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2022 Ditmar Award for Best Novel (nominee)
2022 Locus Award for Best First Novel (nominee)
2021 Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel (nominee)
An International Bestseller!
Winner of the 2022 Romantic Novel Award in Fantasy!
Locus Award Finalist!
An Indie Next pick and LibraryReads pick—with four starred reviews!
A Best of 2021 Pick for NPR | Amazon | Kobo | Barnes & Noble | Book Riot
Red, White & Royal Blue meets Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in debut author Freya Marske’s A Marvellous Light, featuring an Edwardian England full of magic, contracts, and conspiracies.
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 liaison 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.
The Last Binding Trilogy:
A Marvellous Light
A Restless Truth
A Power Unbound
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Genre: Fantasy
Winner of the 2022 Romantic Novel Award in Fantasy!
Locus Award Finalist!
An Indie Next pick and LibraryReads pick—with four starred reviews!
A Best of 2021 Pick for NPR | Amazon | Kobo | Barnes & Noble | Book Riot
Red, White & Royal Blue meets Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in debut author Freya Marske’s A Marvellous Light, featuring an Edwardian England full of magic, contracts, and conspiracies.
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 liaison 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.
The Last Binding Trilogy:
A Marvellous Light
A Restless Truth
A Power Unbound
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Genre: Fantasy
Praise for this book
"This romantic fantasy is full of fascinating world-building, layers upon layers of delicious magic, and characters I adored. I want to spend so much more time in this alternate England's enchanted libraries and sinister hedge mazes! The whole experience was a delight." - Stephanie Burgis
"Mystery! Magic! Murder! Long looks full of yearning! This book is a confection, both marvelous and light." - Alix E Harrow
"Equal parts fantasy, mystery and romance-with bonus murderous garden features-A Marvellous Light heralds a strong new voice in science fiction and fantasy." - Sam Hawke
"Freya Marske's A Marvellous Light is an absolute delight. I was caught from the very beginning by the compellingly realized characters, the gorgeous and deadly magical world, and the fascinating mystery. If you ever wished Downton Abbey was sharper-edged and full of magic, this is the book for you." - Kat Howard
"Freya Marske has done something special with A Marvellous Light. . . . The prose is sublime, the world-building top-notch, and the magic system is fascinating and unique. But what made me the happiest is how delightfully queer this story is. Robin and Edward have my whole heart, and I adored watching their relationship blossom. In the end, I can give no higher praise than this: I wish this world that Marske has created was real." - TJ Klune
"A charming, lovingly crafted adventure full of peril, romance and wit, illuminated by sparkling turns of phrase and a pervasive sense of humour." - A K Larkwood
"That sublime prose! Her astonishing gift for imagery! And, of course, her bountiful and endless talent for writing some extremely sexy scenes. A Marvellous Light is all that and more. Perfect." - Jenn Lyons
"A completely enchanting story that sweeps you into a world of art and romance. Marske is an extraordinary talent who writes compelling characters, entertainingly awful families, and love stories like nobody else." - Everina Maxwell
"A gripping story, told in precise and sensual language, with the kind of characters that make you want a spin-off book for even the ones you've barely met. Magic, romance, and mayhem in a beautifully decorated-and occasionally actively dangerous-Edwarian setting." - Malka Older
"A magical world of exquisite refinement, where peril skims beneath manners, interiors bespeak both faultless taste and deadly secrets, and the sexual tension crescendos until it literally makes sparks fly. A dazzling debut." - Shelley Parker-Chan
"Freya's prose is so splendid that merely reading it makes me feel like I've been filled to the brim with champagne bubbles. A Marvellous Light has everything you could ever want from a book-beautiful descriptions, expertly woven worldbuilding, queer kissing, sexual tension in a library, quite a lot of William Morris wallpaper. . . . This book is brilliant on every level. It is wondrous. It is, if you will excuse a small joke, marvellous." - Alexandra Rowland
"Romantic in the best way, funny, sharp, sexy, fantastical. Prepare to fall in love with the gorgeous Edwardian setting, the sizzling character dynamics, and the murderous enchanted hedge maze." - Emily Tesh
"Mystery! Magic! Murder! Long looks full of yearning! This book is a confection, both marvelous and light." - Alix E Harrow
"Equal parts fantasy, mystery and romance-with bonus murderous garden features-A Marvellous Light heralds a strong new voice in science fiction and fantasy." - Sam Hawke
"Freya Marske's A Marvellous Light is an absolute delight. I was caught from the very beginning by the compellingly realized characters, the gorgeous and deadly magical world, and the fascinating mystery. If you ever wished Downton Abbey was sharper-edged and full of magic, this is the book for you." - Kat Howard
"Freya Marske has done something special with A Marvellous Light. . . . The prose is sublime, the world-building top-notch, and the magic system is fascinating and unique. But what made me the happiest is how delightfully queer this story is. Robin and Edward have my whole heart, and I adored watching their relationship blossom. In the end, I can give no higher praise than this: I wish this world that Marske has created was real." - TJ Klune
"A charming, lovingly crafted adventure full of peril, romance and wit, illuminated by sparkling turns of phrase and a pervasive sense of humour." - A K Larkwood
"That sublime prose! Her astonishing gift for imagery! And, of course, her bountiful and endless talent for writing some extremely sexy scenes. A Marvellous Light is all that and more. Perfect." - Jenn Lyons
"A completely enchanting story that sweeps you into a world of art and romance. Marske is an extraordinary talent who writes compelling characters, entertainingly awful families, and love stories like nobody else." - Everina Maxwell
"A gripping story, told in precise and sensual language, with the kind of characters that make you want a spin-off book for even the ones you've barely met. Magic, romance, and mayhem in a beautifully decorated-and occasionally actively dangerous-Edwarian setting." - Malka Older
"A magical world of exquisite refinement, where peril skims beneath manners, interiors bespeak both faultless taste and deadly secrets, and the sexual tension crescendos until it literally makes sparks fly. A dazzling debut." - Shelley Parker-Chan
"Freya's prose is so splendid that merely reading it makes me feel like I've been filled to the brim with champagne bubbles. A Marvellous Light has everything you could ever want from a book-beautiful descriptions, expertly woven worldbuilding, queer kissing, sexual tension in a library, quite a lot of William Morris wallpaper. . . . This book is brilliant on every level. It is wondrous. It is, if you will excuse a small joke, marvellous." - Alexandra Rowland
"Romantic in the best way, funny, sharp, sexy, fantastical. Prepare to fall in love with the gorgeous Edwardian setting, the sizzling character dynamics, and the murderous enchanted hedge maze." - Emily Tesh
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