, it didn't disappoint.

The second book in the last Binding series follows Maud as she boards the R.M.S. Lyric bound for New York. A Restless Truth features a shipboard murder mystery and a sapphic romance that I loved! Both Maud and Violet were absolutely lovely and I enjoyed seeing their relationship develop. Marske is also so good at balancing humor and more serious topics! I listened to the audiobook and loved the narrator. Aysha Kala did such a great job bringing this story to life! I can't wait to see where this series goes next.

This book felt very similar to book one in pace. The first half was slow as we got to meet the characters and then it picked up a little. I wish it was faster from the beginning and we got to meet the characters in the process.

I adored [book:A Marvellous Light|53217284] when I read it last year (and upon reread this year) and I love the project of this series so much, though I did not like this book quite as much.

I think my biggest criticism is in the pacing. This book takes place over 6 days while the characters are on a ship from New York to London, which made me expect super high stakes and fast pacing but instead I found some parts seemed to drag for me. I also don't know if it was the writing or the narration but I had a hard time distinguishing between Maud and Violet's perspectives at times.

That being said, I loved seeing more of Maud and more of Hawthorn, neither of whom I really loved in the previous book but I enjoyed following them here. I also really liked the additions of Violet and Ross. Maud and Violet's relationship gets intense quickly given the whole span of the book is less than a week and it's very much a take on the experienced/naive romance pairing, so I was a bit worried about how the ending would land for me; however, I found the resolution was perfect given their ages and experiences.

I liked the way the world and magic were built upon in this installment and I cannot wait to see how the series wraps up! Freya Marske's writing continues to be lush and evocative, and I love the way she blends so many different genres. So if you like the idea of a historical fantasy mystery with steamy queer romance and you for whatever reason have not started this series, I highly recommend you remedy that.

Wow I really enjoyed reading this! This was full of intensity, world building, and it was honestly just beautiful!

I really really liked this one. I liked it better than the first book. I don't really know exactly why but I struggled with the first book. Not that I didn't end up liking it, but I enjoyed a restless truth much more.

I think it's the badass vibes of all men are stupid that really sold this one for me. It is full of funny and intelligent and conniving (sometimes) women who are just trying to solve a murder. I liked the twist at the end and I liked the little references to Robin and Edwin but Violet and Maude really stole the show for me. Lord Hawthorne also grew on me as did Ross and I could totally see the next book as being about those two.

I don't want to give any spoilers because even though I was told that you could read this as a standalone I don't think you could. It is part of a series and the magic system is kind of a continuous world building that goes from the first book as well and even though the main characters in the first book are not the main characters in this book, it is still really prevalent and necessary to know what happened in the first.

For this second book in the series, the action takes place fully on a ship sailing between England and America, set in the Edwardian period (c. 1900). There are two protagonist POVs - Maud (who was featured in the first book) and Violet. Maud is more sheltered and only starting to learn about sex while Violet is very experienced and enjoying her liberation. There are a host of characters (and animals) on board the ship yet I found I just didn't get into the story at all. Neither Maud nor Violet were very interesting and their romance felt shallow.

Story: Maud is masquerading as a lady's maid, hoping to find/protect more items for the magical contract. But wouldn't you know it, a killer has boarded the ship and intends to take the magical item(s) for himself. With the help of fellow passenger Violet, Maud hopes to solve several mysteries (including murders and visions from her magical brother).

The book is quite graphic and revels in the sex scenes, including reading of the ubiquitous Victorian/Edwardian pornography aloud. Violet is a free spirit, not adverse to affairs and scandal, to contrast Maud's more sheltered and proper upbringing. Violet is also magical, which helps Maud in tracking down a killer.

It is not a terrible story but somehow I just never really got into the plot or the characters. I listened to the audible version and the narrator did a decent job with the various American and British accents. The narration was easy to follow. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

Loved it! Got off to a slower start than the first book in the series, but once things were moving it was great. I adore Maude and Violet and all the side characters. Freya Marske has created a wonderful world and I can't wait to visit it again.

The narrator of the audio did a fantastic job, especially given how many different accents there were. Each character sounded and felt unique. Lovely

DNF @ 30% - The prose in this was not for me, and the narrator's voice was so distracting. I found it difficult to follow the story with the excessive flowery language and the narration.

Might be one to try and read with my eyes instead of ears.

