A Local Habitation (October Daye Series Book 2)

A Local Habitation is the second book in the October Daye series, and Toby has gone back to work as a P.I. Of course. Sylvester has a task for her. Go to Freemont and check on his niece who has stopped returning his calls. But when Toby arrives, the situation is much more alarming than anyone had imagined. It seems members of January’s team are coming up dead, murdered. But…the night haunts are not taking the bodies. Why? And since January’s daughter is probably the best “surveillance/security” anyone could ask for, could this even be an outside job? Or does a killer walk among them?

I loved the beginning of this novel, it shows Toby in a much less serious light. This novel definitely had it’s slow parts, but I do think it was a big improvement from the first, even though most of the book took place inside one knowe. I still have issues believing the character’s hype however, as from what we’ve been shown she is not the most efficient P.I. Sure, she’s compliant and does what she’s ordered. But, other than a few small attempts, I really don’t see much “investigation.”

This book had just enough improvement over the first that I will continue with the series, however that has more to do with the supporting characters than Toby. I really want to like her, but this reputation that everyone seems to respect is a ghost for us readers. It’s alluded to, of course. But it seems like Toby just rushes into everything, even with a plan at times, and only makes it out because a friend (or Tybalt) stumbles across her at the exact moment she needs them.

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I usually try to read at least the first two books of a series before I review it and decide whether I will continue reading or move on to something else. So today I will be reviewing the first two books of Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series: Rosemary and Rue and A Local Habitation.

Seanan McGuire depicts a modern day San Francisco in which ordinary humans cohabit with all sorts of fae folk, both pureblood and half-blood, even though they are completely oblivious of the fact. Indeed, the fae don’t want humans to know that they are real and use glamor to appear human when they are out and about. Some of them feel pretty much at home in our world. They thrive and have successful businesses, legal and not so much in some cases.

The main protagonist – October “Toby” Daye, is a half-blood Daoine Sidhe who is trying to fit in in the human world. She earns her living as a private detective, but also has to fulfill her duties as a Knight of the Shadow Hills. And she has a family – a husband and a daughter who have no idea that she isn’t human. This is how the first book starts, but this life is shattered in the very first chapter when the pureblood fae Toby was investigating turns her into a fish and leaves her in a pond to die. Only the spell eventually wears off and Toby becomes human (or half-human) again… eleven years later. She stayed the same, but life moved on without her. Her human family thinks she ran away and doesn’t want to have anything to do with her now. She has trouble adjusting to the new technological advances that happened in eleven years. But most importantly, she has trouble finding a meaning and a purpose for her life.

I will let the readers discover the rest of the story of both books for themselves. What I want to talk about is why I put only three stars on this series so far.

Let’s start with what I liked. I liked Toby and I can sympathize with her struggle to adjust to our modern world after eleven years of basically swimming in circles and thinking about fishy things. It is interesting to watch her reconnect with her old acquaintances and slowly get her motivation back. It is also interesting to see her developing as a character.

I liked the world Ms. McGuire created and I am looking forward to discovering more of its facets. I especially liked the mention that the fae are mostly nocturnal, because their magic is most potent under the cover of the night, and that the sunlight weakens it. Or that the transitions at Dawn and Dusk are the moments when they are the most vulnerable.

However, I was disappointed to discover that most of the supporting characters weren’t nearly memorable enough. In fact, it seemed like the majority of them were there just to act as background. So every time I saw a character that was more or less tridimensional, I could bet that he or she would be either the villain, or the best friend, or the future love interest for the heroine.

Also, for a private detective who is (supposedly) good at her job, Toby does a lot of flailing about in the dark instead of actual detective work. Her logic sometimes baffles me as well – in Rosemary and Rue, why did she refuse to go to her liege for help and went instead to the crime lord that had basically treated her as a slave for years? In A Local Habitation, when a killer is on the loose and offing anyone who wanders the building alone, Toby consistently let’s people wander off unsupervised and then wonders why they end up dead.
And finally, I found the plot in both books slightly lacking in depth. In the first book Toby is cursed and needs to find the killer of her friend before the curse kills her. In the second book she is sent to check on her liege’s cousin only to discover that someone is killing off her subjects, so she sets to uncover who the killer is. Those are good premises, but they are not enough for a full length book. And the subplots are sadly lacking.

All in all, I liked the world and I will probably stick around with the protagonist through the next installment of the story, but probably no further than that, unless book three is really good.

This urban fantasy can get a little dark, but it holds true to the notion that Faerie are still roaming in and out of our world and the Summerlands, causing occasional havoc.

October or Toby Daye is a half-faerie changeling who has a gift of tasting people's blood and recapping their memories. She also works as a PI in San Francisco. She's sent by her liege lord to see why his daughter isn't returning calls in her new Faerie fort, as we Irish call their habitations or knowes. This fort turns out to be located in a high-tech firm with typically winding and bewildering corridors which shift and a cafeteria instead of a feasting hall. There are several characters of the immortal variety who one by one end up puzzlingly dead and Toby has to deduce who is picking them off and why.

Toby is something of a drama queen. She says she never thinks about the awful part of her life which saw her as a bespelled fish in a pond for over a decade. This after she's mentioned it three times in the first two chapters. The device of the fish is used to explain her unfamiliarity with all aspects of techie gadgets and the net. She thinks about it again a few more times during the story. Toby also keeps impressing on us that she's in the presence of various types of Faerie beings which could kill her or cause chaos in the blink of an eye, and may well just do that... only none of them ever does anything in this line, so that gets tiring.

The ongoing and speed-gathering murder mystery investigation occupies most of the book. If you don't like blood and dead bodies, look away now. For most of the book.

I may be reading too many crime stories, but it seemed to me that a communication issue, an identity issue and at least half the murder issue were plain as the pointy ears on Toby's head, so I don't know why any reasonably competent PI would not have come to the same immediate conclusions as I did.

I enjoyed a car-crushing scene and my favourite character was Quentin, a suitably laid-back young page fostered into Toby's knowe, who is sent to assist her. Maybe the liege lord didn't like him. The author has presented a modern adaptation of the old legends and as long as such books are written, the legends will never die. That really is what we want from our urban fantasy. Just as well, because it's not too bright as a detective story.

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: When Sylvester loses contact with his niece, he asks Toby to go in and what starts off as a simple mission soon turns into something else entirely…

Opening Sentence: “The last train out of San Francisco leaves at midnight; miss it and you’re stuck until morning.”

Excerpt: No

The Review:

First, if you haven’t read Rosemary & Rue stop here and go read it first. This is a series where you need to read each book in order. A Local Habitation picks up shortly after the end of the first book. Sylvester contacts Toby and asks her to take Quentin and go to the knowe of Tamed Lighting and check on his niece the countess. When Toby arrives she finds January and wonders what is going on. However, before the second day ends Colin is found dead and Toby knows something more is going on. When she asks January she finds out that Colin is the 3rd person to die and that the night haunts aren’t taking the bodies.

When Toby tries to taste Colin’s blood she finds it empty and the situation turns even more confusing. Toby realizes that the situation is spiraling out of control. Inside the knowe she can’t reach Sylvester, but seems to have no problems from the outside. When she tries to leave, her car ends up exploding. When Sylvester sends Conner to get Quentin out, Toby knows that everyone is in danger. Soon it is a race against time to find out who is killing the members of January’s court before Toby and Quentin end up dead.

I love, love, love this entire series and I am thrilled to be reviewing these books. Each one builds on top of the other building a world so full of magic, danger, love and wonderful characters. I can’t avoid spoilers as this is a second book, but I did keep the majority of the spoilers pertaining to this book out of my review. Toby has spent 14 years as a fish and slowly getting back into being a private investigator. I love how flawed Toby is in the first couple of books, it’s one thing I love about this series to see her grow and change over the course of the series. I will acknowledge that it seems like a couple of things go over Toby’s head and she doesn’t put them together and realize what is going on until much later in the book. However, for me that isn’t something I dislike about the book.

I think it just adds to who October is, and the realization that sometimes something small happens and it doesn’t seem to be a big deal, but later when the pieces click together you realize how much that small piece of information helps you solve what is going on. Seanan is a master of feeding you small pieces of information, she drops little hints here and there, but if you aren’t paying too much attention you miss it. But it all adds up and she really reveals a lot of things over the course of this series about October and just what and who she is. If you haven’t read this series, seriously start now and start with book 1.

Notable Scene:

That’s the thing about cats: they remember at time when there were true faerie kings for them to look at, not just Kings and Queens of Cats and the imitations we have today. Cats watch from corners and hearths, and they see history happening, and they never forget a minute.

Some people say cats are the memory of Faerie, and that as long as there is one cat that remembers us, Faerie will never die. People say some wierd things, but sometimes there is truth there that we can’t see.

