Rosemary and Rue (October Daye)

Considering how the literary landscape of the urban fantasy genre is littered with subpar offerings, it's a rare joy to find a book that is as engaging and well-written as Rosemary and Rue. While it's not groundbreaking, it isn't formulaic, either. I couldn't wrap my mind around the (thankfully, few) negative reviews here and then I realized that many people start an urban fantasy novel with the general expectation of a kick-ass heroine, black and white plot lines and steamy sex. This book is much more complex than that, a trait I personally find refreshing. Without giving anything away, we find the heroine dealing with an aftermath of a personal tragedy. She is trying to piece together her broken life, so, while the plot moves fast, there are memories and thoughts weaved in among the action. I can't stress enough how well written the book is, such a rare quality among fantasy novels today. The heroine is sympathetic and a good human being, whose tragedy didn't rob her of her humanity. There is a tinge of melancholy to this book, which isn't surprising considering the heroine's personal history. I thought that the author was brave for making the first book in the series akin to second books in many other series, where you see a cliffhanger ending in the first book, and watch the heroes deal with the aftermath in the second. This unusual choice made the book more interesting and unusual, and thanks to the intelligent and engaging writing, the risk paid off.

I can't wait to read the second book in the series, which comes out tomorrow. I suspect it will be more action oriented; the preview in the first book showed the heroine in better spirits and more energetic and optimistic than she was in the first book, so we can expect a somewhat different, more hopeful tone. I'm grateful to the author for penning an excellent first book, and look forward to many more in the future!

Before I waste your time, let me be clear: I hate giving away the plot. I'm not that reviewer, so if you want a synopsis, read someone else's review.

Our protagonist is a changeling, a half-breed member of the fae, and, she is a detective with a wonderful husband and child. (I know. Horrible, chick lit, co-opting the fairy world for its nefarious purposes. Snore.) But then, something happens, and you spend the rest of the book solving a murder of one of the higher fae, and following our heroine through a lot of remorse and reunion with characters that she used to know.

Set in the fairy Summerlands, and the environment of a kid who grew up in foster care in the San Francisco Bay area, the writing itself is good, so good that you want to describe this novel like a piece of music. Something like: coda, main theme, lots of rustling pianissimo, main theme, coda.

There isn't so much dramatic tension that the story is incredibly compelling, but it is really inventive, and it's engrossing because of that. Author, Seanan Mcguire is a show-don't-tell type of storyteller, and because the emotional foundations have been laid in this book, I suspect that the dramatic tension will be better in her next two novels, which apparently are already written. (!)

However, this may be the kind of talespinning that doesn't need lots of layers of meaning: in Mcguire's creation of an alternative place to inhabit, she builds a new fantasy world, describing things like "look-away" spells, the differences among the powers and appearances of the fae, the social class disparity between changelings and fae, various social conventions and a fair amount of fairy geography. Also, Mcguire manages something that only Tolkien, Lord Dunsany and Gaiman manage to do in the context of fantasy: she creates creatures that will haunt your dreams.

Seanan McGuire, Rosemary and Rue (DAW, 2009)

What amuses me is that I've been reading the store reviews about this in preparation for writing (something I rarely do), and I just saw a whole lot of reviews that turned how I feel about the book on its head. How does that work, exactly? Different strokes for different folks, I guess. A lot of people were enchanted with the premise and felt the rest of the book a letdown. I had planned to start my review talking about how wooden the book's premise is, and how I came close to abandoning it before it finally got round to picking up. Oh, wait, I just did do that. There you go.

October "Toby" Daye is half-human, half-fae. She's also an investigator. (I think my first mistake was in reading this concurrently with the sixth Dresden Files novel; the similarities between the two series have been gone over endlessly, I won't reprise them here.) In the beginning of the book, she messes up, gets caught, and ends up a koi for fourteen years. Eventually, someone turns her back human, and once that happens, she does her best to avoid the fae world altogether; no magic, no mysteries, no nothing but being a graveyard-shift checkout girl in a local fleabag grocery store, living in a ground-floor apartment with a couple of cats. But the fae world won't leave well enough alone, and when an old acquaintance of Toby's gets herself killed, she lays a curse on Toby with her dying breath to find the killer. Thus, magic, mysteries, and the entire lot.

