freya marske – A Cat, A Book, and A Cup of Tea

But Asha, I hear you say… didn’t you already review A Marvellous Light a while back? Yes, indeed I did – but I couldn’t resist another opportunity to shout about this fantastic book. As we’ve been coming to the end of the year, I’ve been reflecting on my favourite books I’ve read and although I normally can’t bring myself to narrow it down further than my top 20 reads, I think this is absolutely going to be in the top 5, if not the actual top spot.

Here’s the blurb:

Red White & Royal Blue meets Jonathan Strange and 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.

For more detail, you should check out my existing review: key lines include “Ugh, I just loved everything about this book”, and I toss around adjectives like “masterful” and “delightful” like confetti. It got ten out of five cats, for goodness’ sake!

And if you’ve already read this fantastic book – come and yell with me about the best bits!