FTC Advisory: DAW/Penguin provided me with a copy of A Local Habitation. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.

Second books in urban fantasy series can be tricky, IMHO. The first book is about introducing the main character and setting some parameters for what they are capable of, with just enough world-building to satisfy the reader as to how different/similar the setting is to our real world. The urge with an open-ended series that may or may not continue depending on sales is, I think, to throw a ton of world-building into the second book, to prove to the reader that there is so much more to explore. And I think this urge is often to the detriment of telling a solid story, especially if the second book (or movie) ends in a cliffhanger.

Thankfully, this is not the case with the second October Daye book. The characters and the central mystery come first, and every world-building revelation (about Faerie court politics, the way the boundaries of Counties and Knowes are set up, the way each Faerie race has a "job," etc) is in service to the story. Even when you're aware of a scene being a large info-dump (here I'm thinking specifically of the background on the Night Haunts), it is woven so well into the narrative, comes at such an appropriate place in the story, that you don't notice ... because it doesn't break the pace of the story at all.

The central mystery: what exactly IS going on in the county of Tamed Lightning (located near Fremont, California and stuck between Shadowed Hills, aka San Francisco, the county ruled by Toby's liege Duke Sylvester, and Dreamer's Glass, ruled by the Duchess Riordan) and why do residents keep turning up dead, is a very tight little "locked room" mystery. Or locked building, if you will, since the action ranges over most of the "county" of Tamed Lightning via a building in the mortal world. McGuire gives us, and Toby, a roomful of likely suspects, each with a secret of their own that Toby and her sidekick Quentin must ferret out if they're going to solve the bigger mystery. As with any classic mystery story, the people Toby meets are not always as forthcoming as you would hope one would be in the midst of a murder spree. But that's what makes stories like this work: the reader knows XX character is hiding something from the detective ... but because these books are narrated in first person by Toby, we don't find out any quicker than she does what those little secrets are. Still, the astute reader can pick up on details that Toby isn't consciously noticing at the moment but that McGuire clearly wants us to notice. (At one point in the book, I wondered aloud why we hadn't seen a particular character for quite a while, and why Toby hadn't seemed to notice that character had gone missing ... and a couple of chapters later, Toby puts that piece together with other information to reach a conclusion I won't spoil here.)

There is also a great deal of character development for Toby and especially for Quentin, the teenage squire (for lack of a better term) Sylvester sends with Toby on what at first blush is a mission to just check on Sylvester's niece and report back. There is a great bond developing between Toby and Quentin that I assume future books (there are 7 books in the series so far) will further enhance. McGuire really captures the "sullen but adoring teenager" character well in Quentin; the Toby-Quentin relationship, right now at least, reminds me of mine with my nephew Jared. Toby's voice, as the narrator, is of course the strongest in the book ... but Toby is perceptive, a reliable narrator, and I don't suspect that her interpretations of the behavior of the people she loves (Sylvester, Luna, Quentin, Connor, even the Luidaeg) are very off-base as some narrators can be.

I'm not sure about later books in the series yet, but I'd say that if one were going to read the October Daye books out of order for whatever reason, A Local Habitation stands well enough on its own that you could read it without having read the first book, Rosemary and Rue.

Originally posted at vampirebookclub.net

October “Toby” Daye spent the last fourteen years of her life as a fish. Having recently been returned to her changeling state Toby was determined to leave all things Faerie behind. Unfortunately she was dragged into solving a Fae murder and thus pulled right back into her previous life.

Now, a couple of months later, Toby has retained her P.I. license. While she does work in the human world her first loyalty is the Duke of Shadowed Hills, Sylvester. This time Sylvester needs Toby to go check on his niece January. She runs the county of Tamed Lightning. She and Sylvester speak on a regular basis and he becomes worried when he hasn’t heard from her in awhile. Figuring it is just a communication error, Toby takes Quentin, also at the behest of Sylvester, as a learning experience.

What they discover when they get to Tamed Lightning is anything but a communication error. Someone has been killing January’s employees and keeping her from contacting anyone outside of the county. As much as Toby doesn’t want to be stuck with a killer, she can’t just leave the mystery unsolved, but will she be able to keep herself and everyone else alive in the mean time?

I liked that the majority of the mystery takes place at January’s business ALH computing. This leads Toby to the conclusion that someone within the company is the murderer. It really gave Seanan McGuire room to focus on and develop the setting. Something that has, so far, made this series really good is the very changing and expanding Fae world. There is just so much that McGuire can play with and manipulate. The setting descriptions and fae lore are the strongest things in the book.

In A Local Habitation we also get a more in-depth look at Toby’s blood magic. She has to use it repeatedly throughout the course of the story, and since she’s teaching Quentin as well, the readers get more insight about what exactly blood magic entails. In one scene Toby summons the night-haunts, the creatures that come after a Fae dies and replaces the Fae body with a replica to keep the humans none-the-wiser. We got a lot of background information about whom / what the night-haunts are and exactly what they do. Easily one of my most favorite parts of the book, it also becomes apparent that Toby really has some power, even being only a changeling. I’m really interested to see where that power takes her in future books.

Something that was a little irritating for me was Toby’s detective skills. Honestly, she’s trained and working P.I. yet oftentimes she wouldn’t go with her gut instincts. Of course, not everyone at ALH is being truthful with Toby, but instead of demanding answers, she seemingly ignores the obvious even when she is specifically told that information has been kept from her. One would think that she would try her hardest to find out what that information was right away, but she doesn’t. On the other hand, had Toby been more astute the mystery would probably have been solved in a few pages rather than an entire novel.

A plus about A Local Habitation is that Tybalt is featured more in this story, and I honestly can’t complain. He’s one of the more interesting and mysterious characters in the series thus far. I’ve got a hunch that we’ll see more of him as the series continues on (hopefully!).

Connor also makes an appearance as a helpful hand in the investigation. If you recall, Connor is married to Sylvester’s daughter, yet he and Toby have this weird flirtation going on. His presence stands for nothing more than to complicate Toby’s life even more. I don’t understand the attraction between them, if there even is one, so I hope this is a story thread McGuire cuts soon. I would like to see Toby have real romance. Maybe, ahem, with a certain King of Cats mentioned above.

Overall, A Local Habitation drew me in from page one and kept me drawn in throughout the entire story. I’m excited to continue reading Toby’s adventures!

I hated the setting and plot of the book for the same reasons as the other low star reviews. I just wanted to add something. Did the author ever acctually GO to Paso Nagal park or did she just pick it out from a map? I lived one block away from Paso Nagal Park in Pleasant Hill for several years. Paso Nagal is known as a "Dog Park". It is basically a steep hill with dirt paths winding around and a small fenced in lawn near the entrance where the dogs are alowed off leash. You can walk all the entire pathways in thirty minutes. The south side of the hill which makes of most of the park is dry and sparcely enriched with thin trees and dusky native shrubery such as manzanita. No mossy glens or gently swaying fern foilage. No babbling brooks or enchanting waterfalls. No bluebells, or Queen Ann's Lace. No flowers at all really. Other than the fact that there is dog poop everywhere, its ok as far as dog parks go. Nothing particularly beautiful or magical here. There many other settings I can think of in the east bay that would have been better picks for a portal into fairyland. Putting all that aside from Paso Nagal park to Fremont is maybe about and hour and 45 minutes if there is traffic. It seemed to take Sylvester and his ontourage all day to arrive. Just saying.

Most people liked this story better than the first, but I have to say that I did not. I wavered between 2 and 3 stars. The reason I didn't' like it because it stressed the fact that Toby is kind of a crappy PI. Things that happened in the book were so obvious to me and it was like she had to get hit with a brick to actually learn anything. It took her FOREVER to figure anything out and in the end, the mystery kind of finally fell into her lap. I wasn't really that impressed. In fact, when she is brainstorming with her friends, it is actually the other people who say, no, that person doesn't make sense as the killer because so-and-so. I was like COME ON! Put your nancy drew hat on and get to figuring some of this crap out! If I had to rely on October to save my life, I think I will opt for the paper clip and chewing gum MacGyver-style instead.

I've finally done it, I've found another Urban Fantasy series I think I'm going to love. There were concerns as I ventured past the world of Ilona Andrews. I tried a couple of new starts, and came away disappointed and worried that all other UF had a lackluster sheen to it. Toby Daye and I got off to an okay start, enough to make me interested in checking out A Local Habitation, and I'm so glad I did. In book two of the October Daye series Seanan McGuire really finds her stride, and I'm happy to say she had me right there with her the whole way through.

