Freya Marske writes queer romantic fantasy from Canberra — magic, mystery and a fair amount of on-page heat, told with the patience of someone who knows a slow burn is worth the wait. Her debut, A Marvellous Light, won the UK Romantic Novelists' Association's award for Fantasy Romantic Novel, and the year before she'd been named Best New Talent at Australia's national SF (Ditmar) Awards.
Her best-known books make up The Last Binding, an Edwardian trilogy where hidden magic runs quietly under the British establishment. Each instalment hands the central romance to a different couple while one larger plot threads through all three, so the reading order matters more than it first looks. Away from the trilogy she writes standalones, and co-hosts the Hugo-nominated podcast Be the Serpent.
If you're wondering where to start, it's the first of the trilogy — and happily, that's the one we keep on the shelf.
On our shelves
Edwardian MagicSlow Burn
A Marvellous Light
A sunny, ordinary civil servant inherits a cursed government post and a frosty magician colleague, and together they untangle a murder while a hedge maze tries to kill them. It's Edwardian England with hidden magic, a properly slow-burning romance, and country houses full of secrets. Read it when you want banter, longing, and a touch of menace.
Where to start
Start with A Marvellous Light (2021) — her debut, the opening of The Last Binding, and the title we stock. It lays out everything she does well: a sunny, out-of-his-depth civil servant, a frosty magician, an inherited curse, and a romance that takes the long way round. Read the trilogy in order from there.
Freya Marske’s books
Civil servant Robin Blyth inherits an unwanted post and a magical curse, then falls for the icy magician Edwin Courcey while unpicking a conspiracy. The first Last Binding book, and the natural front door to everything else.
On our shelves →
The second Last Binding book trades country houses for a transatlantic ocean liner: a sapphic locked-room mystery in which Maud Blyth investigates a death and tangles with the mysterious Violet Debenham. Read it after A Marvellous Light.
The enemies-to-lovers finale, with journalist Alan Ross and aristocratic Lord Hawthorn, as the conspiracy over Britain's magical contract comes to a head. The trilogy's closing book.
A standalone set in a world where deals are settled by duels: Mattinesh Jay, heir to a struggling family business, hires the swordsman Luca Piezni as best man for an arranged marriage. No series homework required.
A gothic queer Cinderella told in miniature — Ella, murdered at sixteen, lingers as a ghost bound to her family's house, seen only by the cruel stepmother and stepsisters who wronged her. Shortlisted for the 2026 Hugo Award for Best Novella.
Her forthcoming turn towards dark academia, due September 2026: an exam cohort at a magical healers' academy finds a classmate dead, and every one of them is hiding something. Pitched as Grey's Anatomy meets A Deadly Education — sharper-edged than cosy.
Good questions
In publication order: A Marvellous Light (2021), then A Restless Truth (2022), then A Power Unbound (2023). It's one overarching plot with a different central couple in each book, so the order genuinely matters.
It opens The Last Binding trilogy. The romance at its heart resolves on its own, but the wider conspiracy carries on through all three books, so you'll likely want to continue.
Yes — they're queer romantic fantasy, with a different LGBTQ couple at the centre of each Last Binding book. They're known for blending magic and mystery with on-page heat, so expect proper grown-up romance alongside the slow-burn longing.
No. Cinder House is a standalone gothic novella — a queer Cinderella retelling — with no link to the trilogy. It was shortlisted for the 2026 Hugo Award for Best Novella.
It's a dark-academia fantasy set at a magical healers' academy, where an exam cohort finds a classmate dead and everyone has something to hide. It's due September 2026, pitched as Grey's Anatomy meets A Deadly Education.
Once you've finished the trilogy, her standalones — Swordcrossed and Cinder House — scratch the same itch. Beyond her, browse our cosy-fantasy shelves for the same queer warmth and unhurried, slow-burn romance.
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