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18soft_green's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
4/5
I enjoyed this story though not as much as I enjoyed the first book. It was funny, the plot was entertaining enough, the characters were complex for the most part.
I like that the story centers the feminine characters without making it a girlboss situation and actually shows some of the toxicity with that mindset while still supporting women's agency. I also really loved how it showed that women are important and strong even though society doesn't give them the freedom to be independent. I didn't like how Maud and Violet's relationship starts but I think that's just a preference.
Violet is an interesting character but also one of my least favorite types of characters. Her independent woman with no deep feelings performance is exhausting but that's kind of the point. Maud is fun except her innocence felt kind of forced. But then again, this is the 19th century where women legit didn't get to learn about sex and stuff until after they were married. I love Hawthorn and am curious about Ross.
The sex scenes were awesome! I like how realistic they were about the mechanics of sex and dialogue, the jokes and awkwardness. I like how Maud was new to it but excited and interested so we got a whole scene in safety. I like how the scene was hot but not in a fantastical way and descriptive while also being practical. I love Marske's writing style so much! It's so difficult to find a sapphic story that's smutty but not written for men or perfect the act but is also intimate.
I didn't like how the story kind of particularizes Maud and Robin like their individuality and personness is something that runs in the family and they're just saints among humans but it doesn't go too over the top with it. Maybe that's just because that's how people treat my family so I want to smash it instead of observing that it's just art depicting life? Idk, it's weird.
4/5 Like this story, would recommend
I enjoyed this story though not as much as I enjoyed the first book. It was funny, the plot was entertaining enough, the characters were complex for the most part.
I like that the story centers the feminine characters without making it a girlboss situation and actually shows some of the toxicity with that mindset while still supporting women's agency. I also really loved how it showed that women are important and strong even though society doesn't give them the freedom to be independent. I didn't like how Maud and Violet's relationship starts but I think that's just a preference.
Violet is an interesting character but also one of my least favorite types of characters. Her independent woman with no deep feelings performance is exhausting but that's kind of the point. Maud is fun except her innocence felt kind of forced. But then again, this is the 19th century where women legit didn't get to learn about sex and stuff until after they were married. I love Hawthorn and am curious about Ross.
The sex scenes were awesome! I like how realistic they were about the mechanics of sex and dialogue, the jokes and awkwardness. I like how Maud was new to it but excited and interested so we got a whole scene in safety. I like how the scene was hot but not in a fantastical way and descriptive while also being practical. I love Marske's writing style so much! It's so difficult to find a sapphic story that's smutty but not written for men or perfect the act but is also intimate.
I didn't like how the story kind of particularizes Maud and Robin like their individuality and personness is something that runs in the family and they're just saints among humans but it doesn't go too over the top with it. Maybe that's just because that's how people treat my family so I want to smash it instead of observing that it's just art depicting life? Idk, it's weird.
4/5 Like this story, would recommend
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Gaslighting, and Classism
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Stalking, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Minor: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Sexism, Blood, Police brutality, and Grief
lgoconno's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing, Death, and Sexual content
Minor: Blood
booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
A witty and enchanting follow-up, A RESTLESS TRUTH follows Maud Blyth as she tries to secure a piece of the Last Contract.
This continues the general mission of collecting the pieces of the Last Contract and securing them to protect the other magicians of Britain, it also follows Maud (Robin's sister) who briefly appeared in A MARVELLOUS LIGHT. It doesn't completely wrap up anything left hanging from the first book, but it does move forward on a variety of plot points in a way that's suitable for the second book in a trilogy. There's an entirely new storyline related to Maud and Violet, as well as the mostly self-contained issue of the murder and Last Contract piece on the cruise ship. The restricted location makes this feel like a bottle episode in a way I wasn't expecting but is pleasant to read. Oftentimes the middle book in a trilogy can feel a bit neglected, existing only to bridge between the beginning and the finale, but partly because it changed narrators and has an entirely new location this feels fresh and can almost entirely stand on its own. Several major things are introduced and resolved, including but not limited to the immediate issue of figuring out who committed the murder and how to keep them from achieving their broader aims.
The plot is a mix of complicated hijinks and social navigation as they try to find a missing item and solve a murder, all while avoiding the attention of the culprits even when they haven't yet figured out who is involved. This would mostly make sense to someone who hadn't read the first book, the relevant backstory is explained as needed and generally avoids feeling like infodumping. The corollary is that it doesn't spend much time explaining what happened in the first book, since at a certain point that isn't crucial to Maud's experience since it happened to her brother instead of her. Maud and Violet are new narrators to the series, and their perspectives feel very distinct. Violet is guarded even in her own head, in a way that means I came away understanding the shape of her reticence more than the details of her history.
Maud and Violet's relationship has a lot of care and deliberate exploration of them as people. Maud wants to know everything about Violet, but Violet is a much more guarded person and isn't ready to show more of herself to someone she just met a few days ago. I appreciate how their levels of physical and emotionally intimacy are treated as two distinct things, both needing attention but not necessarily lining up precisely.
My favorite character is Lord Hawthorn (due mostly to my personal preferences and not implying any fault with the others), I was excited to see him playing more of a role here than he did in the first book, and I'm very hyped for the forthcoming third book which stars him and Alan Ross.