Not only did Seanan McGuire hit her stride in A Local Habitation, this is also where Toby really finds her voice. She needed to go through the harsh growth process allotted to her in Rosemary and Rue, but here Toby has accepted her place in fae society and gained a few more hard edges to get her by. We finally see her P.I. skills and experience clicking into place, unfortunately for her (though fortunate for our personal entertainment), it's in a situation where the natural talents she brings to the table as a Daoine Sidhe are useless. We see how Toby's number one priority is the safety of those around her, and how past failures continue to weigh heavily on her heart. I'll admit that it was a relief to see Toby put the past behind her in order to deal with the present in A Local Habitation. She's obviously very aware of her past-what happened with Luna and Raysel, her daughter, Dare-but they don't drag her down the way they did in the previous installment. I'm sure each of these things will continue to affect who she is as a character in major ways, but I'll take a character who's hardened over one who's a blubbering mess any day. That said, Toby is still very real and affected emotionally-not hardened beyond her humanity, just sharpened beyond the breaking point.

The supporting cast in A Local Habitation brings back some of my favorites from Rosemary and Rue and introduces a crew of interesting new species to the table. Quentin, our proper pure blood ward gets an education as Toby's newly appointed sidekick, and it's easy to see why she has a soft spot for the kid. There's more Connor selkie goodness, and even better, more Tybalt. I felt as if we barely saw Tybalt in Rosemary and Rue, but it was enough to give me a strong suspicion that I would love him. Now, there's no doubt that I do-and a Kate & Curran-esque `Here, kitty, kitty' certainly doesn't hurt matters either. The wait for them to just make out already is kind of killing me, but I love a good slow burn, and I'm thrilled that Toby's still more or less oblivious to the fact that she has it bad (I may be projecting my desires on her subconscious a bit here). I also love to see the burgeoning friendship developing between two lonely souls, Toby and the Luidaeg. I'm a sucker for old, wise, and crabby characters, and you can't get much more of any of these things than you do with the Luidaeg.

Plus, there's the plot of A Local Habitation, which I have to admit with no eloquence whatsoever, is flat out awesome. If I felt as if it was somewhat predictable or reminiscent of one of my favorite episodes of Doctor Who (I'm not going to say which one, but you're welcome to guess), it didn't detract at all from my enjoyment. Even if I had a vague idea of what was going on, that didn't explain all of the intricacies to me, and I loved uncovering them as we went along. For the life of me I don't know how Toby resists strangling those she's literally bleeding to help when they seem to hinder her at every turn. But then, I suppose, that's what a good pissed off Cait Sidhe is for.

Finally, can I just say that I am such a fan of Seanan McGuire's covers? Both October Day and her new InCryptid series get covers that accurately represent the characters therein. Unfortunately, this is less common than you'd think. A Local Habitation`s cover is, to me, the spitting image of Toby complete with Dare's knife and Tybalt's jacket, and damn if it doesn't look good on her.

A Local Habitation is an excellent take off to a promising series. It celebrates a perfect balance between the modern technological world and the ancient world of mythology. Add to that an ideal pace, a dash of biting humor, and plenty of action, and you've pretty much assured October Daye a place in my heart.

It's hard to resist a book that begins with the narrator getting turned into a carp in the Japanese Tea Gardens at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

October Daye is a private investigator who happens to be a changeling as well. A "changeling," as the term is used in Seanan McGuire's urban fantasy series, is a child of mixed fairy and human blood. Toby Daye is the child of one of the Daoine Shidhe (according to the helpful pronunciation guide at the front of the book, that's pronounced "doon-ya shee") and a human, one of those second-class citizens of Faerie who chose to follow her fairy heritage as soon as she knew there was a difference. Not that she doesn't live in the "real" world; she does, in San Francisco, to be precise. But San Francisco is also the location of Shadowed Hills, the court of Sylvester Torquill, the fairy lord to whom Toby owes her allegiance. In fact, Toby is a knight of that court, and was working to rescue her liege's wife and child from a kidnapper when she was turned into a fish - in which state she remained for 14 years.

Rosemary and Rue isn't about that kidnapping case, though. It is about Toby's return to active duty some time after she regains her half fairy, half human shape. After 14 years as a fish, she's quite sure she no longer has any interest in Faerie or in being a PI. She's getting along - not happy, not even content, but getting along - as a night cashier at a Safeway grocery store. After her return, her husband and child spurned her, refusing to accept any explanations (and she was not allowed by the rules of Faerie to tell them what really happened, so any explanation she offered was a lie anyway). It's not a good life; in fact, it's hardly living at all. But Toby doesn't have the psychological resources to do anything else, at least right now.

Evening, the Duchess of Dreamer's Glass, gives her no choice, however. Evening curses Toby, almost with her dying breath, to find out who murdered her. Sure enough, Toby finds Evening dead, killed in the most breathtakingly evil way: with iron. Blood magic gives Toby a literal taste of what that death tasted like. Quickly - before the curse can kill her - Toby gets to work.

This story, combining noir mystery and fantasy, is gorgeously written and entertaining. We learn much about Faerie and its place in the modern world, enough so that we can mourn that it seems to be dying. We learn of the strict rules and caste system of Faerie, an ancient system of nobility overlaid with the technology of 21st century America. San Francisco comes alive in McGuire's pages, its cold fog and its beauty equally alluring and appalling. The weaving of the old and the new, of Faerie and San Francisco, works very well indeed.

That's why I grabbed the next Toby Daye novel shortly after finishing the first. A Local Habitation is, if anything, even better than Rosemary and Rue. In this novel, Sylvester sends Toby to the County of Tamed Lightning - known better to denizens of California as Fremont - to make sure that the Countess January O'Leary is doing well, as she won't return his telephone calls. In fact, though, things are anything but normal at the offices of ALH Computing, where Faerie personnel are working on new software applications in a building that magically seems to change shape and size. Employees are dying right and left, a very grave issue in Faerie, as pure-blooded Faeries are immortal unless killed by violence or accident. As Faerie seems to be dying out, the problem is doubled; and since January is Sylvester's niece, the problem is tripled. It soon becomes obvious that something is keeping January's calls - and now Toby's - from getting through to Sylvester, and the bodies are piling up.

These lively mixtures of fantasy and mystery are great fun to read. I'm still looking forward to finding out the whole story behind the case that got Toby turned into a fish, but it looks like that tale will be a while in coming yet. In the meantime, I'm happy to read whatever Seanan McGuire serves up.

McGuire's first October Daye novel, Rosemary and Rue, was completely incredible. She writes Toby as a gritty female PI struggling with a form of PTSD as she attempts to piece her life back together after spending 14 years trapped as a fish. I loved that McGuire wasn't afraid to let "real" problems happen to Toby, and we're dropped in the middle of Toby's life, where she's an estranged mother, a recuperating victim of magical trauma, and a semi-taltented Changeling who's a small fish in a pond of very big players. Not to mention she has a swathe of people who don't like her very much, and has to avoid them trying to kill and/or maim her, all the while carrying her mother's reputation on her back as a constant measure for her to live up to. Talk about obstacles. I was looking forward to seeing Toby pick apart and triumph (or not) over each and every problem McGuire planted seeds for in the first novel.

So imagine my dissapointment when absolutely nothing happened in the second book. For starters, I wasn't really a fan of everything taking place in an office complex. It lacked the "fairy" feel of the few glimpses we got of Shadowed Hills and other Knowes, and it just didn't make sense that everyone was happy to "hang out" at the office for a few days while everyone was getting murdered around them. The fact that a Fairy Knowe can look like ANYTHING and it chooses to look like a cubicle complex with a shitty cafeteria that only stocks chocolate donuts and coffee...I wasn't impressed. Many authors have tried to tackle the uneasy union between magic and technology, and I feel like the entire thing could have been set up so much better. A Knowe that was a fully forested area with trees made out of giant silver mesh plugs or server towers; buildings with living wire and circuitry. Alice's server room actually "changing" and growing into an entangled mesh of wire and electric leaves. This could have been a proper knowe that really created a mood and intense setting for the murders to be happening, and the fact that McGuire's hefty imagination stretched to "Corporate office building where no one knows where anyone else's office is" makes me feel like she just dropped the ball completely, and wrote what she had to to get the story moving instead of putting any time into it. I struggled with the awful setting a lot.

