Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Murder mystery romance magic ON A BOAT.

A Restless Truth (The Last Binding, #2) by Freya Marske

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I am really enjoying this series. It has so many things that I love: Lonely people falling in love, hijinks, magic, secrets, murder mysteries, an overarching plot that advances while leaving each book to be satisfying on their own, a fun Georgian England setting, queer representation in a historical time period, cheeky humor (there is a runner in here about pornography), benign and helpful ghosts, and I could keep going but that would be a bit much. And this one’s set on a boat! I […]

Murder, Magic, Mystery, and Maud’s f*ck lessons

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske

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Murder on a trans-oceanic voyage? Magic probably involved? Somewhat sheltered aristocratic girl and a an actress teaming up (in more ways than one)? Sounds like a fine Galentine’s read to me. I have to admit, I liked the first volume of this series, but didn’t totally love it. I almost liked this one better; strange as it sounds, it’s almost more realistic, in spite of the ghosts and magic that crop up off and on the entire time. I think the predetermined timeframe of there’s […]

It’s rather a lot to tell. But I suppose I should start with the parrot.

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske

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CBR15PASSPORT (Stamp #4: Books from different countries. Do international waters count? If not, written by an Australian.) This is the second book of the Last Binding Series. If you haven’t read it yet, by all means read the first in the series that I reviewed here: A Marvellous Light. It’s a surprisingly fresh take on the well-worn “magic is real” carpet set in the early 1900s. Spoilers abound if you haven’t read the first book. In the aftermath of Robyn and Edwin’s discovery that snobby magical aristocrats are conspiring […]

Maiden voyages

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske

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For my maiden voyage in Cannonball Reads, it is a happy coincidence that my first review is for A Restless Truth by Freya Marske which is a book about a maiden on a voyage both literal and metaphoric. This is the second book in a series about an alternate Edwardian England that involves magicians, a murder mystery, and queer romance. Which is to say, entirely my cup of tea. The first book, A Marvellous Light which I also thoroughly enjoyed, centers on the adventures of Robin and Edwin. This […]

again, perhaps not quite as enjoyable as the first outing but things are set up very well for the finale

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske

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I have to say midway through I wasn’t liking this as much as I liked the previous installment. Something about the timeline, probably, because I’m always of the notion that characters should fall in love over an extended period of time instead of something artificial like a week. There’s also a lot of exposition and context in this one, to get us from the barest outlines of a conspiracy to a full blown catastrophe. The main point isn’t that complicated–Maud, Robin’s brother, has been sent […]

“He was one barely powered magician with nothing but a tendency to let books replace people in his life.”

A Marvellous Light (The Last Binding, #1) by Freya Marske

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This is, what, like, the tenth book this year I have not wanted to review because I liked it too much? I hate that. Plus also I read it almost two months ago so the details of what I wanted to say about it have escaped me. Mostly, I really, really liked it! This book takes place in a world where there is a magical secret society hidden in plain sight, and one of our main characters, Robin Blyth, is accidentally assigned to a magical […]



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