Susan’s Book Blog

This is basically part 2 of a previous post, Magic & Nature in A Marvellous Light , found here . (It is copied in its entirety and pasted below, as well.) This update/continuation includes content and information from the sequel, A Restless Truth.  The magic system in A Restless Truth carries on in the tradition we see established in A Marvellous Light of being closely associated with nature. You can see several examples from AML in the post below.  But right from the beginning of ART, I noticed the casual usage of flower names; I noted and highlighted 4 instances of flowers being mentioned in the first chapter alone. And then of course we have the characters of Violet and Hawthorn who themselves are plant/flower names. (And if you remember Flora Sutton from the first book, her first name means flowers.) A major aspect of the plot of ART is about a group of women who called themselves the Forsythia Club, after the yellow flowering spring shrub. Of course, the purpose of...

  A Restless Truth (The Last Binding, book 2) by Freya Marske Pub: Nov 1, 2022 // 3.5 stars out of 5 // tl;dr - I struggled to finish this. I needed it to be about 30% shorter. I think I just need to admit mysteries are not my genre. I found it a little tedious. But the characters are fantastic and Marske expanded on the magic mythology she began in the previous book and it was brilliant! My attention span just wasn’t totally up for this one.   Full review: The characters in this book were so great. Hawthorn and Violet both turned out to be a real highlight of the book for me. Lord Hawthorn really surprised me - I wasn’t expecting to like him! He’s the biggest grump ever to grump, he’s hilariously deadpan, feigns disinterest, and is, against his better judgment, caring (even though he’d never admit it). I enjoyed his character so much. And Violet is progressive, independent, ahead of her time and willing to push people’s buttons. She proudly refuses to be shamed or guilted fo...