There were a lot of underwhelming moments in the novel; the ritual and the night haunts (was expecting something more than "the faces of Toby's dead haunting her" done in the most cliche way possible.) The absolute lack of information gleaned from this summoning, as well, especially since it cost so much. The "big reveal" of Terrie/Alex, and how I knew what they already were after page 30. How the author tried to prove that Toby was "Working her ass off" by writing about all the stacks of paper Toby and crew had to read through, and how this still somehow didn't reveal what everyone's purpose at the company was or what they were working on. How the obviously strange circumstances of Alice's existence wasn't suspicious at all, even a little bit, when people started dying in a weird, obviously clinical way that looked like they were being plugged or punctured with something. How absolutely obvious every clue in this book was and yet Toby's completely oblivious to all of it while everyone's dying. And of course, lets not forget It's-Not-Your-Fault-Toby Sylvester, who's totally forgiving of his Knight Errant's complete ineptitude. I was kind of expecting Sylvester to ream her a new one; in any PI or detective novel, the police cheif/big boss/paying client loses their shite when the protagonist makes a mistake, and the protagonist struggling with that failure and sense of worthlessness makes for good drama. Apparently despite anything Toby does her leige lord will forgive her, even if it involves allowing close relatives to die because of her sheer stupidity.

I would have been satisfied if Alex/Terrie had been written as a stronger seducer; if fogging Toby's brain with love magic made her a shitty detective, then MAKE THAT A PART OF THE STORY. If the crew at the shoddy Fairy office building was trying to protect a stupid project of theirs from being stopped because they were close to making a breakthrough, make EVERYONE a part of the plot. Having everyone rush around saying "Oh dearie me, someone else has died but we simply can't tell her what we're really doing because we're not on page 140 of the novel" was the most frustrating thing I've ever experienced in a detective story. No one has any reason not to tell Toby what the hell was going on except "because the author hasn't written enough pages yet." I could have seen it going down like this:

Toby arrives at the shitty office Knowe with her trainee in tow.
Jan doesn't want to stop her project and knows Toby will force her because of the murders, so she orders Alex to immediately start smacking Toby with love juice.
Toby gets beffuddled and does some shitty detective work (which is already in the novel, actually.)
More people die.
Meanwhile the office workers do everything to obfuscate Toby's investigation.
Toby gets suspicious through her drug addled brain, breaks away, and starts breaking into offices, drawers, and secret cabinets.
Toby finds information on the secret project
Alex tries to persuade her to let them finish the work by using his sex-me spells
it almost works, but inject Tybalt appearance here and Toby sees him, something epic happens when she sees his sexy King of Cats self, she breaks away, and calls for help, finally realizing whats happening and getting an outside line to Shadowed Hills
Toby demands that they stop their tests and chaos breaks loose.
Fights and horrible violence, running, hiding, and confronting happens,
Toby survives, Jan is accidentally killed and Alice refuses to do any more work. Gordon tries to force it anyway because every novel needs a psychopath
Gordon is killed, and the rest of the employees surrender when Sylvester shows up with the calvary.

Is it okay if I pretend this is what happened instead of the really awful plotline?

I'm picking up the third book because of the reviews that it's received and the assurances by many readers that it's much better. We'll see.

After reading the first book in this series and enjoying it greatly, I was really looking forward to this one. First off, it did keep my attention enough for me to be able to finish it off in just a couple of days. But...I felt very disappointed afterwards. I felt McGuire did the heroine, October Daye, a great injustice when she wrote her in as a bumbling detective. Tobie was orginally written as a character with many decades of experience as a detective. Not only that, she was awarded Knighthood in her realm. Someone of this caliber should not have made the mistakes she made. McGuire instead played the story out like an Agatha Christie novel where everyone is dying on the Bullet Express and the killer is not found until a measly three suspects are left (actually two and a half). Hmm, I wonder who it could be? Then to top it off, she has to have the murderer tell all at gunpoint at the end. "Yea, I did it, that's right, and I'd do it again. Muhahahaha!"

What made me finish off the book so fast, you ask? Tybalt. He started off the story and it has been sooooooo obvious to all the readers and not the heroine that he has the hots for her. I kept reading to find out if the V8 can was going to knock her in the forhead or not. Or not. So that was a bit of a disappointment to me, also. I don't like my main characters so dumb. Authors need to get a clue.

Will I read the next one? Sure. I thought the first was great and orginal. I'm going to hope this second one was a fluke.

October "Toby" Daye is a changeling, the daughter of Amandine of the fae and a mortal man. Like her mother, she is gifted in blood magic, able to read what has happened to a person through a mere taste of blood. Toby is the only changeling who has earned knighthood, and she re-earns that position every day, undertaking assignments for her liege, Sylvester, the Duke of the Shadowed Hills.

Now Sylvester has asked her to go to the County of Tamed Lightning—otherwise known as Fremont, CA—to make sure that all is well with his niece, Countess January O'Leary, whom he has not been able to contact. It seems like a simple enough assignment—but when dealing with the realm of Faerie nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Toby soon discovers that someone has begun murdering people close to January, whose domain is a buffer between Sylvester's realm and a scheming rival duchy. If Toby can't find the killer soon, she may well become the next victim.

Hmm. Well, this was an improvement to the first book, I'll say that.

I felt like the characters and their interactions were better explained than in Rosemary and Rue. I had a limited idea of who they were and what they meant to Toby.

Serious question; Does she have a new love interest in every book? Because that will make me stop reading this series. I do not like that. I do not need a different man every book. Hell, I do not need a love interest at all, if the story is engaging enough.

It's not that it was bad because it wasn't. It was good-ish. It had moments that made me giggle. I think my biggest issue is that I have been wanting to read this series for so long that I had very high expectations. That's my fault.

I honestly don't know what to say. This book was meh. I feel like my review is meh. So they match, at least.

I really wanted to love this book. Rosemary and Rue was fresh, the world interesting, a few problems with plotting but nothing that couldn't be cleared up in sequels. I was eagerly anticipating reading this one.

As previously stated, I wanted to love it, but I didn't. It was just OK. Not so bad that I don't want to read the next one, but disappointing on many fronts. Others have posted plot summaries so I'll just go right to what I did/didn't like about it:

Criticism 1: I figured out all the plot "twists" waaaay ahead of time. I knew who the villain was, what the other people's secrets were, why calling for help hadn't worked etc. It was intensely frustrating to see Toby blundering about whilst people were dropping like flies, completely missing the obvious and failing to really take action when it came to solving the mystery. For a supposed private investigator, Toby didn't seem to know how to logically approach an investigation. The only scene in the book where she really takes action is when she calls the night haunts - it's dangerous, spooky, interesting, but ultimately doesn't get her any closer to solving the case.

Criticsm 2: This could just be me, but I often felt confused about how we ended up in a particular place/situation. The character interactions often felt strange and forced. This improves as the book goes on, but for the chapters after Toby arrives at the computer place (name will occur to me at some point) the character interactions and plot felt jerky and confusing.

Criticsm 3: Not enough Tybalt =) Yeah, this one's just my own personal quibble. I was sort of hoping he would be more involved in this book but he barely appears in it.

On the brighter side: I still like the world enough to read the next book, but the plot and character-interactions need work.

Ace Faerie Private Eye October Daye is back with her second mystery to solve, and this one's a doozy. As Toby tries to settle down, licking her wounds from her last escapades in Rosemary and Rue, she is asked by her liege, the Duke Sylvester Torquill of the Shadowed Hills to check on his niece, Countess January O'Leary of Tamed Lightning, better known as Freemont, as he hasn't heard from her in some time. Taking a sidekick along - Quentin -- to show him the ropes, she finds herself caught up in way more than she bargained for.

Arriving at Tamed Lighting, Toby finds what appears to be a simple company that produces computer fantasy games, except that all the employees aren't human, in fact there's not a single regular human that works there. Then there's the quiet way everyone acts around her, as if they're hiding something. Then the first person turns up dead. As Toby unravels the mystery, it turns out bodies have been piling up, but when she tastes their blood to find out what happened to them, she gets nothing. They are empty husks with no story to tell of their demise. The mystery grows further when Toby finds herself under attack from someone or something.

A Local Habitation is a great sequel to Rosemary and Rue, ratcheting up the action and fear as Toby once again finds herself fighting for her life, while readers learn more of the complexities of this world that Seanan McGuire had created. The good news is, after finishing A Local Habitation, as readers attempt to catch their breaths, they won't have to wait long, with An Artificial Night due out in September.

Originally written on March 11th 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.

For over 500 book reviews and exclusive author interviews, go to [...].

Sylvester sends Toby along with Quentin (page from book 1) to Fremont, California to check in on his niece January who he has not heard from in weeks. Murders keep happening and Toby has to determine what is going on and who the murderer is before they are all killed.

I liked the overall story. For the most part it was interesting and kept me reading though there were moments that it seemed to drag on. I had my suspicions about who the culprit was but things kept happening to make me rethink it and I was still surprised toward the end when Toby figures it all out.

I liked Toby a lot more in this book than I did in the last book. She is moving on with her life and is a lot less mopey. I like her character and imagine she will continue to grow on me as I continue with the series. I also really liked Quentin and liked seeing him grow up and develop in this book. The other characters were well developed and interesting.