Maud has learned about magic recently thanks to her brother's position at liaison to the prime minister- a fortunate bureaucracy mix up. Then her brother became involved in a plot that would allow a secret group of men to control all the magic in Great Britain. This book picks up after Maud has traveled to America to retrieve one of three women who were tasked with hiding the tools needed to wield such a spell. When the old woman is murdered aboard the trans-atlantic vessel, Maud must rely on her brother's visions to gather a team and find the murderer before its too late.
What I loved most about this book was the lack of characters from the previous book. With romance its sometime difficult to allow the new characters to grow out of the shadow of the first couple. But by removing Edwin and Robin, Maud and her love interest, Violet, are allowed to shine on their own. And shine they do. With the assistance of total fan least-favorite Lord Hawthorn and new=comer thief/reporter Alan Ross, they turn a white-star line voyage into a comedy of hijinks and who-done-it with a touch of heist. I loved the slow, candid way Violet and Maud fall for each other. There's flaws galore and they're on full display as they get to know each other, and as they learn the other's weaknesses and ugly truths. Concurrent with their romance is Maud's journey of discovery. As she learns more about Violet, she learns more about herself and what she wants from the world. She realizes she had actually been in love with her best friend, and that she wants more from life than victorian society assumes for her- even more so than she already knew.
I loved the way Edwin and Robin popped up, not totally forgotten, but not intrinsic on the plot. Just as the singular happy and healthy relationship Maud has to compare her own desires. And also the source of what she knows about magic, which was always cute as when she thinks about magic and deduction, she thinks of Edwin. It was so nice to see how they've evolved into a full family without explicitly telling the reader.
There was very little I could say against this book, Marske has captured the subtleties of a hidden magic world, of victorian England, of sexual awakening. But something she failed to achieve, in my opinion, is more understadning of the plot. There's still very little by way of information about the seedy organization wanting to control the magic, or why. There's a bit more information about the women who found the ancient items and hid them, their motivations were fully explained finally. But as for why Edwin's brother is involved, or any of the other people. They keep saying its for the greater good (considering they're all white men in powerful positions in Victorian England, I doubt that very much) to combat a huge danger that's coming, but there's still seriously little by way of WHAT that danger is. There's very clearly something on the horizon, but the way it has remained exactly the same distance away by the end of book 2 is frustrating. It also means that the reveal of it and the involvement of the government et all is going to have to be fully explored in the next book. I don't know how I feel about that, since its also a book that will have little known about the leads (if it's who I think it is) and will have to fully build those characters from almost nothing.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed the return to this world, I loved it so much in book 1 and book 2 did not disappoint in the slightest in terms of living up to the potential. It does lose some points for not furthering the overarching plot very much, but I digress.

Maud Blyth always longed for adventure and, well, she sure does find it in this book. To help her get to the bottom a generations old magical mystery, Maud agrees to held an old lady get back to England on an ocean liner. However, the old lady in question end up dead the first day of the voyage and Maud must seek out others she can trust to help identify the murderer and find the stole magical artifact before the ship reached its destination or, you know, she gets killed herself.

**Screeches in excitement at a pitch only dogs can hear!** Yes, I’m that excited about this book!

I cannot gush enough about how much I love this trilogy, the Last Binding! This is book two, A Marvellous Light being the first, and they both have the same exact magic.

I can’t say much because I don’t want to spoil book one, but I will say Marske is a phenomenal writer that brings words to life. This book as murder, magic, mystery, and soooooo much steam! 🥵 You’re going to want pick this up ASAP, thank me, and then join me in the excruciating wait for book three to see how it all ends. 😘

I wasn’t really able to connect with the characters on this one as easily as the first book. I’m afraid it took me longer than I’m happy about to realize that Hawthorn was the same character that Edwin and Robin went to for help in the first book. There was a kind of summary of what happened between the last book and this one but it came far enough into the book that I had already slotted some things back together.  

Everything happened really quickly in the first chapter or so and then slowed to an absolute creep. I found that things were moving so slow that I was able to forget character names and had to flip back to remind myself which isn’t a great sign.  I did think the scene where she’s reading the erotica aloud to her friends was hilarious and would resonate with everyone who has ever been in a book chat group with me.

So all in all, I'm bummed I didn't click with Maud or Violet in this one but I hope that Hawthorn gets book 3.  I'm interested in where the overall arc is going and I hope Edwin and Robin will make a larger appearance in that book.  Seeing snippets of them being domestic and happy was wonderful.

Thank you to Tor and Netgalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.

This definitely lives up to book 1. I loved the characters and the plot. They were definitely unique and their motivations were realistic. I liked the introduction to new players and the depth that was added to old ones.

Think this series is more narration and character exploration heavy rather than plot heavy of which I’m a personal fan.

The spice was different, but still good.

My only criticism is that there was a missed opportunity to make the cover shades of purple. Just saying.

The narrator also seems to have carried over the vibe from book 1 to book 2 despite not being the same one.

4/5 stars.

I DEEPLY enjoyed A Restless Truth - significantly more than I expected. Imagine a sapphic, Knives Out thriller in a Titanic-esque environment? Sign me UP!

I absolutely adored the characters in this. Getting to live inside Maud’s head after meeting (and loving her) in A Marvellous Light. She’s headstrong and has a strong moral backbone - except when she doesn’t, which makes her such an interesting and fun main protagonist. Violet was a lovely addition to this cast of characters. She’s brash, confident, feminist, and absolutely everything we needed to flesh out this world. Surprisingly, Lord Hawthorn became one of my favorite characters. He’s a self-serving grump, but over the course of the book, he softens and really becomes a wonderful mentor and partner to this team. The character work in this entire book is just excellent and truly where Marske excels.

