A Restless Truth (The Last Binding, Book 2)

A Restless Truth (The Last Binding, Book 2)
Freya Marske, 2022

Premise: Sequel to A Marvellous Light. Maud is sailing back home to Britain, escorting an elderly relation and her parrot across the ocean. Only she's not really a relation, and she's hoping Mrs. Navenby will help her brother and the small group allied with him to foil those who would find the pieces of the Last Contract and use them to steal power from all of Britain's magicians. Unfortunately, murderers and thieves are also on board the ship, and Maud's only hope of help might be a beautiful stranger.

First off, I adored the first book in this series. This one I liked quite a bit, but didn't quite love.

Were there more sex scenes in this one? It felt like it. They weren't bad scenes, but I like my adventure romances to be generally weighted slightly more toward the adventure.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy Maud and Violet's whirlwind relationship. They are both complex characters with understandable desires and hang-ups that spark against each other in just the right way that both their troubles and their joys are relatable. They are both constantly reacting against people who are not present who hurt them in the past, and they need to work through that to see their current situation for what it is and be able to love freely.

I think the action was a bit more farcical in this book. Suitable for a murder investigation on board a ship; all the characters sneaking in and out of various places, following suspicions and leads and gossip, etc. 

Again, I enjoyed reading this book, but I loved the first one so much that anything less than spectacular was bound to feel like a let down. I'm still looking forward to reading book 3 and seeing whether the author can stick the landing. 

4 Stars - A Very Good Book