In general this was a pretty book. I will definitely be reading the next book. I think that people who like the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs will also like this book.

A Local Habitation, by Seanan McGuire, picked up immediately after the point where Rosemary and Rue left off. In this story, our heroine October Daye - private investigator, "changling" (half-breed fey), and knight errant to one of the Dukes of San Francisco - is sent south to Freemont to find out why Duke Sylvester's niece has stopped checking in with him.

The grace of this being the second book is that there is far less forced-march character development going on in the first few pages. The characters in this story are handed to you in condensed, almost shorthand fashion through the methods of the investigation. The characters are interesting in their strangeness to each other; each one of them is presented as an individual representation of a type (of fey, of human, etc.), and thrown in contrast to October and the setting.

The murderer was not terribly difficult to figure out, though there was the obligatory distraction of a horrible character who wasn't what we all thought, etc. There were also a couple of plot devices that were a little more overused than I really needed. (Flashbacks to Max Headroom are painful when reading urban fantasy 20 years later.) But like the first book, the author was far more focused on the why of the murder story than the who. Character motivation really matters to McGuire, and through her, to October. And so we learn in the end exactly why the plot turned the way it did.

It was a good paperback read. If you started the series, definitely keep going. Also, teleporting fish tanks and portcullis accidents (not related to each other!) are just cool.

I just love these books. This one had a suuuuuper high body count, but it was soooo good. I ADORE Toby.

I feel sullied and unusual. Amazed and horrified.
It's an amazing blend of modern pulp fiction and fairy tale. Urban fantasy, man. But McGuire does an especially amazing job with this stuff; I recognize fairy from the stories in my childhood. I recognize it as much as I did in Valente's stuff, though in a very different way. This had everything from car explosions and fighting over a gun to blood magic and magic summonings. It was intense.

Also, I love Tybalt. I love him so much. And I ship him and Toby so hard.
There are so many good characters in here. I love that Toby made friends with a first-born-sea-witch. It's amazing.

Half Fae changeling October "Toby" Daye has become a private investigator in the world of mortals as she distrusts her Faerie heritage more than that of the sneaky humans. However, though her preference is to say no, Toby knows better than to refuse a request from her Fairie liege The Shadowed Hills Duke Sylvester Torquill. Coming to her abode in San Francisco, he asks her to insure that his niece, the Countess of Tamed Lightening, is okay as she has ceased all contact with her family.

The Countess January O'Leary runs an information management company in which she employs purebred and changeling fae. A serial killer is murdering the staff. Toby investigates trying to prevent more homicides from occurring; not expecting her inquiries to intertwine.

The second October Daye (Rosemary and Rue) private investigative urban fantasy is a wonderful one sitting read that hooks the audience from the first visitation to the last. Toby terrific is tough and spunky as she holds the dual investigations together with her Noir like scrutiny. Fans will enjoy the heroine's tours of San Francisco and the land of Fairie as she works a deadly whodunit case while wondering if October will survive long enough to see November.

Harriet Klausner

Toby is finally back doing her P.I. work. She has been getting steady work and seems to be doing just fine. However, Lord Sylvester, her liege, has decided her needs her to do a job. He has been out of contact with his niece in a neighboring county for quite some time. Since they usually talk on a regular basis and she isn't returning his calls, he is quite concerned. However, to avoid a diplomatic incident, he cannot go check on her himself. So he sends Toby to make sure she is alright.

Once in the county of Tamed Lightning, Toby find some very interesting things. Not only is the world advancing in technology, but the Fae--especially Sylvester's niece--in Silicon Valley are taking it to a whole different level. What she doesn't expect to find are mysterious murders, no way to trace the victims' blood, and the night-haunts refusing to take Fae bodies.

Armed with only Quentin, her wits, and Dare's knife, Toby must find out who is killing people, why the night-haunts are not coming for the bodies, and keep Sylvester's niece--and Quentin--alive.

Okay, this sounded like an interesting premise. And it honestly could have been. However, the book just fell flat. I kept groaning at Toby's stupidity. For someone who is supposed to be a pretty good P.I., the obvious can waltz by her in an evening gown with a sign around it's neck and she would still miss it! Honestly, the phones and the weirdness between Terrie and Alex couldn't have been more transparent. And, even though I couldn't be 100% sure, I had a suspicion about the night-haunts leaving the bodies.

Everything surrounding the computer jargon and methodology was jaw-dropping. My husband, a systems administrator for over fifteen years, was just baffled and confounded. He couldn't understand why a router needed these elaborate schematics. Further, all of it seemed a little too farfetched even for someone not as computer savvy. In addition, the whole reason behind the murders was another thing that was just too much. Really? Really?!

Aside from my issues with the technology, I did find April to be quite interesting. The whole back story around her and how she was still alive was fairly creative. My hat goes off to the author on that one. Also, I felt she put some thought into the function and livelihood of the knowe. That being said, she never went into much detail about it, so it was a little flat.

The book was needlessly too long. A lot of the fat could have been trimmed, which would have made it a better book. Yes, I understand that the knowe changes on the whim of the ruler; however, there has to be some way to navigate it. Everyone else didn't seem to have a problem. Besides, she never traveled that far. Toby continuing to get lost, drinking endless amounts of coffee, and so on, was just too much repetition. Did the reader need to be told every time she got lost?

Throughout the book, I felt as though I was reading a book about a stupid, female form of Harry Dresden. Not only is she a P.I. with dark hair and a trainee, but she also drives a damn Beetle! Also, sustaining life-threatening injuries and being able to come back from the brink is classic Dresden. Come on, we need a different P.I. archetype.

I really had a hard time getting traction in this book. The parts with Tybalt were cute, and I enjoy him as a character And some of the other characters could have been interesting, but they were never fleshed out. Toby was too stupid and things were too farfetched to enjoy this book. Further, it felt as though it was dragging until forty pages from the end. It took some time to force myself to finish the book. That being said, I will end up reading more in the series. I've heard it gets better, and I am very curious to see what happens between Toby and Tybalt.

This is the second book in the October Daye series. Last I heard there were eight books planned for this series; the 3rd book An Artificial Night: An October Daye Novel is due to come out September 2010. I thought this book was much better than the first book in the series; I really enjoyed it.

October (Toby) is back in with the fairy community. Her liege lord, Sylvester, has asked her to go to the County of Tamed Lightning to check on his niece, January O'Leary. The political situation in Tamed Lightening is touchy; Toby brings along Quentin to help with the case. When they arrive they find out things are much stranger than they were originally lead to believe. January runs a computer company that is focused on bringing technology to the Summerlands. The computer company employs a number of interesting types of faerie as well as a dryad that is now housed in a network tree (her forest was destroyed). What Toby doesn't know right away is that faeries there have been dying and no one can figure out what's killing them. Toby's time to figure out what is happening is running out; and now her and Quentin may be the hunted ones.

This was an excellent book. It is fast paced and the plot is well put together and never really wanders. Toby is a great character that shows admirable practicality, determination, and initiative. I am amazed at how many interesting types of magic she pulls off despite her supposed lack of magical power. Toby is very good at using what she has effectively. Many of the side characters are also very intriguing; McGuire does an excellent job with character development. I really enjoyed the King of Cats, Tybalt, and hope that he features in future books. I also enjoyed that the Night Haunts played some role in this book, they were fascinating to learn more about.

I really loved the creativity of the plot. Having the faerie community merging with technology was an interesting concept that brought up a number of interesting questions. We get to meet a wide-variety of types of fairy in this book too. I enjoyed the creativity that went into developing these races and making them really fun to learn about. This book is definitely more of an urban fantasy than a paranormal romance; although Toby does have a potential love interest in Tybalt.

I thought this book was much more well put together than the first one. The plot was more engaging and really propelled the reader forward; Toby develops into a much more likable heroine (she was not as whiny as in the first book). I also liked that Toby spent some time in another duchy. I hope in future books we are exposed to an even broader world of faerie that goes outside the coastal US area.

I only have one major complaint about this book and that is that it was rather predictable. From the moment Toby and Quentin set foot in Tamed Lightning I new who was involved in the deaths. I was kind of hoping that I was wrong. I also have one minor quibble...that was that Toby spent more time than I would have liked having breakdowns. It was nice to see that Toby had a soft side; but towards the end of the book it seemed like she spent most of her time crying or passing out...

Overall I liked this book much better than the first book. It would have been 5 stars, if not for the predictability of the conclusion to the mystery. I am excited to read the third book in the series and am happy I only have to wait six months for it to come out! This is developing into one of the better urban fantasy series out there right now.

The first book in this series was very good: full of angst and well-paced. I highly recommend that book to the Patricia Briggs and Kim Harrison fans. However, this book... I can only recommend the first half of the book.

In this book, the main character Tobey looses that dark angst, which was interesting in the first book.

While I was engaged in the first half of this book, the pacing of the last half of the book dragged on. The chapters felt like Groundhog day: 1. Someone is murdered; 2. Lets run around the building and collect clues; 3. Oh no! Tobey got hurt; 4. Repeat. And then the very last chapter's tone abruptly changes to overly sentimental with no build up to it.

What I liked about this book: 1) The character Tybalt is more developed (but his character in this book seems so different from the first book). 2) Toby's mother makes a very brief appearance in the last chapter.

I loved this book , this second is as good as the 1st and yet totally different.
I really love some of the characters, Toby,and Tybalt are some favorites, as well as i love to hate some.
I will most definitely be reading the entire series.

I read the reviews before going out and getting this book. I was hoping people were wrong and I would really love it. I can't stand that she should be a detective and didn't see what was coming I knew from the begining who it was. That was a little disappointing. It did drag alittle.

Toby and Tybalt plotline is just making me angry I know that they will get together and mcguire is just draging it on. I am just waiting for one to slip and kiss the other. Will I have to wait longer I hope not. I have faith that mcguire wont leave me hanging for to long.

This book was good but not as good as the first hoping that the Third book is going to do her justice. Hope Hope Hope.

I preface this review by stating that there may be spoilers, depending upon how aggravated I become later on.

There are two ways to look at this book. The first presents a kinder interpretation of Seanan McGuire's writing skills: this is really the story of an incompetent detective. One whose failure to perform even the most basic of due diligence required (more on that in a moment) amounts to hundreds of pages of watching someone metaphorically fall down stairs.

The second interpretation is that Seanan McGuire can write well enough to keep you interested, but otherwise has no idea how to move a plot along. The story bumbles on well beyond what is necessary, to such an extent that for the second time in a row the plot is only resolved as follows: "Insert blatant affirmation of murderer by co-conspirator at the very end". The plot actually resolves itself in this case because there is no one left standing by the end. October actually runs out of suspects and she still can't solve the crime.

This second interpretation is further supported by the fact that a closer examination of the plot reveals not a whole lot. Nothing really happens. October gets coffee. October is challenged by a red herring. October correctly interprets red herring as pointless waste of time. Does this deter her from risking life and limb performing a completely, utterly and entirely unnecessary ritual to confirm what she already knows? No. No it does not.

And that's literally what happens. The questions I had at the end of the book were those I posed above: Is October's stupidity a function of character portrayal or a consequence of Seanan's inability to draw the plot together? Let's look at a few examples.

Basic due diligence: I'm no detective. In fact, the extent of my detective sensibilities begins and ends with a bachelors class on auditing financial statements. Yet from that class, I gleamed some basics: perform due diligence. Build a case profile. Who are the suspects? What do they do in the company? What projects are they working on? I cannot stress this one enough, because it literally would have solved the entire mystery in three seconds: WHAT IS THE JOB DESCRIPTION OF EVERY INDIVIDUAL? Really, October? You've been a detective for decades and you can't be bothered to go through something as accessible and readily available as an employee dossier?

Wait! Hold on! She does that! In fact, October and /two other people/ go through every employee profile-- in a company staffed by no more than EIGHT PEOPLE-- twice. Twice! And they learn nothing! In fact, October can't even be bothered to ask the most basic of all questions: What do you do here? What project are you working on? It's clear from the get go that there is something going on that's very recently caused deaths in identical fashion. And it's very, very clear from the beginning that it's all related to what the company in question was doing prior to October's arrival.

It's worth pointing out that the employees in question are so absolutely neurotic about fine detail that they record everything. Everything. They kept the feathers of a crow-fae long after she left the corporation.

If that is not clue enough, at one point one character says to October: "You need to ask me about what we were doing when you wake up. Please. Ask me. I have to tell you all the secrets I've been keeping from you. Please ask me." Why was she asleep, you wonder? Well, in an environment where the murder rate is about one employee per sixteen hours, October decides to ignore with impunity those galling mundane tactics in favor of a life-threatening ritual. From this ritual, she learns /nothing/. Nothing at all. And then she has to sleep to recuperate, a sleep long enough that statistically someone should die.

And they do. Someone actually dies in the interim because October is too dense to plug and chug the formula A + B = C. Who, you may ask? Why, the person who was begging October to ask the questions she should have asked a few days before more people died. Does she follow up on this? Does she do this? No. No she does not. She doesn't bother to ask the employees about their dark project, despite it having been glaringly obvious from about page 60, until a few pages before one character drops the ball and admits everything.

Most horrifying of all, you actually repeatedly sit inside October's mind and watch her struggle to piece together evidence. She actually asks: "How could that happen?" or "She can do that? Interesting" and then fails to draw a conclusion upon which to base a sentence warranting arrest. That kind of behavior is tolerable only when a teacher is instructing a student tackling a particularly difficult field. But when coming from a seasoned detective? It's basic logical analysis and it's not particularly hard when the blame can only be spread around a pool of three people.

What's next? Another red herring, in which we learn that one employee apparently thought it was a good idea to balance her checkbook at work. Usually that's irrelevant, but this employee apparently thought nothing of bringing envelopes full of cash given to her by a rival noble from another kingdom for spying on the company she works for. You've all done that, right? I'm sure Apple's spies in Microsoft regularly flip through their bankrolls at the office and then painstakingly record their ill-gotten gains in easy-to-read checkbook entries labeled "TREASON MONEY".

As is usually the case with Seanan McGuire, this actually goes nowhere and is completely irrelevant. Other than being mildly unsurprising (Fae are notorious for subterfuge in just about every portrayal of them since Shakespeare, right?), it simply brings to question the author's writing talents. I mean, is this seriously the story of an inept detective who only gets it right when it has no meaning? Or is this the patter of an author whose plots can basically be summarized as "Mystery is made appallingly obvious, October fails to see, October fails to perform research, October gets coffee and then runs around, everyone hugs October, murderer admits all"? There's really a grim humor to either interpretation, but the former really makes a show out of watching October's stupidity cause her great pain.

If you can appreciate that kind of reading, which for the sake of the author I'm going to assume is completely unintentional, then read this book. It's worth 5 stars if you enjoy watching a detective with clue-dyslexia stumble through a plot blazing with neon signs. If you can't separate the author's inability to draw her character through a plot of believable events that would provoke clever responses from someone who is supposed to be a highly experienced mystery solver... then this book is worth 2 stars and is not for you.

I really enjoyed this story. McGuire has a way with her characters that makes you step into each one as you are reading. When I began this book, I was afraid it would not be as good as the first one. I actually enjoyed it more.

The unique setting was as much a character as the beings, and that says something. I have stepped away from paranormals over the last few years, but this series has hooked me good.

One of the things that makes this book so good is the narrator. The tones and accents give me a good solid grip on the characters and I really enjoy that.

I look forward to book three.

First off the good: I liked this book enough to read it in one day, having gone to the book store specifically to buy it after reading the first book in one day. The fae mythos works very well, and McGuire has lots of interesting characters that reflect a greater depth of the fae than most authors. She writes well, and the characters are interesting. The next two books already have publication dates, and I'll definitely get the third one when it comes out.

BUT....

As others have mentioned, the plot stumbles in some places, and I shouldn't be able to pick out a plot point a full 100 pages before the main character does (PARTIAL SPOILER: Alex's character). I also agree that the romantic situation with Tybalt is crystal clear and there's no excuse for Toby to be so dense about it (SPOILER: especially because she thinks Tybalt hates her, but then gets her feelings hurt when he gets upset about a spell she does) I didn't mind the ritual as much as other readers did - I saw it as fitting the character, as did her reticence at grilling suspects who are socially above her in a strict social heirarchy. What drove me crazy - and I haven't seen anyone else mention this - is in a story that hinges on mother / daughter relationships the main character does not *once* make mention of her own daughter, Gillian. She moans about Cliff, the father, but never thinks about her own kid even when she's dealing with a female teenager? Makes no sense to me, unless the author decided it was an inconvenient plot point and dumped her.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, and I'll read the third one. The writing was stronger than the first book, but the plot weaker. I'm hoping the author will have both strengths shown in the third book.

This book was just frustrating to read. I was already pretty frustrated with Toby in the first book because she basically bumpled through that whole story. I was hoping in the second book, she would have grown as a detective. So. Not. True. Other's have already posted the flaws of this book in many details so I'll just encourage anyone interested in picking up this book to first read all the other 1 - 2 star(s) reviews here. This way you'll know what you'll be getting and won't be as disappointed as I was.

