Now in hardcover, the twelfth installment of the Hugo-nominated, New York Times-bestselling Toby Daye urban fantasy series!Things are not okay.In the aftermath of Amandine’s latest betrayal, October “Toby” Daye’s fragile self-made family is on the verge of coming apart at the seams. Jazz can’t sleep, Sylvester doesn’t want to see her, and worst of all, Tybalt has withdrawn from her entirely, … withdrawn from her entirely, retreating into the Court of Cats as he tries to recover from his abduction. Toby is floundering, unable to help the people she loves most heal. She needs a distraction. She needs a quest.
What she doesn’t need is the abduction of her estranged human daughter, Gillian. What she doesn’t need is to be accused of kidnapping her own child by her ex-boyfriend and his new wife, who seems to be harboring secrets of her own. There’s no question of whether she’ll take the case. The only question is whether she’s emotionally prepared to survive it.
Signs of Faerie’s involvement are everywhere, and it’s going to take all Toby’s nerve and all her allies to get her through this web of old secrets, older hatreds, and new deceits. If she can’t find Gillian before time runs out, her own child will pay the price.
Two questions remain: Who in Faerie remembered Gillian existed? And what do they stand to gain?
No matter how this ends, Toby’s life will never be the same.
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October ‘Toby’ Daye’s fragile self-made family is on the verge of coming apart at the seams and Toby is floundering unable to help the people she loves the most heal. She needs a distraction, but what she doesn’t need is the abduction of her estranged human daughter, Gillian. There’s no question of whether she’ll take the case, the only question is whether she’s emotionally prepared to survive it. With signs of Faerie’s involvement, it’s going to take all Toby’s nerve and all her allies to get her through the web of old secrets, older hatreds and new deceits because if she doesn’t find Gillian before time runs out, her daughter will the pay the price.
This ‘October Daye’ story is engaging with non-stop excitement that has readers bouncing in their seats barely able to contain their delight as the suspense builds. Toby and Tybalt’s romance has hit a road block due to past events and this has readers wondering if their relationship will survive this latest trouble. Meanwhile, other characters are also at stumbling blocks which adds to the emotions that flow from the pages, so readers experience a whole range of feelings throughout this story.
This story is fast paced with lots of twisty turns that keep readers guessing as to who the bad guys are this time right along with Toby and some stunning twists that has readers and characters’ jaws dropping in stunned amazement. This series is full of fascinating characters in an intriguing world with lots of wonderful elements which means that readers want to return time and again to see what else can be discovered and this installment of the urban fantasy series is quite the discovery.
As always, the October Daye series is full of drama, hijinks and heartbreak. McGuire does a fantastic job bringing the reader up to speed on the important bits of history so they can dive into the current storyline.
Wonderful relationships between the characters–this kept me up way past my bedtime!
Allow me to preface this with saying I don’t read any other series by Seanan McGuire so I can’t say whether her energy and love for the characters and storyline are being directed elsewhere or not. That is always a possibility. I will click that I recommend it only because it is necessary to keep the timeline in place for the series.
This series used to be one of my very favorites, so having to give it less than a 5 star rating is anathema to me. Yet, here I am, giving this book a 3 star rating. Feels like a very sad change to me, and a very disappointing one.
I love the characters. Always have. Toby is a great heroine, funny, clumsy, big-hearted, and as sarcastic as they come. This hasn’t really changed. She’s still a great heroine Yet now you decided to remove the strength from one of the other main characters that shouldn’t ever be seen as weak. Why? To prove men can feel helpless too? What’s the point? These aren’t “men” per se since they aren’t human. We wouldn’t expect human responses I found myself more angry at what direction was given to Tybalt than anything else about this book. I’d love to be able to just feel bad for him, worry for him, wish he could find some peace, but I couldn’t, because it didn’t read true. At all. This wouldn’t have happened to the King of the Cait Sidhe. It just wouldn’t. Maybe to a man, a military man, a policeman, any type of alpha human male. But that doesn’t happen to the Fae. It attaches human psychology to non human beings. It seemed intent on making me feel less of a character that I loved most in the series. Why? I just don’t understand the purpose of creating a weak King out of an extremely strong bedrock for Toby whenever she needed that strength. Just doesn’t read true.
