Monday, November 13, 2023

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

A Marvellous Light
My Rating: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

It's England 1908 and young baronet Robin Blyth has just found himself appointed to a position in the Office of Special Domestic Affairs and Complaints, a job for which he's severely under-qualified. He didn't even know magic existed before today when now he's expected to "manage" it as well. Hmm... as if that wasn't bad wasn't enough, he's also just been inflicted with a curse by a group of mysterious men with fog for faces. Apparently they're looking for something they were unable to retrieve from his missing predecessor. Hopefully his new "special liaison" Edwin Courcey can help him make heads and tails out of all this!

A magical quest, a bit of mystery, and a touch more spice than I usually care for in my fantasy reads. That said, I still found the story engaging enough, and the character building of both Robin and Edwin was like slowly unwrapping layers. While I didn't expect all the steamy sex scenes as I'm generally not a big fan of the romance or erotica genre, at least it felt as if it was adding to the story—each of them opening up a bit more and shedding additional light on their character with each encounter—as opposed to just being there as a prop for sexy's sake.

Unfortunately, most of the other characters outside of Robin and Edwin fell a little flat. Hopefully, they'll be fleshed out more fully in later books, especially the Morrissey sisters and Robin's sister Maud.

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