The first book in this series - 'A Marvellous Light' - introduced a glorious, vibrant, historical world and a gorgeous romance between (non-magical) aristocrat Robin Blyth and the man trying to help him navigate the magical world, Edwin Courcey. I read it, loved it, and wondered very much how Freya Marske was going to follow it up given that it was touted as 'The Last Binding, Book 1'.

In my review, I wrote about Maud, Robin's unconventional and sassy sister who refused to accept the limitations placed upon her as a woman in Edwardian England. I hoped I'd read more about her in the sequel.

It's fair to say that all my wishes came true - Maud Blyth is the central character in 'A Restless Truth' and I could not be happier! Especially as it also features some of my other favourite elements - a murder mystery, a cruise liner, characters breaking society's rules, lots of humour and even a touch of scandal.

The story opens with a murder on board the ocean liner, the Lyric, returning to England from New York. The dead woman's companion, Maud, finds herself embroiled in a deadly mystery - and the subject of gossip as she joins forces with the rakish Lord Hawthorn, beautiful actress Violet Debenham and journalist/purveyor of pornography Alan Ross. This unlikely crew is surrounded by a cast of quirky eccentrics - mediums, menagerie owners, members of high society, the magical and non-magical - as well as a murderer. As Maud desperately works to separate friends from foes and figure out the mystery of the Last Contract, she is distracted by her attraction to the mysterious and captivating Violet.

This is the second book in the series but there is enough of a recap of the over-arching and important plot lines about the Last Contract for newbies to keep up, I think. I would of course recommend that you start with 'A Marvellous Light' (as it is rather fabulous) but it isn't essential.

I loved everything about this book - the historical setting, the claustrophobia of the Lyric, the steamy romance, the quirky characters, the mystery, the magic and the humour. It's a story absolutely packed with surprises and delights - Mrs Navenby was an absolute joy and the parrot, Dorian, a lovely touch. As with the first book, it probably isn't one for the easily shocked as there are a few quite graphic scenes and use of strong language.

The idea of the Last Contract lends itself to a trilogy because of the number of items being sought by the Blyths, Courcey and any number of nefarious others! Given the shift of characters between books one and two, I cannot wait to see who in Robin or Maud's world will pick up the lead in book three. I'd love for it to be the louche Lord Hawthorn as he has scope for some serious hellraising!

I shifted between reading the book and listening to the audiobook read by Aysha Kala. I loved the (male) audiobook reader for the first book and wasn't sure whether I'd like the switch but Kala was an excellent choice given the new female lead character. Her narration was clear and really sounded like I'd expect Maud to speak - quite posh but also with dry humour. She also managed the other characters well with a kind of upper class drawl for Hawthorn and a less refined London accent for Ross.

I'd heartily recommend this to anyone who enjoys a lively historical novel with added extras - extra murder, extra magic and a lot of extra sauciness! You'll find yourself rooting for the marvellous Maud - an innocent faced with the much more worldly Violet and thrown into an alien world of magic and mayhem. I defy anyone to read this and not be waiting in anticipation for the next book!

When her brother is dragged into the world of magic, Maud is more excited than afraid. Sensing that she can do something to help, she sets off to America to find a missing piece of her brother's puzzle. Returning to England as an old lady's companion abourd an ocean liner, the last thing she expects is for the voyage home to be the most dangerous part of her journey. Trapped in the middle of the ocean with an unknown murderer and new allies, Maud must use her wits to see her quest through.

In many ways, this book is a good old-fashioned murder mystery. Trapped together on an ocean liner, not really knowing who they can trust or where they may find the villain, they have to continue to engage with high society even as they investigate murder and theft (and a bit of magic, of course). Robin's sister, Maud, is a brilliant main character: naive enough for the in-story explanations to seem plausible, but excellent at thinking herself into (and out of) trouble. She's inherently likeable for her curiosity and desire to help.

I didn't have that same connection with Violet. Other other main POV character is mysterious, disreputable, and offers some fascinating elements of worldbuilding. She's also stubborn, selfish, and egocentric; I never quite understood how she felt so drawn to Maud (besides their narrative proximity). As a result, the sex scenes (and there are far more of them than in 'A Marvellous Light', slow-burn this book is not) were a bit uncomfortable.

Overall, though, a solid read. Will definitely read book 3.

