A Marvellous Light
(The Last Binding #1)
Freya Marske
Release: November 2, 2021
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Red White & Royal Blue meets Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell in debut author Freya Marske’s A Marvellous Light, featuring an Edwardian England full of magic, contracts, and conspiracies.
Robin Blyth has more than enough bother in his life. He’s struggling to be a good older brother, a responsible employer, and the harried baronet of a seat gutted by his late parents’ excesses. When an administrative mistake sees him named the civil service liaison to a hidden magical society, he discovers what’s been operating beneath the unextraordinary reality he’s always known.
Now Robin must contend with the beauty and danger of magic, an excruciating deadly curse, and the alarming visions of the future that come with it—not to mention Edwin Courcey, his cold and prickly counterpart in the magical bureaucracy, who clearly wishes Robin were anyone and anywhere else.
Robin’s predecessor has disappeared, and the mystery of what happened to him reveals unsettling truths about the very oldest stories they’ve been told about the land they live on and what binds it. Thrown together and facing unexpected dangers, Robin and Edwin discover a plot that threatens every magician in the British Isles—and a secret that more than one person has already died to keep.
Review:
Do you ever read a book and love it so much but can't explain why in words? That is me with A Marvellous Light. I finished it back in February and I have been trying to write a review that is not just me yelling at you to go read this book ASAP! And honestly, stop reading this review right now and go get a copy of this book for yourself.
One of the reasons I adored this is because it made my nostalgic for all the fantasy-of-manners books Teen Me was obsessed with. This book is the queer version of that genre college me wanted so very much! Even better is that it is the first in a trilogy! This series starter is set in Edwardian England and is about a down-on-their-luck, non-magical person discovering that the upper crust noble families of England are secretly magicians and that magic is very much real when a clerical error puts him in position in a government office where his job is to be the civil service liaison to this magical secret society.
I came for the queer romance but the world building, intrigue, and magic system of this book was so exquisitely done that I stayed to see what was going to happen next! Well, and the magical house. The romance was everything though! I love me a good sunshine/grump romance and this book delivered! Robin had my heart within the first chapter and Edwin wasn't too far behind him! This was the historical romance himbo/librarian pairing I didn't know I needed in my life and they seriously needed each other. I am so damn glad that we will be getting more books in this world!
The next book has Robin's sister, Maud, as the main character and it is taking place on a ship! I cannot wait to read it in all of its sapphic glory! And hopefully we'll see more of Robin and Edwin as well.
A Matter of Magic by Patricia C. Wrede
The Page & Sommers Series by Cat Sebastian
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