Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - A Restless Truth

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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cas13's review against another edition

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adventurous funny 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? No

5.0

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ccccamden's review against another edition

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lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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hannahrogers's review against another edition

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adventurous funny 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? Yes

4.75

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introverted_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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blewballoon's review against another edition

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mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I absolutely loved A Marvelous Light, so I was excited to read the next entry in this series. I was intrigued by the premise of a locked room murder mystery on board a Titanic style ship. It felt like more of the book was focused on the romance rather than the rest of the plot, and my experience suffered for it because I didn't like the romance aspect. Unfortunately, I wasn't a fan of either of the two leads or their relationship to each other. In the case of Violet, she was too much of a closed book to connect with. In the case of Maud, she said and did things that I found frustrating. The sex scenes felt more emotionally uncomfortable than steamy. I will still read the third book, but I hope it's more like the first book with a better balance of plot and romance and a romance that feels more natural and healthy. I listened to this on audiobook and the narrator did a good job, but I did listen to it at 1.3 speed.

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