A Restless Truth goes straight in without much reminder and it took me a while to catch up! Unfortunately for those expecting to see Robin and Edwin again... They're not really in this one, but luckily for me I really liked Robin's sister Maud who's one of the main characters in this. I also liked the references to Robin's visions that he had in the previous book, it was a nice touch to link the two together.

I liked all the settings in A Marvellous Light so I thought it might be a risky move to set the whole book on a boat, but it works. The only thing I didn't like much was I felt like there were a few too many minor characters and sometimes I was a bit confused about who was who or why they were there. The story is a sort of "whodunit" murder mystery though, so maybe its good to have a few extra people to act as red herrings maybe?

Nowww, the saucy bits.. So I thought this was more lust at first sight (slow burn this is not), and the relationship between Maud and Violet was a lot about sex. And there's nothing wrong with that...I love a girl who knows what she wants and how to get it. There is definitely potential for a relationship there though, time will tell?

Overall, a fun read but it felt a bit like a filler book, but its setting up for the third in the trilogy so its done what it's set out to do. I prefered A Marvellous Light but I am looking forward to the next book though, so it's a win from me!

I just adored A Marvellous Light so I was excited to continue the series even if I'm not quite keen on series where each instalment has different protagonist. I wanted to see the overarching mystery through. Plus, I really do like the magical system which in this book  was even more developed.

This novel opens as Maud is returning to England from America; undercover as a companion to an elderly lady. Immediately we are confronted with murder and Maud's insistence on solving this mystery. Of course, she has help from expected corners (thanks to certain visions) and more, she encounters her first romantic experience.

A Restless Truth makes a rather enjoyable and light read but unfortunately, it lacks certain sparks that makes A Marvellous Light absolutely adorable. The complex layering mystery was intriguing but I just couldn't get into this pairing. Yes, there were a number of spicy scenes along with romantic ones but strangely, I was more touched by the ending with Maud's homecoming scene. I think this is probably me... I get too attached to the original protagonist from the first book that it's really hard for me to like anyone else! Although, I am hoping the third book will be a certain bad boy lord! I can totally get into that one. His appearance in this novel has intrigued me. I'd like to know his past.

My thanks to Pan Macmillan for ecopy of book via NetGalley in exchange of my honest thoughts

I loved this book! It was so much fun to read, and although I was a little worried that I hadn't read the first book in the series, it didn't matter at all. Freya Marske expertly threaded the previous book into this one, so I wasn't ever confused. Maud and Violet were wonderful characters, fully formed and with all the conflict required to keep the story on its toes. Their burgeoning relationship was realistic, heartwarming, and refreshingly different. The magical element to the novel lifted it to a higher level, and the historical aspects kept me interested. Brilliant stuff!

A Marvellous Light was one of the best books I read last year, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the sequel!

One of my favourite things about the first book is how Marske has built this fantasy world, and she continues this in A Restless Truth. As different aspects of the magical world are revealed to the characters they are revealed to us too, and she expanded on what we saw in the first book brilliantly. While the story is relatively ‘small’ – all of the action takes place on one ship’s voyage – we still get a sense of the wider world the characters are a part of. The middle book of a trilogy is often the weakest one, having the primary job of connecting the strong opening and the epic finale, but in this case we never lost the sense of the book having its own story that slots into the wider arc.

Perhaps the most talked-about aspect of this book is that we have different main characters from the first one. In my upcoming video review (shameless plug!) I’m going to talk a bit more about how the shift from an M/M couple to an F/F couple has changed people’s perspective. While it may be frustrating for some people to no longer have their favourite characters as the protagonists, Robin and Edwin are very much still a part of the world, constantly being referred to.

The main character in this book is Robin’s sister Maud, and as she is a character we’re already familiar with, the transition is not as jarring as might be expected. It’s a very natural continuation, shifting perspectives slightly as more characters get their own adventures and romances. Maud is a brilliant main character, with a fresh voice, fresh problems, and a very compelling love interest. As the book is set in the early 20th Century, switching from a male to female perspective also helps us to see and meet more people in this world. In Edwardian England, men and women moved in very different circles and had very different careers and daily routines, so this switch introduces us to a whole new host of characters and friendships. It’s also in keeping with what I think is one of the strongest aspects of this series. One of the things I loved in the first book was the idea that there are a plethora of ways to cast magic, but most are cast aside in favour of the methods deemed best by upper-class English men. Through Maud’s eyes we get to see a little bit more of what’s out there, and I can’t wait to read even more next time!

