smokedshelves's reviews
483 reviews

i... cannot believe i actually finished this book. this was the book i was always afraid to pick up. could it be maybe 200-300 pages shorter... yeah. but i do think it all had purpose. it built to the non-stop action and movement we see in the latter two thirds.

anyways, wow. apparently 800+ page epic fantasies are slowly becoming my thing? (but also give me like another 2 or 3 years before i'm ready to pick up the prequel).

thank you to harper 360, mills & boon, and netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

to paraphrase one of my favorite authors (hint hint the one blurbed on the us cover), this is pretty damn tender!!

genuinely, what more could you want than two soft men, who are oblivious to one another’s feelings. but who also refuse to admit to themselves that they deserve love and each other. no honestly, these two men are what kept me going through this story in it’s rough bits. i’m not a huge fan of lying for the plot, and while i do understand their motives. i think the fact that both of them were essentially forced to reveal their true identities (rather than choosing to) did dampen those reveal moments for me. but to see them essentially lie so that they can have that one more night with each other, it’s softens my stone heart a little.

while their romance is the truly the main driver of this medieval england set historical fiction, the pacing towards their happily ever after felt quite off. The spend a solid 40, maybe even 50% traveling in the woods, from one keep to another. that’s a damn long time for one: them not to communicate with each other about their identities! two: very little progression in actual the plot. and three: lots of repetitive scenes to occur. obviously, i understand that’s how it’s going to be in reality. but i think after the fifth day of “we rode in the snow. we spoke over the fire. we ‘shared warmth’ the stave off cold winter nights” it’s bound to lose you a bit. and it did for me.

now once events picked up, really at the 70% mark, it was much more easy to stay enjoyed. but wow, was it odd pacing even then. really, truly. i think a fair few scenes could’ve been cut and we’d genuinely have the same story

1. i could not get past elliott's narration. i love a fourth wall break, i do. it was just way too much. she was not funny to me. she was honestly already insufferable in the main narration, let alone the footnotes.

2. rose was like the WORST an RA can be (again, i come with the perspective as a former RA myself). smoking weed in the building -- illegal on a college campus in massachusetts that receives government funding, which i can assume emerson does. she should know better. telling another resident about someone's assault story. we are literally private resources. it does not matter what the involved parties say. it's not something you should be discussing except for responsible reporting. which, i will say im glad she did that. genuinely almost dating your resident??? absolutely not.

3. please for the love of god. stop saying tender chicken. it gave me the biggest fucking ick. (i wish i was kidding, i literally shuddered when she explained that her UNDERAGE SISTER coined the term. WHAT THE FUCK.)

i really thought i was going to give this two stars since it did have its okay moments. but idk... i really don't think i can do that given how many things frustrated me.

london, december 2021. on a trip, just before i went home to the states for the holidays i stop into a bookshop. because… of course i did. i picked up a flowery pink and purple book, one i’d not heard much about. a marvellous light by freya marske. and oh cool, it happens to be signed and rec’d by the staff of the store. i buy it.

now, i’d heard of it, given i try to keep up with newer queer releases (but nowhere near to the scale that i do now). i knew there was a magic system based off of cat’s cradle. i knew it was a historical fiction set mostly in london. i knew it was queer. and that’s about it. i brought that book with me across two transatlantic flights and read it about a month or so later.

i fell in love.

fast forward nearly two years later. a power unbound, the final book in my favorite series is releasing in a few months. a series that is forever engrained on my body via tattoo. an homage to a magic system so unique. a cast of characters so brilliant. a storyline so neatly constructed. it forms a present in a box with a bright red bow on top. if i could look back on myself, two years ago, searching that bookshop deciding what to purchase next. i’d give myself the biggest hug for choosing that pink and purple book. out of all the options. it truly opened a whole new world for me…

the last binding trilogy has seeped so deeply into my whole being. these characters have become a part of who i am now. from the moment robin and edwin’s first interactions to their last. this story has brought me so much warmth, so much community, all of us hoping for this cast of magicians and unbusheled to save the day.

a power unbound. we’ve had two books to prepare for jack and alan’s story. and i still don’t think i was truly ready for it after all. normally, when i write a review for a book it’s usually right after i finish it. i don’t have the best memory so i try to get my thoughts onto pages asap. with this, however, i’ve sat and wrote it bit by bit. here and there. slowly piecing together my thoughts.

and i do know this. their story will not leave me any time soon.

