Review: A Restless Truth

 

Big time second book vibes here – this book is working really hard to do the heavy lifting of the trilogy’s plot and world-building. It takes place a year after the first book, with a bit of a surprising twist: Robin’s sister, Maud, is on an ocean liner accompanying an elderly woman who knows where part of the Last Contract is. Except the elderly woman immediately dies, leaving Maud to try to solve the murder and avoid becoming the next target. Luckily, she has Robin’s records of his visions to help her, which lead her to Lord Hawthorne and, somewhat accidentally, the beautiful but guarded heiress Violet. Mayhem ensues, with quite a lot of action crammed into one book. 

It was really good, don’t get me wrong – I cannot express how much I adored Maud and Hawthorne’s sibling-ish relationship, and the whole thing was delightfully chaotic. But because it was so plot-heavy, it felt a bit like the relationship got sidelined. I mean, we don’t find out what Violet’s backstory is until the last few pages of the book, and it isn’t even something she tells Maud, she just thinks about it. To me it felt a lot like Maud was exploring her sexuality and Violet thought Maud was cute and attractive (which is how it started) and the relationship never exactly progressed beyond that point. I actually struggled to imagine, by the end of the book, that the relationship would last a substantial amount of time. (Note: at the time of writing this review I have read the next book, and I do feel that their relationship developed somewhat further in that one.) 

Again, it wasn’t bad at all, it’s just that in contrast to the absolutely phenomenal love story in the last book, this one was a bit of a letdown. Also, it felt like some of the magical elements, particularly those involving American magic, just kind of got thrown in without really ever getting explained. But again, these are not as big of complaints as this review is making them seem; I really, really enjoyed this story, it just didn’t have that something extra I expected.

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