Okay, first: can we be done with the whole urban fantasy thing now? Yes, that was a rhetorical question. I know publishers will scare up every urban-fantasy-fanfic writer they can, sign them to the midlist, and beat this dead horse until it's nothing but leather and bone. (You doubt me? Former fanfic writers with contracts are still rare, but not unheard-of. Two words: Cassandra Clare.) We've already passed well outside the realm of originality. What's left is to sift through the chaff and find the few kernels that at least do it with some sort of style, or panache, or flair. Once we get through the slow, wooden prologue and McGuire finds her pace, we get that. Toby is a worthwhile character, complex enough to note though not entirely three-dimensional (put it down to the fae thing). She's got interesting friends in all the wrong places, and McGuire puts together a solid mystery plot. Of course, there are threads aplenty left open for sequels, but that's to be expected in this day and in a genre where a standalone novel is as common as a zebra without stripes.

In short: solid novel with a slow beginning. Definitely worth seeing where she goes with this series. *** ½

I love books about the fairy world mingling with our world. Since I haven't been all the thrilled with the Meredith Gentry books lately, I was excited to start another series that deals with the fairy world. There are a number of young adult series out there that deal with the fairy world but not many adult novels. This ended up being a pretty good book. I think this series has a lot of promise.

October Daye is a changeling, half human half fairy. She is also a Knight of the fairy realms and has a daughter and a human boyfriend. At least she had those things until she made a fatal mistake and was changed into a koi fish for fourteen years. When she returns to the human world everything has changed for her, her daughter won't see her, her investigation business has been sold off and she has been declared dead. In her new life she has one goal, to never deal with fairy again. Unfortunately her new goal will not be realized. She receives a call from a prominent fairy noble named Evening. Evening is in trouble and she magically binds October to figure out what is going on. Now October is thrust back into the fairy world and she must solve Evening's murder; if she doesn't her life is forfeit.

There's a lot to like in this book. The world McGuire has created is complex, detailed, and very believable. It is focused mainly on the city of San Francisco and surrounding California, but does look like it could easily be expanded to wider horizons. The characterization is another strong point. The characters are believable, unique, have intriguing pasts, and are not always good or evil but a mix of both. These characters are fascinating and that extends to the side characters as well as the main ones.

There are some wonderful action scenes in this book. McGuire does an excellent job with these. The plot is fast moving and very engaging. The book was hard to put down, you always wonder what is going to happen to October next and if she will be successful in solving the murder. This is definitely not a romance book, but an action packed urban fantasy. Although October is not an action hero or a super hero; she is more of an ordinary everyday girl trying to make a living but constantly getting thrust into extraordinary situations.

McGuire did an excellent job of keeping October focused on her goals. I hate it when the heroine gets so scattered and distracted that she doesn't know what she's doing; that didn't happen in this book. McGuire also did an excellent job of bringing the main storyline in this book to a close; while leaving some threads hanging for the next book. Another nice thing was how McGuire summarized what October needs to focus on in the next book at the end of this book. I appreciated the pronunciation guide included as well. It would have been nice to have a Glossary to help you keep all the fairy races straight.

There were a couple of things that I didn't like about the book. Personally I didn't like October as much as a character. She spent a lot of the beginning of the book trying to shrug off her responsibilities; she also does a lot of stupid things throughout the book. I also wasn't a huge fan of McGuire's overall writing style. At times it didn't seem to flow all that well for me and it was a bit difficult to read. This is a pretty small quibble, but there are some books out there that are absolutely effortless to read they are so natural and this wasn't one of those books for me. Lastly you get a lot of different types of fairies thrown at you right away. McGuire is inconsistent about describing these different races, sometimes she does and sometimes you are left to struggle through it on your own. This is another reason why a index or glossary of fairy races would have been nice.

Overall I liked the book. I think this could be the start of a magnificent series. Like many first books, this one could have used a little more polish, but the main elements are there. Mcguire is very good at world-building and characterization and writes some awesome action scenes. I am looking forward to reading the next book "A Local Habitation" due out in March 2010.

