Very good and exciting. The ship based magical mystery I needed right now. I'll admit I was thoroughly confused at first about anything the referenced the first book. It'd been a long time since I'd read the first book and I couldn't remember a good chunk of it off the top of my head. After a while though, things started making sense and I had a lot of "oh yeah that happened" moments. I liked that at any given time I could be surprised by something new, but not in the same way that some mystery type books like to blindside you with the truth. Definitely worth it, and glad I finally got to read it. ( )

*3.5 stars*

A Restless Truth continues from where A Marvellous Light stopped, and I will advise anyone to read that first before starting this.

I adored Maud as a character. I loved her bravery in so many ways, the way she grew over 6 days was actually done quite masterfully and I do not mean just her sexual experience ( )

Knocked stars off for it being hard to get into (maybe it's been too long since I read the previous book). Once it got going, though, very fun and enjoyable! ( )

Like the first book in the series, A Marvellous Light, this has entirely TMI and, like the first book, I really don’t care because with all the world-building out of the way it has even more going for it. It’s set in the same alternative Edwardian England where magic is real but it takes place on an ocean liner where two factions of magicians are after the second piece of the Last Contract. This way we get both a 'sort of' closed-room mystery and a steamy shipboard romance. Now that there’s only one last piece of the Contract to find I’m impatiently waiting for book three. ( )

Originally posted on Just Geeking by.

Content warnings:
This book contains scenes of violence, blood, gore and death from the beginning including poisoning and kidnapping. There are scenes discussing abusive relationships, homophobia, misogyny and classism.

A Restless Truth didn’t just live up to its predecessor, it blew it out of the water. A Restless Truth is described as “Knives Out meets The Binding “, but personally I would describe it as “Death on The Nile/The Titanic but make it gay with magic”. It has the mysterious death and crime solving of Death on The Nile, minus the limited guest list which is where the similarity to The Titanic comes in. The ship that is the setting for most of the book is large with guests from all classes. Unlike The Titanic, the journey is from America to London rather than the other way and there is no catastrophic event. There is still plenty of danger though! And of course, there is romance, steamy romance…

A Restless Truth continues on from the events of the first book where Robin Blyth and Edwin Courcey found out about a magical conspiracy that affects the entire magical community. The Last Contract, a contract between the fey and the magicians of the British Isles which in the wrong hands threatens the entire British Isles. It was divided into several pieces by the women who found it, for safety. While the boys remain behind in London to handle things from that end, Robin’s sister Maud heads off to America to make contact with one of the women who has a piece of the contract in her possession, Elizabeth Navenby. Maud’s job is to let her know that their secret is out, and that everyone who has a piece is in great danger. It’s deemed safer for Maud to escort Mrs Navenby back to London to ensure that she and her piece of her contract remain safe.

Mrs Navenby is a wonderfully wily old woman who despite her age is determined not to be counted out just yet. She keeps her piece of The Last Contract on her, and refuses to disclose the identity of it to Maud. She will reveal its location when they arrive in London. That’s all well and good, but it becomes a problem when Mrs Navenby is assassinated by the opposition! Maud is trapped on a ship with a killer, no allies and no idea where the hidden piece may be. With only her brother’s visions to guide her, supplied before her mission and with zero context, Maud must use all her wits to stay one step ahead of the perpetrators.

A Marvellous Light was great, and while I expected good (and steamy) things from A Restless Truth, Marske took things to a whole other level with this book. I have to admit I wasn’t that interested in Maud as a character in the first book, but she came into her own in this one and that was entirely the point. At the start she’s a young woman who has never had the chance to do or experience anything. This is her first time being given the chance to experience life and by god does she grab that chance with everything she’s got! There is something so very endearing about her naivety and bashfulness, and the way she navigates through all the new things. Unlike other characters in similar situations that I can recall, Marske stops just short of preventing those endearing qualities from becoming irritating. Maud is just naive and shy enough to be genuine, for it to feel real, and then she begins to learn, to understand what she wants, and likes.

I am talking about the romance and sex scenes, as well as other life experiences. For those who have read A Marvellous Light, you’ll be familiar with Marske’s saucy scenes. Personally I would say that she turned it even further in this one, but I am a bi woman, so naturally this one was more my speed than book one. There are scenes where characters discuss pornography which are absolutely brilliant. They are both racy and comedic, and that is something Marske does so well; interlacing emotions so that one moment you’re feeling one thing and then the next line the tension completely shifts.

Baron Hawthorn, a character that appears in the previous book, is one of Maud’s allies on the ship or should I say, the poor sod that Maud masterly manipulates into helping her. Oh yes, as I said there is much more to our young Maud than what we saw in A Marvellous Light. He was an interesting figure in the first book, and in this one we get to see much more of him, learning more about him as a character. He is juxtaposed with another male character from a completely different background, and along with Violet, that makes the four comrades in arms who investigate Mrs Navenby’s murder. He doesn’t get on with the other man in the group, bickering constantly, but it’s one of those relationships that you’re sure is going to lead onto something else…

I loved the character of Violet for so many reasons. She’s independent, fearless and charismatic, and yet so vulnerable. It wasn’t difficult to see why Maud was impressed with her because I was impressed with her. Watching the two women work together to investigate the murder, and work out where Mrs Navenby hid her piece of the contract, all the while unsure of whether they could trust each other or anyone else on the ship was such a pleasure. I lapped up every single detail of the scenes, from the banter and high jinks to the investigating and the magic.

A Restless Truth was a massive hit for me, combining my favourite genres with incredible world-building and irresistible characters.

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