Now, yes, the Fae are imaginary so I guess artistic license needs to be allowed. So while I agree that the author should be able to apply anything to the characters that they want, it needs to be believable. This just isn’t. So instead of inspiring the pity and worry and sympathy it was meant to, it just made me angry. It was an unnecessary turn to take, it didn’t read true, and it just gave an unnecessary twist to Toby’s emotions throughout the book.
The storylines are also losing their oomph, for lack of a better word. Bringing her daughter into it again just seemed lame. Like the author is running out of ideas on adventures for the group. Yes, it gave her daughter’s life a backdrop to refer to when she is mentioned, but her daughter was a brat that just angered me rather than inspire any sympathy for her. That was probably intentional, as she was played as the brat pretty clearly so in that context I guess it worked. I did like some of the new protagonists, but even they wimped out in the end. Yes, I want Toby to win, but because she thoroughly decimates them, not because they are suddenly good, just tortured into being bad, or because they don’t have the strength of character to continue being evil The storyline just took a lame turn, and on the heels of another not so great book, The Brightest Fell, it made me wonder if this is a series I want to continue.
To recap, we have a hero of the group that after only a few days in the hands of the evil Firstborm, Toby’s mother, is suddenly incapacitated with fear and can’t even change into his other most natural form for his species. Our heroine has a bratty daughter that seems to attract trouble, but is exhibiting such juvenile behavior that we can’t even empathize with her because all we want to do is smack her for her big mouth. Our heroine herself keeps showing a distinct disregard for those who worry about her by doing things that keep getting her hurt to extremes, which is fine since it’s part of her character’s personality, but honestly is getting a little old. I mean, how many times can a person almost die, get saved, and almost die again. Come back covered in blood and freak everyone out, then go out and do it again? The only people left to relate to are the secondary characters like her knight in training, her fetch and her aunt, the strongest character in the book as far as Fae capabilities go as well as her control over the other members of the Fae that she interacts with.
If I were the author, I’d take a badly needed break from the October Daye series and regroup. Get back to the characters and storylines that follow the developed character personalities and the world created from day one. Rethink where she wants to go with it. And not rush to have a new book to publish. Rather take your time and make it believable and consistent so we can go back to loving the series as it used to be loved.
I’m sure this is harsh, and for that I apologize. I don’t want to hurt any feelings. I just want to go back to being able to read these books and love them, and feel everything they are feeling without losing focus because it isn’t ringing true. The excellence is missing and I for one would prefer we get back to that even if it means waiting a long time until the next one.
Please, Seanan McGuire, sit back, take stock, and go back to where this series used to be; a wonderful, funny, tear-jerking, captivating and ultimately lovable series that I would wait for with bated breath. As it is now? I look at the price and have to think about whether I want to spend the premium price. To me, that’s just a very sad decline of a wonderful series. I’d almost rather see it end than have it fizzle out.
We only get one of these books about once a year, and I’m always worried about several things: I won’t remember what’s going on in the story, the book will be terrible, the series will go off the rails, or the author won’t do a good job. I am so happy to report none of these things happened. The one thing I am most worried about, that I won’t remember what’s going on, is definitely taken care of as the author did a great job in filling the reader in as we go along. As such, I was immersed in the story in no time at all, but I must confess that also probably has something to do with the author’s tremendous writing talent. This far in the series, I can’t really say much as I don’t want to spoil anything, but Toby and Tybalt are still very much dealing with the fallout from the previous book, Toby’s daughter is kidnapped but for very interesting reasons (which we don’t find out until the end), and at the end, things are forever changed. If you are a fan of this series, this is a wonderful, wonderful addition!! And, you must read the novella at the end because certain events are shown from another character’s point of view which is very important. If you haven’t read this series before, you must start from the beginning, and it is worth every page! One of my favorite series!! Highly recommend! I was provided the e-book which I voluntarily reviewed.
The October Daye series is a very interesting and enjoyable read. Very neat viewpoint of the Fae.