After seeing the overwhelmingly positive reviews for "Rosemary and Rue" this book had some huge expectations to fill. The basic premise sounded exciting enough. Toby Daye used to be a fae PI but once on a case she was cursed to fourteen years as a fish in the water. When she breaks free of the spell, her husband and young daughter want nothing to do with her.(Honestly this part baffled me. I would have thought they would have rejoices knowing she was alive, especially the daughter. Her disappearance was odd enough that it would be obvious she didn't volunarily leave, so this was a weak point) Now she struggles to keep up a human appearance and a human life using just a few Fae touches to keep herself looking the part. When her friend/enemy Evening is murdered, Evening puts a curse on Toby that forces her to find Evening's killer or die trying. Unable to resist, Toby takes on the hunt for the killer. During this course of activity, Toby faces many people in the fae community and at first I was overwhelmed trying to keep track of each new character and how they fit into the world McGuire was building. Just before the halfway mark, the book found its groove and all the characters and pieces started to fall in place for me. After this point, the story flew off the pages for me. Toby is no hero and a lot of things go wrong for her. This was refreshing and I enjoyed rooting for Toby. So many urban heroines have powers coming out their ears and Toby doesn't so much, which leads to her having more humanity than one would think. I thought I knew 'who done it' early on and I was correct yet the I never felt cheated by that fact. I am more than intrigued by this first story and I have added the follow up to my wish list. If this series takes off the way it should based on "Rosemary and Rue", it should be a can't miss set of books no urban fantasy lover should miss.

I couldn't wait to get my hands on Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire. I don't remember where I first heard about this book but the title really piqued my interest. The more I read, the more I was chomping at the bit to get this book. San Francisco, faeries, a heroine named October, what's not to love! The premise is deceptively simple. October "Toby" Daye is a changeling, her dad was human and her mother wasn't. She lives in our world working as a private investigator with a fiancé and a daughter. On the side, she also does investigative work for the lands of Faerie and her liege lord, Sylvester. The unthinkable occurs and Sylvester's wife and daughter are taken from his lands quite mysteriously. He is desperate to get them back and calls Toby for assistance. His twin brother, Simon is the most likely suspect. Toby follows him for three days when she finally gets a break. He goes to the Tea Gardens and meets up with Oleander, who sounds like quite a nasty Fae. Then all of a sudden, things go wrong. They knew she was hiding; watching them. They capture her and transform her into a fish! No one knows what has happened to her. Fast forward to fourteen years later!!!! Toby is back among the air breathing world. The spell wore off and Toby looks exactly the same as the day she disappeared. Try explaining that to the police or her family! Life in a shambles, she works the graveyard shift at a grocery store and tries to pretend that Faerie doesn't exist. One of the few people from her old life, Evening Winterrose, calls and leaves a couple of messages on her machine, each more insistent than the last. The final message reveals that Evening is in terrible trouble. She wants to hire Toby to solve her murder, casting a curse so that Toby can't refuse. The message ends with a door slamming open, footsteps, and then a gunshot. Now Toby has to reenter Faerie and find out who took Evening's life before the curse ends hers as well.

This book is haunting, even after you finish it. I was so impressed with this book that I want to read it again. Faerie and our world exist side by side; this is what urban fantasy is all about! The language Ms. McGuire uses is lyrical, entrancing. Nor does she scrimp on the details. Descriptions are vivid, Kelpies on the street corner, pixies living in the Safeway. I was stunned when she was captured and turned into a fish, crying for her at the loss of her boyfriend and child. When we see Toby again I wanted to weep for her life is so desolate, barren of friends except for her cats Cagney and Lacey. When Toby disappeared it was 1995 and she wakes up in 2009 and her feelings of alienation and confusion and guilt come through loud and clear. Evening's death drags her back into her old life forcing her to start to deal with the people who were left behind. This volume definitely focuses on solving Evening's death but I hope some other mysteries will be cleared up in subsequent volumes. Mysteries like the fact that Sylvester's wife and child were returned to him while Toby was "away". They don't speak of what happened while they were gone. What happened to Simon and Oleander (who make great bad guys)? Another is the mystery of Toby's mother, Amandine. There are a lot of references to her but we don't meet her. And last but certainly not least, The Luidaeg. I know we have to be seeing more of her later. This is a stellar debut from Seanan McGuire. Rosemary and Rue is urban fantasy at its best!
Originally reviewed at Night Owl Romance

Good urban fiction is hard to find. There's more than one hopeful newcomer who manages to get past the first hurdle of getting published, only to stumble when their work fails to capture the public eye. More than one author has attempted to publish a series, only to then be told that the publishing house doesn't want more of their work. (Such was the case with the ill fated Katie Chandler series that only had 4 books published before the author's contract wasn't re-upped & that series was pretty decent.) Hopefully McGuire will have far better luck than that because this book was very entertaining.