This is a really fantastic series, with lots of exciting things happening in this book! I can’t wait for the final instalment, and to find out how it’s all going to end.

Thank you to the publishers for providing me with a free copy for review. All opinions are my own.

3.5 stars rounded up

Headlines:
Agatha Christie vibes with magic
Whodunnit
Maud meets her match

A Restless Truth served an immediate feel of an Agatha Christie voyage across the Atlantic complete with whodunnit. The additional queer coupling with the magic we knew from A Marvellous Light made this immediately interesting.

Maud's meeting with Violet had her considering a queer relationship when she hadn't had any kind of awakening before. The was a rather hilarious storyline containing some 'corn'ography that hastened Maud's self awareness. Violet was a tough shell to crack and it took me a quite a long time in the book to warm to her, but I did eventually.

The grander plot carried on the storyline from book one and so I felt some similarities in that. I didn't love the creep in terms of the dead in this book but I do think it fit with the era and Christie-feel of the piece. The story had some slow parts but overall, it was enjoyable.

I'm not sure where I see the story going now. Two couples forging forward? A new set of characters? I'm unsure, but I'll be reading on.

The narration was excellent and the accents were spot on.

Thank you to Tor Books and Black Crow PR for the review copy.

I was apprehensive at first; one of my first thoughts was, ‘oh god, it’s gunna be on a boat the whole time, which I had initially assumed was going to be boring. Boy was I wrong. This was entertaining, delightful, sexy and so fun. I adored a marvellous light, and I think I love a restless truth even more.

Before I even knew there was going to be a sequel, let alone a trilogy(!), I finished reading a marvellous light and immediately went, ‘okay a book featuring Maud when?’ I am very thankful my request was answered, because this was one of my favourite reads this year.

Firstly, I love the magic in this world. It’s such a refreshing, simple and unique take on how to perform spells and how magical humans exist in the 'normal world'. Something so simple, yet so easy to completely understand and imagine in my head, and I usually have a hard time imaging things in my head - which, yes you’re correct, is a bit of a task considering my favourite thing to do is read.

Marske has a way with words, too. And that certainly helps to urge me to continue reading. At this point, I think I would be content to read absolutely anything she comes up with, if I’m going to receive things like this. Beautiful, vivid descriptions and imagery, without sounding repetitive. And it isn’t just the imagery, the feelings she portrays in the characters is equally as evocative. Her characters are so human, so completely raw and thus so full of life and it is delight to follow them on their story.

I love Maud. And I absolutely loved seeing her grapple with expectations, of others and of herself. To watch her discover that not everything is about pissing off your dead mother, even if it is very fun and includes sharing a bed with one miss violet, - which, I’ll get onto in a second, because you can’t read this book and not talk about them-, was satisfying and I was saying: yes, you go Maud! Her devotion to help her brother was incredibly admirable, especially since she is not magical and effectively defenceless against those who do wield magic. But, she isn’t the hero either, she is just a sister trying to figure out how to stop some corrupt power-seeking people for the sake, and safety of her brother and these new strangers she's intrinsically bound with, with her moral compass. She was strong, and honest and lovely and very silly and I loved reading in her point of view.

Violet was equally as intriguing, with her gimmicks and her acts and her many faces. I would have easily let her wrap me up in an endless stream of fantastical lies. While I do think it was a slightly predictable past, I enjoyed watching her character unravel, becoming just that bit more herself with Maud.

Their relationship was, well. Passionate, desperate, infuriating, entertaining. Any of those words would do it some sort of justice, whether mashed together or on their own. I loved every interaction they had, and the sex scenes had me blushing. For a moment, I genuinely forgot an old lady had died, and that I was reading a book with actual plot because I was so invested in Maud and Violet’s… moment.

I also wanted to add that Hawthorn has made leaps and bounds in my ‘good book’. During a marvellous light, I would have agreed with ross, another delightful, well-rounded character, he was a knob head. And he was still a bit knobby, but we got to see through the little cracks in his shell, to see the person beneath. It made him less one-dimensional, like instead of the ‘here is the rich twat, he’s a knob, we don’t like him,’ it was ‘oh wow, he’s complicated and actually does have a small, very teeny tiny, caring bone in his body. He was also hilarious. I want to see more.

The pacing did dip slightly in the middle, but only for a moment because there was a lot of adventure, a lot of hiccups and ‘ooooh duh!” Moments. the murder mystery aspect was fun. I was, for much of it, eager to know what the hell was going on.