This continues the general mission of collecting the pieces of the Last Contract and securing them to protect the other magicians of Britain, it also follows Maud (Robin's sister) who briefly appeared in A MARVELLOUS LIGHT. It doesn't completely wrap up anything left hanging from the first book, but it does move forward on a variety of plot points in a way that's suitable for the second book in a trilogy. There's an entirely new storyline related to Maud and Violet, as well as the mostly self-contained issue of the murder and Last Contract piece on the cruise ship. The restricted location makes this feel like a bottle episode in a way I wasn't expecting but is pleasant to read. Oftentimes the middle book in a trilogy can feel a bit neglected, existing only to bridge between the beginning and the finale, but partly because it changed narrators and has an entirely new location this feels fresh and can almost entirely stand on its own. Several major things are introduced and resolved, including but not limited to the immediate issue of figuring out who committed the murder and how to keep them from achieving their broader aims.
The plot is a mix of complicated hijinks and social navigation as they try to find a missing item and solve a murder, all while avoiding the attention of the culprits even when they haven't yet figured out who is involved. This would mostly make sense to someone who hadn't read the first book, the relevant backstory is explained as needed and generally avoids feeling like infodumping. The corollary is that it doesn't spend much time explaining what happened in the first book, since at a certain point that isn't crucial to Maud's experience since it happened to her brother instead of her. Maud and Violet are new narrators to the series, and their perspectives feel very distinct. Violet is guarded even in her own head, in a way that means I came away understanding the shape of her reticence more than the details of her history.
Maud and Violet's relationship has a lot of care and deliberate exploration of them as people. Maud wants to know everything about Violet, but Violet is a much more guarded person and isn't ready to show more of herself to someone she just met a few days ago. I appreciate how their levels of physical and emotionally intimacy are treated as two distinct things, both needing attention but not necessarily lining up precisely.
My favorite character is Lord Hawthorn (due mostly to my personal preferences and not implying any fault with the others), I was excited to see him playing more of a role here than he did in the first book, and I'm very hyped for the forthcoming third book which stars him and Alan Ross.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Mental illness, Slavery, Suicide, Vomit, Car accident, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
patchy_at_best's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Blood, Kidnapping, and Murder
Minor: Torture
moonytoast's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
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. She 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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Murder
Moderate: Cursing, Death, and Blood
anna_wa's review
adventurous
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, and Violence
Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Torture, Vomit, Police brutality, and Stalking
Minor: Domestic abuse and Abandonment
ridesthesun's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
MY GIRLS MY GIRLLLLLSSSSSS !!!!!
This book was just so much fun. The magical hijinks, the murder mystery, the menagerie in the middle of the ocean.... It had so much. The character work, the setting, and the plot are all the definition of Colorful™️.
I'm so proud of Maud and all the honest effort she puts into being a good person, into being her OWN person. I love her I'm proud of her, I'm kissing her on the head. And VIOLET!! Layers and layers. I love her, I can't wait to see her continue to explore her own vulnerability.
And fuck this book for making me like Hawthorne. I thought it would be impossible and yet. Here we are.
This book was just so much fun. The magical hijinks, the murder mystery, the menagerie in the middle of the ocean.... It had so much. The character work, the setting, and the plot are all the definition of Colorful™️.
I'm so proud of Maud and all the honest effort she puts into being a good person, into being her OWN person. I love her I'm proud of her, I'm kissing her on the head. And VIOLET!! Layers and layers. I love her, I can't wait to see her continue to explore her own vulnerability.
And fuck this book for making me like Hawthorne. I thought it would be impossible and yet. Here we are.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
displacedcactus's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
This is a lovely sequel to A Marvellous Light. Because it follows a different set of characters, it won't matter too much if you don't remember the finer details of the first book, but it does build directly on what happened in that book, so you should read them in order.
The story of this one concerns a murder on a cruise ship, and trying to figure out whodunnit while also keeping the bad guy(s) from getting their hands on the powerful magic item belonging to the victim (while not knowing what form that item takes). Along the way, there's a great F/F romance with some very steamy love scenes, and establishing our M/M sequel bait pairing to get you ready for the end of the trilogy.
The story of this one concerns a murder on a cruise ship, and trying to figure out whodunnit while also keeping the bad guy(s) from getting their hands on the powerful magic item belonging to the victim (while not knowing what form that item takes). Along the way, there's a great F/F romance with some very steamy love scenes, and establishing our M/M sequel bait pairing to get you ready for the end of the trilogy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Cursing, Death, and Violence
Minor: Sexism
caseythereader's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Thanks to Tor Books for the free advance copy of this book.
- A RESTLESS TRUTH was pitched as "lesbian Knives Out on a boat," and WOW does it deliver on that promise! I was so-so on the previous book in this series, A MARVELLOUS LIGHT, feeling that it never struck the right balance between the genres it was blending. This book does that beautifully, and puts at its heart a beautiful story about allowing yourself to be seen as you are.
- The mystery plot of this book is great fun, keeping it silly and surprising even with the high stakes.
- I think you can probably manage to read this book without having read the previous installment, but you'll be better off if you have, since this one doesn't really reexplain the magic system or the the larger ongoing story until well into the book.
- A RESTLESS TRUTH was pitched as "lesbian Knives Out on a boat," and WOW does it deliver on that promise! I was so-so on the previous book in this series, A MARVELLOUS LIGHT, feeling that it never struck the right balance between the genres it was blending. This book does that beautifully, and puts at its heart a beautiful story about allowing yourself to be seen as you are.
- The mystery plot of this book is great fun, keeping it silly and surprising even with the high stakes.
- I think you can probably manage to read this book without having read the previous installment, but you'll be better off if you have, since this one doesn't really reexplain the magic system or the the larger ongoing story until well into the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
purplepenning's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Blood
Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Animal cruelty, Racism, Torture, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury