Reviews with content warning for Blood - A Restless Truth

The naive and slightly crazed Maud Blyth was prepared to have a great adventure aboard the Lyric, with a dirty-mouthed parrot and her so-called ‘employer’ Mrs. Navenby. But when Maud finds a dead body splayed on the floor in their own blood, her excitement is dulled into dread.

Now she has to deal with a mystery that somehow pulled her into its grasp and the dangerous, yet magnificent magician, Violet Debenham. A girl trained for a scandalous act, Violet is one for secrets and trickery.

Stuck on a ship headed toward England, and a murderous magician out for blood, Maud and Violet gather an unruly group; a ghost, a pornography collector, and a Lord with quite the attitude.

Time’s running out as the voyage starts to reach its end. It is up to Maud, Violet and their group of witty members to find the magical object that is the last thing between the magicians and their end.

// My Review:

A witty and wanderlust voyage with hilarious characters that led the story with great humour.

A Restless Truth was a whimsical read that was made even more splendid by Freya Marske’s writing. She has a hand of extreme talent, and wove clever metaphors into strikingly meaningful descriptions. The entire novel was interlaced with her skillful imaginations that brought the premise of A Restless Truth to fruition.

Maud Blyth’s soul is one of childlike curiosity and innocence. Her theatrics to charm her way into certain situations was extremely entertaining and made her story one to remember. Maud’s ventures into her own wants and desires, Violet being one of those aspirations, created a beautiful character to flower throughout the pages.

Violet Debenham on the other hand was the vivacious and scandalous partner, who was a complete flirt toward anyone who looked her way. Especially to Maud Blythe who tempted her like never before. She wove a sexy string into the storyline that left even the naughtiest person with a scathing blush. Violet was quite the audience pleaser who presented magic in fascinating ways.

The story was of intense adventure that led to the characters re-enacting a smutty scene from one of the many stolen erotic novels, to them breaking into warded cabins amongst the rich. Unique characters ranging from a stern ghost to Lord Hawthorn who prefers to stay in his own company, weaved with tantalizing moments between Violet and Maud, and tense situations with crazed magicians, made A Restless Truth feel like a fairytale adventure…

Rating: 4/5

Thank you to PanMacMillanSA for this reviewer copy!

Content Warnings

jencolumb0's review

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adventurous hopeful lighthearted reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

The rare second book that manages to be better than the first.

This book is understandable without reading A Marvellous Light but you will miss some charming pieces if you cheat yourself of the first book in this series. I was initially skeptical of a mystery set on a boat; it’s not a typical setting for the books I usually like but Marske wove romance and self-discovery and class/race issues and mystery and magical world building into a truly wonderful read. I cannot *wait* for the third in the trilogy.

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discardeddustjacket's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I wanted to love this book so so much. I really tried to, but I just didn’t. I loved the first book with my whole heart, but something just felt missing with this one.

Maybe I just don’t do mysteries, because this story had a very who-done-it murder mystery vibe to it. I don’t know enough about that sort of genre fiction to know whether or not the sort-of claustrophobic setting is a staple of these types of stories, but the entire book taking place on the ship made it a bit boring to me.

I really really liked the romance. Violet and Maud’s relationship was one of the high points of this story for me, as well as the the reluctant alliance of Hawthorne and Ross.

It was just that overall, the plot progression felt like wading through molasses.

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heini's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.5

It's difficult to make a seven-day cross-Atlantic voyage setting work and be interesting.

I know I'm not the target audience for light-hearted fantasy, nor erotica, but it was still entertaining ~half the time.

I liked that we followed different characters now. Often the people and events didn't feel believable and it got repetitive.
Plot points were abrupt and there wasn't any weight to actions, no suspense. That's why I wasn't really excited about this book in the first place even though I wanted to know how the story would end: I didn't know it was a trilogy when I started and in my opinion the story could have been a stand-alone.
But the plot is is just a plot - the books are more about young queer people in relationships, cool personal libraries and magical artifacts.
Consent (concerning sex and magic) was handled well and naturally in this sequel too, it was kind of mind-blowing how safe the writer made the relationships sound.

(I listened the audiobook and quality was OK, but maybe someone ought to have told the voice actor beforehand how to pronounce "chemise" so the whole book wouldn't have been filled with one-word corrections with different audio quality.)

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heather_freshparchment's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

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rachelgreenreads's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I thought this was a fun sequel to A Marvelous Light. I thought the plot was well-paced and engaging, and the cast of characters was fun. I though the MCs were lovable, but their romance wasn’t quite it for me, especially compared to the last.

I think it was intentionally more of a situationship with room for Maude to have her adventures in future, but I think I just prefer all out love🤷🏻‍♀️

. But overall it was a fun read! And it made me like Hawthorne more, so I’m looking forward to the final installment. We explored class a little bit more with Ross, and I’m guessing even more so in book 3.

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ladythana's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious fast-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

5.0

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archcon's review

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adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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