Overall, a delightful and consuming read with fantastic characters and a fun murder-mystery that was pulled off very well.

Maud's part in unravelling a magical conspiracy was simple; accompany an old lady on a boat across the Atlantic. Things don't go to plan and all of a sudden she finds herself with a dead body and a ship full of suspects.

This was such a fun follow-up to A Marvellous Light, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It lost the star really only because of a slight pacing dip around the middle, but I was enjoying myself enough that it didn't take too much from the reading experience.
I was apprehensive going in about how I would feel about Maud as a protagonist from her brief appearance in book 1, but she really pleasantly surprised me. She was a very active protagonist, and her constant determination and disregard for other people's opinions of her was really refreshing and enjoyable to read.
I loved the dual POV and getting to see both Maud and Violet's reactions to one another as they were forced into an alliance and found themselves drawn to one another despite their best intentions. Their communication, even when they were at odds with each other, was open and honest, and I find that refreshing in a romance plot. All of their interactions were just great and the journey of their relationship throughout the book was really nicely done, I'm very excited to hopefully see more from them.
Marske dives even deeper into the magic system created in book 1 here and I thoroughly enjoyed it and am already excited to see more. It's such a unique system and I love how she draws out all its variations across cultures and individuals, and its different applications ...I just love it. (I also loved the mentions of Robin and Edwin, and Maud's very clear love for the both of them.)
As I said, the pacing drags a little bit around the middle where I think it suffers slightly from middle-book-syndrome, as the mystery here needed to be enough to fill one book and be resolved without resolving the wider conspiracy. That said, there was enough interesting character work and building into the wider conspiracy to hold my interest throughout, so the pacing didn't take from my overall enjoyment.

A strong second instalment, which already has me impatient for the third.

Thank you Pan Macmillan for my proof copy of this title, received in exchange for an honest review.

Oh how much I loved this book, I can't even begin to explain how many feelings this stroke. It was absolutely delightful, it made me laugh out laugh so many times!! But it also made me hold my breath and speed my heart. The characters are fantastic, all with very different personalities perfectly developed. Oh Maud is marvelous! strong and so brave, she have a confidence about her I wish I had myself. Violet with her secrets, living a life different of what it was planed for her taking risks looking for adventures but always masking who she really is. Alan Ross was a character I absolutely want to see more of him in the next book. So many questions about him remain. as well as Hawthorne, his grumpy presence is gold, I have love to see more of him after the small taste we got in a marvellous light, but all the questions surrounding him remain (like how did her lost hia magic???) and I am so very curious, but we learn more of his personality and I have to say I adored him.
There was everything in this book, magic of course, this magic systemis ao interesting and full of details. There are secrets and mystery, a victorian high society with its gossip and scandals! a menagerie, hilarious conversations, a rude parrot, romance and oh such a good spice. (Like oh so very good FF spice) All of it in a transatlantic, That I couldn't help but imagine as the Titanic, because you know, the Titanic.
My only complaint might be there is barely any Edwin and Robin in the book, but the new characters are well worth it and I assume we will see more of them in the future anyway.

Quirky lgbt read, really enjoyed the audio version of this .

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read this book in exchange for my review.

A Marvellous Light was one of my favourite reads last year so I was incredibly excited for this sequel. And it was fun! I liked the first part better but this one was still a very engaging murder mystery with sn enchanting dash of magic.
What I really liked was that there was a broad recap of the first book woven into the story at the beginning of the book. That was very useful.
I always like a good murder mystery and this one did not only have a great setting but provided awhole host of interesting subjects and a satisfying conclusion.
The charackters are also very colourful and interesting, a mix of people we knew already and new faces.
Unfortunately I was not blown away by the romancce between Maud and Violet so this one did not reach teh levels of the first one for me. I am also just personally not a big fan of sex scenes in books. They were my least favourite thing in the first book and it felt like this one was even more explicit. But that is just a personal preference and not a real criticism of the book. I also felt like the magical aspect of the world came a bit to short here, I hope we'll see more of it again in the next one.

Still, a very solid read and I can't wait for the next one!