I was a little disappointed in Rosemary and Rue, the first October Daye novel, but I could see tons of potential there and looked forward to the rest of the series. A Local Habitation blows it out of the water, and blows most of the urban fantasy on the shelves out of the water while it's at it.

In this installment, Duke Sylvester Torquill asks Toby to check up on his niece, January, who hasn't been returning Sylvester's calls. Jan is the countess of a small territory that lies between Sylvester's and that of a rival duchess, and is also the head of a software company. Toby arrives to find a bigger mess than she expected. Someone is murdering Jan's employees, one by one. Toby's mission: to solve the crimes without creating a diplomatic incident. This becomes a nail-biting race against time when the major players all get stranded at Jan's company campus, essentially locked in with the killer.

Toby is stronger here than she was in Rosemary and Rue, more dynamic, and more resourceful. She spends more time focused on the mystery than on her tragic past. I think there are both narrative and character reasons for this. Story-wise, Seanan McGuire doesn't need to go over the history again because she got that over with in the first book; character-wise, Toby is getting used to being a PI again. When her past does surface, it's in subtle little touches, like her fear of being submerged in water.

As for the mystery, there's one aspect that's really easy for the reader to solve. This drove me crazy as I was reading, but the morning after finishing the book, a few things clicked in my head and it didn't bother me anymore. Toby has the best excuse in the world to miss that particular type of clue. That, and I suspect McGuire may have tossed that bone to the reader on purpose. It misdirects us from some other things that are going on. It's a risky move, but it works.

McGuire's prose is a lot of fun. She infuses her writing with moments of humor and of lyrical beauty, and has a knack for using them at the right times and in the right amounts so that they never take away from the flow or suspense of the narrative. A few of my favorite passages:

* 'The humans aren't stupid, no matter what the purebloods say; they're just blind, and sometimes, that's worse. They put their fear in stories and songs, where they won't forget it. "Up the airy mountains and down the rushy glen, I dare not go a-hunting for fear of little men." We've given them plenty of reasons to fear us. Even if they've almost forgotten -- even if they only remember that we were beautiful and not why they were afraid -- the fear was there before anything else. There were reasons for the burning times; there's a reason the fairy tales survive. And there's a reason the human world doesn't want to see the old days come again.'

* 'Repetition is sometimes the best way to deal with the Luideag: just keep saying the same thing over and over until she gets fed up and gives you what you want. All preschoolers have an instinctive grasp of this concept, but most don't practice it on immortal water demons. That's probably why there are so few disembowelments in your average preschool.'

I also loved the little lit-geek moments: lots of references to Shakespeare, plus a great couple of paragraphs in which McGuire riffs on "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in almost the same breath.

The suspense, the world-building, the characterization, and the writing combine to make A Local Habitation a standout. I can't wait for An Artificial Night; I want more Toby, and definitely more Tybalt!

"A Local Habitation" was phenomenal. Someone else said it first, but this book really does have a "Ten Little Indians" feel. Toby and her sidekick (at least for this book) Quentin are given the job of checking on the niece of her liege Sylvester. January has her own small fae county tucked between two others that are at crosshairs. Janaury runs her own computer business and the reader is quickly introduced to all the characters who work there. We soon find out that this is because one by one, many of these characters will die and the reader will constantly be wondering whodunit. The mystery of the killer is amazing well done and every scene is tense with action and suspense. I love that Toby isn't perfect and it takes quite awhile for her to put all the pieces together, and yet watching her go through what she does here is exciting. Toby obviously has more power than she thinks she does and its easy to tell that this is a humble character who is just trying to do right by others. She cares strongly for young Quentin and her liege and her loyalty to all her friends is endearing. She makes bad judgement calls and is occassionally emotional, which just makes her feel realistic. If you can't tell, I really like this character. The fae world she inhabits takes some getting used to. There is no predictability to how the creatures, and even the surroundings will react and that is actually quite fun. This world is always changing and I don't think it could ever be dull. In the first book, Toby was all over the city, tracking clues and interacting with various species of fae and their homes...in "A Local Habitation" we are pretty much confined to this one office building. A risky, but smart choice for McGuire as it allows us to really feel creeped out at times, while making us grow closert to Toby and Quentin. The story never gets over the top graphic, but I do want to note that the blood tasting makes me a little squirmy. This book was a real winner and one of the best urban fantasies I have read in awhile. It is a very strong and unique story in both characterization and plot.

I so love it when a sequel not only continues upon the same excellent track as its predecessor, but adds to it. A Local Habitation takes everything I adored about Rosemary and Rue and gives it more depth, more of a kick.

Again, McGuire displays an excellent talent for keeping a reader on their toes. I swear I had the mystery solved half a dozen times, and every time I was comfortable with my conclusion something would happen, a tiny detail would be revealed, that would make me rethink my decision.

The whole book takes place in pretty much one location. For me, that added a fascinating sense of urgency to each page. There was such a finite space for all of this danger to be lurking it was tangibly inevitable that there would be a breaking point. And I loved it.

McGuire's fae world is dangerous, it has the edge to it that led the people of the Old World to refer to the Fae as the Good People/Good Neighbors, lest you offend them. That edge gets left off a bit too much in recent urban fantasy, and I cannot express how happy dangerous Fae make me. I am a mythology/folklore geek, and the excellent mix of well known and obscure creatures that McGuire peoples her world with makes me damn near giddy.

Wonderful prose. Excellent world building and intriguing characters...it is a tragedy if any fan of the urban fantasy genre misses out on these. They are part folktale, part mystery/thriller, and honestly they can, and do, appeal to folks in both the fantasy and mystery genres.

If you haven't yet, pick up Rosemary and Rue, the first October Daye book. While you are at it, get A Local Habitation. You will want to move directly from one to the next. Trust me.

Whew. That was the most strenuous couple of hours I ever spent reading a book. I don't mean strenuous as in the book is complicated. I mean strenuous as in I can't believe I had the patience to finish it. As others have probably said, nothing happens in this book. It's one big long mystery with very little, if any, actual mystery solving. Mysteries are usually the basis for urban fantasy novels, and as such they need to be well written. This one is absolutely not. Don't expect any character development, twists, action, or plot progression from A Local Habitation. The main character isn't necessarily unlikable, but there isn't much really said about her personality here other than everyone thinks she is an awesome detective. Anyone with any sense could have figured out the mystery in this book very early, but our main character didn't. There isn't very much in terms of investigating or detective work, just non important conversations and activities. I'm actually surprised and a little impressed that I had the stomach to finish this. I really can't find one redeeming quality in this novel. A badly written 400 page mystery just does not cut it in this genre and I certainly won't be reading any more from this author. Sorry I couldn't put that in a nicer way, I just really feel like I wasted my time reading this book.

The general idea of the October Daye books is one that's been told time & time again. Scrappy halfling fights against a deck that's stacked against her while potential love interests (one who may be good for her, one who may not) circle her. However many times this has been told, McGuire manages to breathe new life into something that should (by all accounts) be an idea that would be nothing new.

In the second book of the series, Toby's liege Sylvester has asked her to check in on his niece (January O'Leary) in another County who hasn't responded to any of his calls. It sounded like it would be an easy task, but somehow Toby suspects that it won't be nearly that easy. She soon discovers that January's County has a murderer on the loose- one that manages to make Toby's unique talent of reading blood invalid. With an unknown threat stalking everyone at every turn, it'll take all of Toby's resources to discover who or what is causing the deaths.

I think part of what I really enjoy about this series is that the main character *isn't* all powerful. She's a halfling with limitations & with the exception of a *very* slight power-up in the last book, her power level remains the same. Toby can do things that others can't, but her power level doesn't rise or get leveled up to god-like powers. Anything magical that needs doing, Toby has to figure out a way to do so within the scope of her powers. With so many series out there having their main characters double or triple (or more) their power levels within the first few books, its refreshing to see someone attempt to keep their character's power level at realistic levels. (For now, anyway. Its possible that Toby might get powered up in future books, but I get the impression that if it happens it will be excellently done.)

The plot in this is incredibly interesting & it really fleshes out some of the rules & protocol of McGuire's fae court system. It also explores the night haunts & what they are, which I loved. If you are someone wondering if there will be any steps towards resolving Toby's love life or her difficulty with her ex-husband & daughter. In those aspects the book is at a standstill, but in all fairness- they weren't the subject of the book & there wasn't time for Toby to really focus on such things. (The Tybalt/Toby shipper in me still hopes for a favorable resolution, though!)

If you liked the first book, you'll love this one. Plus with the next one coming out in September 2010, neither you nor I will have to wait very long for our next Toby fix. If you haven't read the previous book, I highly recommend doing so. There's enough previous plot mentioned to where new readers will be slightly confused as to what went on previously.

