A Power Unbound (The Last Binding, #3)
Freya Marske
A Power Unbound is the final entry in Freya Marske’s beloved, award-winning Last Binding trilogy, the queer historical fantasy series that began with A Marvellous Light. Secrets! Magic! Enemies to. . .something more? Jack Alston, Lord Hawthorn, would love a nice, safe, comfortable life. After the death of his twin sister, he thought he was done with magic for good. But with the threat of a dangerous ritual hanging over every magician in Britain, he’s drawn reluctantly back into that world. Now Jack is living in a bizarre puzzle-box of a magical London townhouse, helping an unlikely group of friends track down the final piece of the Last Contract before their enemies can do the same. And to make matters worse, they need the help of writer and thief Alan Ross. Cagey and argumentative, Alan is only in this for the money. The aristocratic Lord Hawthorn, with all his unearned power, is everything that Alan hates. And unfortunately, Alan happens to be everything that Jack wants in one gorgeous, infuriating package. When a plot to seize unimaginable power comes to a head at Cheetham Hall―Jack’s ancestral family estate, a land so old and bound in oaths that it’s grown a personality as prickly as its owner―Jack, Alan and their allies will become entangled in a night of champagne, secrets, and bloody sacrifice . . . and the foundations of magic in Britain will be torn up by the roots before the end.
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Felt slow to read but the plot really caught my interest in the 2nd half. Absolutely better than the 2nd book
0A Power Unbound had so much to live up to — A Marvellous Light is one of my all-time favorite books, and A Restless Truth was a truly worthy successor. Not only that, but A Power Unbound had a tremendous amount of heavy lifting to do in terms of finishing off a complex, intricate plot, carefully set up in books 1 and 2. It also had to navigate the challenging prospect of being the third romance in a series, meaning the previous two couples had to be present, engaged in the conflict, but without their relationships being the focus — not something many authors can navigate with ease.
And yet Freya Marske has pulled it all together beautifully. The writing is superb, the plot is satisfying, and the relationships are delicious. The cast in this book is much larger than in the previous two installments, but Marske handles it gracefully and elegantly, letting us get glimpses not just into how the previous duos are handling coupled life, but what other interesting relationships ship dynamics are at play as well (Violet and Edwin’s tension is agonizing). The romance itself is absolutely sizzling, the spiciest this series has gotten so far (which is certainly saying something!). Marske blends plot progression and relationship development seamlessly — and altogether beautiful finale for a, dare I say it, marvellous trilogy.
Thank you to tordotcom for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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