A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

RomanceFantasyHistorical

Feb 24

Written By taylor shepeard

Title: A Marvellous Light

Author: Freya Marske

Publication Date: October 26, 2021

Audience: Adult

Genre: Fantasy

Sub-Genre: Historical Fiction / Romance

POV: Dual

Series: Trilogy

Format: Audiobook

—Narrator(s): David Thorpe

4.5 ⭐ | 2🌶️

Pros:

✨Authentic Romance

✨Queer Representation

✨Character Development and Relationships

✨Interwoven Plots / Pacing

✨Magic System / Setting

Cons:

✨Predictable Mystery

Synopsis

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 liasion . . .

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.

*Blurb taken from The StoryGraph

Review

This review may contain spoilers.

I enjoyed this so much more than I thought I would! It was a random addition to my TBR thanks to it popping up on my socials nonstop, and now I’m about to power through the whole trilogy! Everything about this novel worked for me, from the romance to the magic system to the writing style to the mystery. Marske does an excellent job of weaving a multifaceted plot into a seamless storyline, and by the end, every part of this held an important piece of information that wrapped up the first book and launched us into the second. The cast is distinct, and our two protagonists, Edwin and Robin, slot together well.

Robin is a idealistic optimist who approaches every obstacle with enthusiasm, while Edwin is a pessimistic pragmatist who analyzes each variable to find the surest path to success. This balance came through in their blossoming romance as well. The magic system here is intriguing and unique, though not overly complex, and I enjoyed that combination. It was easy to slip into this setting, especially thanks to the flow of Marske’s writing style.

I’ll probably devour the rest of this trilogy in the coming days, and I can’t wait!