PS: I absolutely adored the epilogue, I just love Robin and Edwin.

since i was fond of this book's predecessor i had really high hopes for <i>a restless truth</i>. in fact, given that it centres on a sapphic romance, i actually thought i would like this even more (your honor, i am biased). and...ugh. the premise has so much potential (i have a weakness for books set in enclosed spaces like ships/cruises/trains...) but as soon as were introduced to the two main characters i felt kind of underwhelmed. maybe it would been refreshing to have a love interest who wasn't (yet again) a white beautiful aristocrat...but oh well. violet's antics were frustrating. she goest to great lengths to be sort of scandalous and while i'm sure that will make her intriguing figure for many, i just found her puerile. maud like her brother suffers a bit from main character syndrome, in that they have these rather generic personalities. the dynamic between maud & violet was too been-there-done-that for me (one is sunny and naive, the other one is more sardonic and charismatic).

and don't get me started on lord hawthorn...i absolutely detest this type of character. while some may find his vulgarity charming or amusing, i thought him annoying and affected. he likes to swear, wow, how edgy...lastly, we have another addition to this ragtag group, one whose name made my brain itch (his full name is alanzo cesare rossi....???? is he spanish? italian? both?). maybe the latter half of the novel will provide an answer for this but a quick search only resulted in a scene were hawthorn calls rossi a 'bloodsucking mediterranean gutter-rat'.
annoying/bland characters aside, the odd pacing never drew me in.

i'm sure ppl will love this, i can see this type of writing, romance, and character dynamics appeal to fans of casey mcquiston. chances are if you loved the 1st book in this series you will also love this one. what can i say, i am just a contrarian outlier.

When Maud Blythe volunteered to be an elderly lady’s companion on board the R.M.S. Lyric she didn’t expect to find her employer murdered on the first day of the trans-Atlantic voyage. Left holding a foul-mouthed parrot, Maud decides she must solve the crime before the ship docks in Liverpool and the culprit disappears into English society. At dinner she meets the scandalous Violet Debenham, an actress and, more importantly, a magician. Together, they plot to uncover the truth and retrieve what was stolen.

Maud is of course the little sister of Robin who we met, and fell a little in love with, in A Marvellous Light. She went to America to retrieve one of the women who was hiding a piece of the last contract, and of course, that is the thing that gets stolen from the victim. But Maud doesn’t know what it looks like, or who on board would even know about it.

Enter Violet, who everyone is scandalised by and she just doesn’t care. Maud is bedazzled by her. Also on board is Lord Hawthorn and I loved how their cover was supposedly being ravaged by the Lord who was above reproach. They read some erotica and have a great old time. I loved Lord Hawthorn in this book, he is definitely softening to the ragtag bunch of magicians determined to save everyone.

Maud is rather quite naïve and innocent at the start but curious about many things. She’s never really felt attracted to men in that way, but meeting Violet makes her see there are other options. Violet tries to keep her distance, she has her own ghosts to deal with. She’s happy to flirt with Maud, and she finds the whole solving a murder thing a riot, but she isn’t looking for ties beyond the voyage.

As proper young ladies in first class, they get away with more than most. Running around the ship, they uncover secrets, unleash a menagerie and set the gossip alight. They meet an unlikely, but helpful ally from the lower decks, where good young ladies shouldn’t wander.

The ocean liner is a great setting, but overall I’d have liked this to further the ongoing plot a bit more than it did. We already knew about the other pieces of the last contract and that certain magicians were after them. This is very much about Maud discovering herself, more than the discovery of a magical world that was in the previous instalment.

Really enjoying this series and can’t wait for the conclusion!!

Love the queer, historical, magical vibe. The magic system is so fun and I found it just as captivating as in the first instalment. Just love the idea of ‘cradling’ spells.

I did enjoy the first book a teensy bit more than this one. Mainly because I got a bit fed up of the whole thing being set on a boat. It worked well for the plot, but I do prefer a range of settings.

The characters, however, were a delight! Lots of different and entertaining personalities. Absolutely adored the romance between Maude and Violet. Was fabulous to see Maude making discoveries about herself. Plus, honestly those raunchy scenes were probably my favourite sapphic ones that I’ve read! Freya Marske seems to be able to write steamy, hot intimacy without the cringe factor!

There was lots to enjoy here - magic, mystery, investigations, romance, a ghost, a cheeky parrot and even some sharing of old fashioned pornography amongst friends! 🤣😂

Would have liked to have seen a bit more of Robin and Edwin from book one, but as long as all the main characters reappear in the last book I’ll be happy!! Kinda hoping Lord Hawthorne gets a romance??? We shall see…

You probably could read this as a stand-a-lone, but I do think it works better if you read it as part of the series.

