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A review by jays_fairytales
A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske
adventurous
emotional
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
4.5
This book contains a lot of elements wrapped together that I really enjoy - romance, mystery, and magic.
I knew very little about the book going in. I picked it up because the summary intreguied me and nothing else. I was surprised to find it set in Edwardian England, I was surprised to be plopped into this magical world with a strange, new magical system, and I was surprised at the simile heavy prose that’s usually not present in novels with premises like this. But, after trudging through the slow first quarter of the book as Maske set up the world and the mystery, I came to love it.
I loved the main characters and the romance. Although their relationship unfolded much quicker than expected, I was pleasantly surprised by how much depth each character had and how natural their romance felt. They have the kind of chemistry that I love in novels like these and they just brought out the best in each other.
The world building was great. It’s not often that you see authors introduce new magical systems but I am always so pleasantly surprised when they do. And by weaving the mystery into the fabric of the magical society itself, my love for good world building was constatnly propelled along as the mystery unfolded.
It’s hard to rate the book on it’s own as I felt some of the secondary characters were one dimensional and many aspects of the magical systems were not well fleshed out. But this is a trilogy and I trust Marske will reveal them in time.
Warnings for graphic sex scenes and period typical homophobia and mysogyny.
I knew very little about the book going in. I picked it up because the summary intreguied me and nothing else. I was surprised to find it set in Edwardian England, I was surprised to be plopped into this magical world with a strange, new magical system, and I was surprised at the simile heavy prose that’s usually not present in novels with premises like this. But, after trudging through the slow first quarter of the book as Maske set up the world and the mystery, I came to love it.
I loved the main characters and the romance. Although their relationship unfolded much quicker than expected, I was pleasantly surprised by how much depth each character had and how natural their romance felt. They have the kind of chemistry that I love in novels like these and they just brought out the best in each other.
The world building was great. It’s not often that you see authors introduce new magical systems but I am always so pleasantly surprised when they do. And by weaving the mystery into the fabric of the magical society itself, my love for good world building was constatnly propelled along as the mystery unfolded.
It’s hard to rate the book on it’s own as I felt some of the secondary characters were one dimensional and many aspects of the magical systems were not well fleshed out. But this is a trilogy and I trust Marske will reveal them in time.
Warnings for graphic sex scenes and period typical homophobia and mysogyny.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Misogyny and Homophobia