A Restless Truth

Doing what she can to help her brother unravel a mystery Maud Blyth becomes a campanion to and older woman who turns out to be more than she expected. When her compnion ends up dead on their cruise from America to Britain Maud has a limited time to solve the mystery. She’s joined by an eclectic group of companions with their own secrets and connections, includeing the alluring Violet Debenham, who’s like anyone she’s ever met before.

I do want to preface my review with a piece of information I struggled a bit to find before reading. A Restless Truth is the second book of a trilogy. Full disclosure: I did not read the first one. From what I gather, the first book, A Marvelous Light, focuses on Maud’s brother and his budding romance with Maud as a supporting character. I do think reading the first book would have given me a bit more knowledge of the overall plot that seems to span the series, but I do not feel like it was necessary in order to enjoy this book. It does a good job of filling in blanks and providing the information I needed to follow along.

This was a fantastic book. The characters are what really made this experience enjoyable. I loved Maud and Violet. The budding romance was sweet, and the tension was written so well. A lot of this book covers Maud really discovering who she isand the author did a great job of making us really sympathize with her struggles in that regard. The rest of the supporting characters also had personalities that complemented the group, adding just enough friction to keep the plot amusing and force everyone to adapt to situations outside their norm.

Beyond the characters, I did find the plot to be super interesting as well. As stated previously, I went into this book blind, so there was a bit of confusion at first. But the author makes it really easy to get up to speed. There is a fascinating magic system that includes secret societies. The twists and turns in the plot were exciting, and it was fun discovering the connections and secrets along the way. In addition to the overarching narrative of magic and murder, the more personal plot between Maud and Violet was equally exciting. The tension was built well, and the ebb and flow of where the relationship, or lack thereof, is going kept me hooked.

This was a great historical fantasy with just the right amount of romance, intrigue, and humor.

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