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for this Arc!

I am in love with love. Loved this Sapphic romance and amazing story and the fantasy! I haven't read the first book but this was very easy to follow, almost like a stand-alone. I completely enjoyed every minute of this book!

The fantasy is unique with an interesting magic system including magicians, forseers, and mediums (even ghosts!).
The story gave me a very Agatha Christie vibe. A whodunit with a cobbled together group of individuals solving the case and following the trail. What I loved most was the Sapphic romance between two of the characters. It was real, a bit smutty, just enough to make this whole story very rounded out and full. I think the romance along with the humor of some characters is what really made this perfect.

Definitely recommend!

Out November 10, 2022!

I'm rating this based on how I think fans of A Marvellous Light would feel about this book, and if you LOVED A Marvellous Light you will absolutely love this!

For me it hit a lot of the same beats, the romance and the characters felt very fleshed out - which I really appreciate in a sequel! I wasn't longing for Edwin and Robin to appear, I was very content to watch Maud and Violet navigate their relationship.

Actually, my Restless Truth TM is that I preferred this book to A Marvellous Light. I felt more attached to Maud and Violet's relationship and I found their characters more engaging. (Sorry Edwin and Robin, you are great but Violet is my new favourite character of this series)

The overarching plot with the missing items of the Last Contract is still building up so if the events of the last book have you invested then look forward to more details on what the baddies are after now as Marske builds us up to the final instalment. I'm really excited to find out how it all threads together like a tightly woven magic cradle.

My personal favourite part of the book is a bit of a spoiler but lets just say when there is a plot reason for a conversation to be partially italics in fantasy it hits me and it hits me hard.

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.

Really, if I had to make any complaint about this book, it’s that it’s made me obsessively stuck on thinking about the potential book 3 characters for weeks now. I don’t have time for this! I need my brain back! And they weren’t even the main characters. (Which, by the way, is a hint for you to get reading this series.)

So this book was not what I was expecting but I ended up higly surprised. I was attracted to the book because first, it was sapphic, and second, I'm a huge fan of murder mysteries.

The thing is that was expecting a more mysterious story, and don't get me wrong, the book has a few really good twists, but it's the magical part that made me love this book. I think the magical system of this story it's different and refreshing, and the whole 1910's aesthetic makes it really appealing.

Also the characters are amazing, Maud it's such a cute and wonderful main, I loved the way her personality it's thre opposite of Violet's and that contributes to make the plot work. Which takes me another of my favorite parts, Maud and Violet's relationship and how it's handled. When I read sapphic literature I'm always afraid of the ships being not develop enough, or being rushed but in 'A Restless Truth' the romance moves on a natural way. Even though the events happen in just a few days, the things between Maud and Violet don't seem forced and they are always adressing the fact of the limited time they'd known each other. Also I appreciated the amount of scenes of just them being able to explore their sexualities together.

If I have to point out something that I didn't like that much, would be that sometimes the amount of characters and secondary stories was a little bit confussing, and I took me some time to figure out who was who, but that just some minor detail.

Overall, I really liked this book, got me highly expecting for the next part.

A worthy sequel to A Marvellous Light!

Despite the radically different aura and character dynamics, A Restless Truth slowly draws the reader back in Freya Marske's atmospheric Edwardian world of magic societies, cradling, family secrets and secret sisterhoods.

The whole book takes place on a ship, and feels a lot like an Agatha Christie mystery with magic. Robin's sister Maud and chaotic Violet take the narration baton from Robin and Edwin, and team up with the unwilling Lord Hawthorn and the unmagical Alan Ross to uncover the murderer of Elizabeth Navenby, the 2nd owner of a part of the Last Contract.

The book is quite slow in its first part and then speeds up and hits with twist after twist to reach a well-crafted conclusion, which finds the characters in a different place than where they started (and not only physically) and sets the table for the grand finale of the trilogy.

I'm giving this book a 5-star rating because I always reward books that finish strong, but it is slightly weaker than A Marvellous Light for me, for the simple personal reason that F/F steamy scenes aren't my cup of tea (I understand it's a me thing and many other readers prefer them to M/M), thus I wasn't really invested in them. Also, Maud isn't really as interesting a character as her brother or Edwin.

I've made an educated guess about who the Book 3 main characters will be and I think I will be proven right 😉

Thank you NetGalley and Tordotcom for the ARC!