This series is really good. I like Seanan McGuire's writing, and Toby is a likeable character. This particular book was a little confusing at first, but the ending made sense. In fact, I had to sit down and think about it to figure out how the plot worked, which is unusual for me, and I enjoyed that. It's not often a writer can surprise me like that. Definitely looking forward to the rest of the series!

I loved this installment of Toby Daye's adventures. I agree with the other reviewers- it is really a must to have read Rosemary and Rue: An October Daye Novel inorder to get Toby's back story.

In this installment, Toby goes to Fremont on an assigment for Duke Sylvester. The plot then morph's into an Agatha Christie like who-dunnit, with characters been plucked off one by one, while Toby tries to find the killer.

The book was so good, I gulped it down in a single setting. The characters are endearing- especially Quentin and Tybalt. I really hope we get some more movement on Toby and Tybalt's relationship in the next book.

I can't wait till September for An Artificial Night: An October Daye Night

This is one of the best mysteries I've read. It kept me coming back wanting to know who did it. The main character grew and in the end things had changed. Not as great a the first book but really close. 5 stars

The general idea of the October Daye books is one that's been told time & time again. Scrappy halfling fights against a deck that's stacked against her while potential love interests (one who may be good for her, one who may not) circle her. However many times this has been told, McGuire manages to breathe new life into something that should (by all accounts) be an idea that would be nothing new.

In the second book of the series, Toby's liege Sylvester has asked her to check in on his niece (January O'Leary) in another County who hasn't responded to any of his calls. It sounded like it would be an easy task, but somehow Toby suspects that it won't be nearly that easy. She soon discovers that January's County has a murderer on the loose- one that manages to make Toby's unique talent of reading blood invalid. With an unknown threat stalking everyone at every turn, it'll take all of Toby's resources to discover who or what is causing the deaths.

I think part of what I really enjoy about this series is that the main character *isn't* all powerful. She's a halfling with limitations & with the exception of a *very* slight power-up in the last book, her power level remains the same. Toby can do things that others can't, but her power level doesn't rise or get leveled up to god-like powers. Anything magical that needs doing, Toby has to figure out a way to do so within the scope of her powers. With so many series out there having their main characters double or triple (or more) their power levels within the first few books, its refreshing to see someone attempt to keep their character's power level at realistic levels. (For now, anyway. Its possible that Toby might get powered up in future books, but I get the impression that if it happens it will be excellently done.)

The plot in this is incredibly interesting & it really fleshes out some of the rules & protocol of McGuire's fae court system. It also explores the night haunts & what they are, which I loved. If you are someone wondering if there will be any steps towards resolving Toby's love life or her difficulty with her ex-husband & daughter. In those aspects the book is at a standstill, but in all fairness- they weren't the subject of the book & there wasn't time for Toby to really focus on such things. (The Tybalt/Toby shipper in me still hopes for a favorable resolution, though!)

If you liked the first book, you'll love this one. Plus with the next one coming out in September 2010, neither you nor I will have to wait very long for our next Toby fix. If you haven't read the previous book, I highly recommend doing so. There's enough previous plot mentioned to where new readers will be slightly confused as to what went on previously.

This series is really good. I like Seanan McGuire's writing, and Toby is a likeable character. This particular book was a little confusing at first, but the ending made sense. In fact, I had to sit down and think about it to figure out how the plot worked, which is unusual for me, and I enjoyed that. It's not often a writer can surprise me like that. Definitely looking forward to the rest of the series!

I loved this installment of Toby Daye's adventures. I agree with the other reviewers- it is really a must to have read Rosemary and Rue: An October Daye Novel inorder to get Toby's back story.

In this installment, Toby goes to Fremont on an assigment for Duke Sylvester. The plot then morph's into an Agatha Christie like who-dunnit, with characters been plucked off one by one, while Toby tries to find the killer.

The book was so good, I gulped it down in a single setting. The characters are endearing- especially Quentin and Tybalt. I really hope we get some more movement on Toby and Tybalt's relationship in the next book.

I can't wait till September for An Artificial Night: An October Daye Night

This is one of the best mysteries I've read. It kept me coming back wanting to know who did it. The main character grew and in the end things had changed. Not as great a the first book but really close. 5 stars

October Daye's return to being Sylvester's knight as she solves a complex mystery continues in this second book of the series. Engaging dialogue and action-packed scenes make this book appealing to those who have already read Rosemary and Rue, and to those who are fans of Patricia Briggs, Charlaine Harris, and Kim Harrison.

A will written novel with interesting well developed characters, a fast moving story line, and ending that closed story. I would recommend this book and the series too anyone who enjoys well written mysteries.

I was barely hanging on as it was......and then the author (?) SAYS "Inertia pulled me to a stop." If one of my students said that, I would possibly cry. Inertia cannot pull you to a stop. Damn

I echo the previous reviewer's recommendation: you should read the first book, Rosemary and Rue, before reading this one. I don't know that it's 100% necessary, but your experience reading this one will be so much richer. I'm not going to do a full description here, but suffice it to say that Toby gets pulled out of her own element (San Francisco) and thrust into another mysterious situation. Seanan McGuire's writing is top-notch, with evocative descriptions, great world-building, and fun moments of humor, even (and especially) when things get pretty dark. (That's when you need the relief the most!) The overall mystery was deep enough to sustain my interest throughout. One of the little sub-mysteries was pretty obvious to me from the get-go, but I understood why Toby wouldn't have figured it out right away, so that's a very small niggle. McGuire has a deft touch with writing good relationships, too... and not just romatic ones, but friendships and familial ones as well. I'm very happy that the next book comes out in 6 months. Not that this one ends on a cliff-hanger, but I'm interested in watching how all of Toby's relationships unfold, and in finding out more of how this world works.

This series has officially become one of the best that i read, right there along with the Kate Daniel series by Ilona Andrews and Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. The great thing about it is that Seanan Mcguire releases two in a year as opposed to what other authors do and release one.

The second instalment carries on with the adventures of October 'Toby' Daye. Toby goes off on an assignment for Sylvester to the County of Tamed Lightning where it appears that the residents are being killed off one by one. Quentin tags along with Toby and i must say, i do like the growing friendship between Toby and Quen.

A lot of new characters are introduced and it is so interesting to learn about the different types of Fae. For example, January's adopted daughter April and the brother and sister duo, Alex and Terrie, who are the very rare Gaen-Cannah.

Tybalt, the King of Cats (YUM!), also plays a bigger role in this one (yayeeee!). We find out how how Tybalt gives Toby the leather jacket that she seems to be wearing on the book cover illustrations.

***SPOLIER***

I want to know why Tybalt was looking at Toby weirdly after she brought Alex back to life! He would not look at her properly afterwards but he was still protective of her, which is something that i loved!

I really enjoyed this one and cannot wait for the next. It seems so far away even though we only have to wait 6 months for it.

I'd like to try this new author, but my eyesight is not good enough to read the font in mass-market paperbacks, and my equipment won't play a CD-mp3. This sounds like good escapist fun! So----------I could download a first chapter to my Kindle app, or I could renew my Audible membership and burn disks that I could actually listen to. It strikes me that the publisher selected an odd combination of media in mass-market paperbacks and an audio format that requires new/special equipment. And really I don't want to buy equipment until Blue Tooth or even the next technology is established.

The story was over practically before it begun, but I still found myself wanting to see how we got there. I enjoy the characters and their growth, but I do wish it wasn't such a predictable 'mystery'.

The follow-up book was a bit darker and very good in its own right; however it did loose some of the energy that the first one had. Additionally, the middle sort of lagged and the ending seemed a bit rushed on this "Who Done It". Can't wait to to see what three will bring for Toby.

As mentioned in other reviews, reading Rosemary&Rue first is extremely helpful, if not necessary.

However, unlike many sequels, this is not just a rehashing of the same themes. The book manages to be its own book, despite being a sequel. The story has a very different feel -- more suspense, less action sequences. The setting moves from the big city to a small hi-tech company in a fairly small town (Fremont). Anyone who has ever worked at a small office will identify with the themes, as Toby Daye uncovers the truth beneath the "we're all friends" veneer.

My main objection has already been stated by previous reviewers, so I'm not going to say too much here. The main character is so incredibly clueless, it makes the book almost unreadably frustrating. This applies both to her insanely bumbling attempts at investigation and her failure to see the obvious in her personal life. I can't enjoy a book whose main character I consistently want to smack.

This was more of October Daye's getting out of trouble not her own. The book required the reader to know a bit more about the fae world than the author gave. It was good suspense and I'm moving on to the next book in the series.

Seanan McGuire cannot write a bad book, i have read all she has out and love all of them! the October Day series is amazing! the imagination of this Author amazes me! they are so much fun and very hard to put down!!!