Freya Marske begins the Last Binding series with a romantic, fascinating historical fantasy debut, A Marvellous Light. The book starts with an intense scene in which a magic-using government employee, Reggie, is tortured for information, an event that kicks off a race to find a magical contract that could change the world forever.
It's 1908, and Robin Blyth's first day at his government post in London is a bit of a disaster. As Reggie's replacement, he is expected to know about magic, but is instead "unbusheled" and is shocked to learn that there is a magical society operating unseen all around him. His colleague Edwin Courcey has little patience for Robin's ignorance and is eager to find Reggie and bring him back. When Robin is attacked in an alley that night by faceless men and cursed until he retrieves the contract for them, Edwin realizes that Reggie's disappearance is part of something much bigger and more sinister than he imagined.
Robin and Edwin's relationship builds slowly as they work together, their initial bad impressions melting away as friendship and then romantic attraction take hold. Marske's writing strikes the right balance, with lovely descriptions of the world she's built and the relationships between her large but not unwieldy cast of characters. For example, magic-users employ complicated hand gestures to work their spells, a process she likens to the game of cat's cradle: "Edwin pulled out his cradling string and built a spell that created a syrupy rainbow shimmer between his hands, like petroleum on puddles."
A murderous hedge maze, a game of booby-trapped boating, searing intimacy and a doozy of a final act make for a read that's in turn funny, romantic and anxiety-inducing. --Suzanne Krohn, editor, Love in Panels