One of my absolute favorite aspects of this book (and of this world in general) is its concept of limited magic. I’ve never read another book where the characters have to manage their magic reserves like a video game character. It’s such a fascinating and unique magic system - especially with the focus on cradling and intent. In AML, we had Edwin who required the use of string to cradle his magic, but we see a completely different aspect of it with Violet being able to cradle one handed - and then even moreso with Lord Hawthorn who no longer has his magic (which is something I need to be explained in full detail, please and thank you). There are so many different TYPES of magic on display in this book and they’re all interesting.

Really my only *concern* about A Restless Truth is how intricately it’s tied with A Marvellous Light. If you don’t read them back-to-back, it’s very easy to forget and miss key details, especially about The Lost Contract. I think this book does an excellent job of explaining the Forsythia Club and Flora (and Mrs. Navenby’s) role in this conspiracy, but without that foundational knowledge from the first book, it’s easy to get confused. Additionally, I think that the middle section of this book drags a little bit - the beginning and the end are incredibly exciting, but I needed a bit more to keep me engaged in the center.

This is a fun and steamy fantasy with exceptional prose and tension-building. The main climax of the book is genuinely stressful and the stakes never feel arbitrary or unwarranted. I’m very excited to see how this story concludes in book 3 and to see all of these wonderful characters together again!!

Thank you so much to Tor and Netgalley for the advanced audio copy!

Overall:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Story:
📘📘📘📘📘
Narration:
🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙

Freya Marske is now officially an auto-buy author for me! Her stories grab you from the first page and immerses you in the world she created.

Aysha Kala is a brilliant narrator for this book. Her voice made listening an immersive experience.

3.5⭐
Brief description: A plot-driven historical, fantasy, sapphic romance, murder-mystery set on an ocean-liner in the 1800s.

My thoughts:
So this was a fun book once I got into the groove of this, although it took me a while to get there. My biggest problem here was I assumed these were companion novels and you could read the 2nd book without reading the 1st, and while yes you can I was very confused at first and I think this really hampered my enjoyment for a while. I think mainly this didn't meet my personal expectations (which is more on me than on the book). This book had a A LOT going on. This was very plot driven, which isn't my preference for something labelled as 'romance'. I did really like the romantic parts of this and it definitely gets steamy. But this book is also building up a magical world (continuing from the first book I think), I assumed this would be a smaller/narrow story, less large magical save the world style fantasy. This is just much bigger in scope than I expected and wanted from it. These are all me problems with this book. Overall I think this a good book and was a fun enough ride, but not totally what I wanted. However Maude and Violet are both excellent main characters that I found easy to root for. If you like books where lots of stuff happens and combine together a lot different things, this would be good for you.

I LOVED A Marvelous Light so it’s hard to tell if my disappointment with A Restless Truth stems from its own merits or simply the heights the first took us to. If anyone came looking for glimpses of Edwin and Robin, turn around because they mostly come in the form of recalling conversations. The pacing felt slow and scattered. The romance wasn’t there for me but I can be sensitive about finding are they queer or are they using me tropes. Pieces of the mystery felt too scattered to really follow even after I went back and reread/listened to over 100 pages. The narrators’ voice is lovely, but overall I was disappointed with this volume. I still look forward to whatever Freya writes next and hope the author isn’t too discouraged by similar reviews.

What stands out to me about this audiobook is how much the narration adds. I felt just totally drawn in by the narrator and really felt that audio added to this story!!

I'll admit, I'm not huge of Magic/fantasy, but found the first in this series lovely and enjoy pretty much anything with sapphic romance, so I had to give this one a go. This book has everything, romance, hijinks, magic, mystery and a transatlantic boat trip. They are sort of rebellious and add some dept to the world created in Marvellous Light.

I really enjoyed this book and definitely plan to revisit this series in anticipation of the third!!

Overall I felt very "meh" about this book. While at times I was very interested, overall the mystery and the romance just didn't hold my attention the same way that the first book did. I do plan to read the third book, but this was kinda disappointing.

“You look at the world and decide you can live with it or decide you can’t. And if you can’t you decide what you’re prepared to do about it.”

🚢 A Restless Truth by Freya Marske is the second book of The Last Binding series. While the first book is all about Robin, we shift instead to his sister for the second book. Maud continues chasing the mystery her brother started to unravel in the first book and this leads her to be on a ship bound for New York. When a murder leaves Maud on her own and in charge of a rude parrot she ends up seeking out the help Violet Debenham. Violet is surrounded by scandal, and though Maud was taught to stay away from women such as that she can’t help but be intrigued. As these two women work together to find the murderer they can’t help but be drawn to one another in the process. 🚢

A Marvellous Light was a book that was hard for me to rate, because the first half felt so slow and the second half was so good. I was hoping that A Restless Truth would keep that momentum and be a more solid reading experience. Unfortunately, I didn’t think it was. While I enjoyed Violet and Maud exploring their feelings and attraction for one another, I felt the actual magical plot of this one was just…boring. They would be in the middle of a big reveal or a fight scene and I was just ready for it to be over. I’m a bit bummed that I don’t love this series, because I know it’s a favorite for others. That being said — I do think that narrator did a good job, so the listening experience was pretty good. I ended up only giving this one 2.5 stars and don’t think I’ll continue with the series…unless it’s about Ross, because he was actually hella interesting. We’ll see!