William Iris struggles to keep the throne of Londinium whilst hated by his own court and beset by outsiders, while Cathy discovers the legacy of her former governess. But those who dare to speak out about Society are always silenced. Sometimes for good.

While trying to avoid further torments from the mercurial fae, Sam finds himself getting tangled in the affairs of the Elemental Court. But an unexpected offer from the powerful and enigmatic Lord Iron turns out to be far more than Sam bargained for.

Max and the gargoyle are getting closer to uncovering who is behind the murder of the Bath Chapter and the corruption in London and Max finds the gargoyle’s controversial ideas harder to ignore. Can he stay true to his sworn duty without being destroyed by his own master, whose insanity threatens to unravel them all?

Today is week one of our readalong of book #3 of Emma Newman’s Split Worlds series, All is Fair.  The schedule is below, all welcome and please be aware of potential spoilers lurking below.

We get to visit the Agency in more depth than before here. What are your thoughts/predictions on their shady goings-on after what we’ve been shown?

To be perfectly honest I’m not really sure that I understand enough of what we saw during this visit to really answer.  I always thought the Agency were dodgy and manipulative but it feels like they’re a much bigger player than I ever imagined and certainly powerful.

Will finally realises he may have made certain mistakes with all his assumptions… Do you think he’ll step up and correct them, or is it too late for him?

I really do wonder about Will.  He has this ability to be really quite charming but it feels like a very thin veneer.  Every time I give him a chance it then feels like something happens to reveal something in him which makes me hesitate about whether or not he can really make amends.  I’d like to think that maybe he will find out truly what has been happening and try to change – the alternative is that he just continues to make a monumental mess of everything!  I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he can change – but I feel I’m going to be wrong!

“It’s nice not being called ‘puppet’ all the time.” Max and Cathy seem to be coming to a better understanding of each other and their situations. Max also seems to be coming around more to the gargoyle’s (more emotional) point of view. What do you make of their scenes here, and do you think he and Cathy can become true allies from here?

I’m not sure even now that Cathy and Max can truly become allies.  It does seem that Max has had his perceptions changed a little – which is also being reflected in that he is now starting to understand that the Gargoyle’s feelings are really his feelings!  That was quite revealing for him really and showed that he’s finally starting to pay attention and take some initiative.  Kind of ironic that he calls Cathy a ‘puppet’ because in some respects that’s the way he acted himself just with a different person pulling his strings.

Things take an interesting turn for Sam with Lord Iron, following Leanne’s funeral. Do you have any new thoughts about might be going on here after the discussion they have at Lord Iron’s house?

This is a very odd situation.  I don’t trust Lord Iron at all and in fact now feel almost sorry for Neugent!  In one horrible sense I wonder if Lord Iron feeds off the couple that wear his rings in some way.  He is obviously still very young looking?  I have this almost crazy theory that maybe Lord Iron traps couples with his rings somehow – they bind couples in some way – Neugent then slowly works on pulling the relationship apart.  Now that Leanne has gone it feels like stage 2 of the process is to work on Sam.  I can’t help wondering if Neugent was previously one half of one such couple – and maybe Sam will be all set to replace him.  Then Lord Iron will need another couple to be found?  It’s a bit chaotic and crazy a theory at the moment but I’m working on it!