jack. a man so utterly shaped by the loss of his twin sister, about sixteen years prior to these events. a man who wants to turn his back on the magical community for all the harm they’ve done. a man who’s a bit burnt at the edges after trusting someone harmful in the past. he’s thrust back in to the magical world by an ex, his nonmagical boyfriend, and said boyfriends’ determined younger sister. we’ve seen him slowly open his heart back out (yes, romantically for alan in this book, but also generally) for new relationships in his life, platonic, familial. slowly uncovered over the course of the past two books. we see why he’s hesitant. we see why deep down he essentially always wants to do good by his sister. we first-handedly discover his motivations for why he “reluctantly” continues to help their schemes. we see him come to terms with changes to his magical identity. ones that he very clearly never allowed himself to process for all those years.

god, do we see it all. it’s perseverance (or sheer stubbornness, you decide) at it’s finest. and i absolutely adore that we were able to receive his story in this manner. not only with his personal growth, but with his relationship towards alan. yes, we had quite a fair few steamy (and kinky, of course) sex scenes. but we got to see them both break down their very high, very enforced walls for each other.

alan. our last addition to the core cast. we met him abroad the lyric in the second book. while we’d only see him in bits and pieces during that book, we see so much more of his character in the finale. we come to learn so much about his willpower, especially if it involves his family. he feels so much duty towards them and will genuinely do whatever needs to be done in order to keep them safe, housed, and fed. we see his mistakes, his secrets, and how he amends for it all. he’s cunning, sly, and so damn witty. he truly is the only one that can keep up with hawthorn’s remarks and i love it so much. it gives the two of them the absolute best banter you will ever read, in my opinion.

with these books, i always hang up on the characters, because i adore them all so much. their realness, their talents, their flaws. whatever. its the strength of these books. but since the story is done now, i have to say how this book wrapped up so many intricate details into 400ish pages. not only do we develop the hottest relationship of the books (you all know i’m right), but we close out all of their stories. they had to successfully solve the problem regarding the last contract. they had three estates between the lot to essentially account for. as well as a ton of other tiny details sprinkled throughout. and i think it was so delicately constructed to be able to accomplish all of that. all that while keeping the reader entertained and without letting the pacing drag. it truly shows the power of marske’s writing ability.

now, do i have hopes that with a few nudges and comments mentioned at the end that i feel like it could be set off for a sequel/companion series? i absolutely hope so. freya, i will be (not so) patiently awaiting the news.

[original review]

i’m going to need 3-5 business days to process my thoughts.

thank you to macmillan children’s publishing group, feiwel & friends, and netgalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

with each iteration of these remixed classic, my inner queer teen soul heals a bit more.

queer stories, let alone queer classics, were not really what they are today. it was sparing to see them published and awarded so highly as we can see nowadays. nothing beyond the subtext. my high school experience really truly isn’t all that long ago if you think about it. my freshman year was only 10 years ago. so seeing classics, such as romeo and juliet, ones i was forced to read in my english literature classes, be re-interpreted so openly and canonically queer. i have no other words than saying that it warms my soul.

and unlike many of the classics that were thrust upon us, i actually truly enjoyed the original r&j story. it’s easily one of my favorite types of retellings to pick up, and especially when they’re queer. like this one so fantastically was. of course, we have romeo and valentine (mercutio’s newly added brother to the tale). but additionally, we have juliet who i coded as so obviously aroace, and friar laurence, who also falls on the ace spectrum in some fashion. now, i was not expecting that to be so. and i was delightfully surprised to see our titular girl have this role. and the way she explains her identity, somewhat like a flame that is just unlit in her. wow. i genuinely feel like that was one of the best ways i think i’ve ever seen it explained in literature. of course, it was flourished and flowery, but this is a shakespeare retelling after all. the core of her explanation to romeo. incredible. and i cannot and do not to it justice in my paraphrasing.

not only do i hold it dear to my heart that roehrig made juliet aroace, is that like with every good r&j retelling, she received her agency back. unlike in the original story, we see juliet’s wit, her ability to think on her feet and make the most of a bad situation. she’s the one who took charge in the plan for during final act for romeo. she’s the one who was able to get their enemies to back down once and for all. she is an icon. and i strive to have a 10th of her intelligence.

and god, of course we have to talk about romeo and valentine. they were so damn gentle with one another. despite all the chaos and ruin happening around them, they still found away to love each other with a bright fire. their ability to be soft with one another, despite all their worries and all the problems facing them. they have a love like no other. and as a wise man says in the story. this is a happiness they deserve. a happiness they would not have received in their original classic. and that’s what makes me absolutely adore this retelling series. it gives our characters, queer characters, the happy ending they deserve. it shows a queer reader that this is something they can have. something they deserve to have.

i stand by what some others are saying. kit is definitely aspec and i truly love that for him.