The book begins with October "Toby" Daye on a stakeout, only to be spotted by her quarry & spelled into the form of a fish. She remains as a fish for 14 years, during which she loses everything- her home, fiancée & child. When Toby finally manages to break the spell somehow, she makes the decision that she will never again involve herself in the world of magic. This decision proves to be futile when the murder of one of the older fae causes her to be bound by a curse- find the murderer or die.

I didn't really know if I'd like this series or not. Urban fiction is a funny beast. Sometimes it works & sometimes it doesn't. For every Kim Harrison, there's another author whose works are bland & boring. The premise of the novel was intriguing, so I finally gave it a chance. I'm glad I did.

McGuire's tale of fairies & changelings isn't entirely new, but she does manage to breathe a little freshness into it. McGuire focuses greatly on the role of rules & vows in the world of the fae, which is oddly enough something that isn't usually done. Many books will mention it, but then choose to focus on something else such as magic or sex. McGuire also brings in the several different kinds of fae into the mix, which is something that is also not done very often... and she makes a lot of sense when she does it. With the functions of many of the fae, McGuire makes their purposes seem very natural for the storyline.

I liked the character of Toby & I liked her potential love interests, which I won't discuss here for the sake of space, spoilers & to save you from the beginnings of fangirl gush. I'm looking forward to finding out more about each of the characters, including the reasons as to what makes Toby so special to so many powerful people. She's not that terribly powerful, so there's go to be something besides her personality that drives people to be so driven to help her. (It's not like there's not a hundred or so changelings in the San Fran area, after all.)

The only big flaw of this book is that occasionally there's a few points to the book where the book just kind of drags while the plot points shift gears in order to move the story along. It doesn't ruin the book, but it does make for the occasional moment where your attention wavers. I also didn't understand why Toby's ex-fiancee was so angry at her. Either there's more to their relationship that we weren't told or he's under a spell that compels him to stay away from her or makes him believe she abandoned them on purpose. (Or he could just be a royal jerk. Either way, Toby should be able to see her daughter.)

I really enjoyed this book & I while this book wasn't perfect, it's incredibly promising. I can only hope that the next few books do a bit more explanation & work out the kinks.

The Good: Rosemary and Rue had a few unexpected twists and turns in its story. Glamour taking a toll, magic working easier in the darkness of night, and things of that nature made the world take on a certain rule-following realism. I especially liked that Toby had been away from the world for so long, literally making her a fish out of water once she returned.

The Bad: The premise of the October Daye series is just too familiar. A fae changeling outsider, private investigator? If you change changeling to princess you have Laurell K. Hamilton's Meredith Gentry series - with less sex. Both series stick closely to the old fae myths and legends, which is good for storytelling, but makes the series remarkably similar. While I liked Toby, her life was almost the same as Merry's - if Merry was celibate. And unfortunately, there seemed to be a glaring neon sign above the killer throughout the novel, making the reveal bland.

Rosemary and Rue is the debut novel from Seanan McGuire. She credits Tanya Huff (among others) in her acknowledgments, and I can definitely see why. This is an urban fantasy, Elves-in-America story, told from a half-breed's point of view. The story is set in the harsh grey of San Francisco, in the alleys and the fog and along the windy, cold ocean. The main character, October Daye, is a private investigator covered in grit and grime and attitude, who spends the condensed plot cycle staggering from weakness to failure to friends who put her back together again, and repeating the cycle again and again.

October - "Toby" - has many reasons to be bitter, and few reasons to still have as much hope and desire for good as she does. Her ironic sense of humor is all the funnier when it twists around in the situation (and she ends up with a rose goblin named Spike), and her leaps of logic are easy to follow from within the first-person narrative ("Because you hate me."). Her background and current situation are painful and immediate in every little gesture, which McGuire manages to communicate without dwelling overmuch on the I- I- I- of every scene.

Once major challenge that McGuire had to overcome with the introduction of a "new" universe to a nearly jaded audience was how to educate newbies on many different types of sidhe and fairie forms without boring those who might already know. She accomplished that through creative use of dreams, third-character interactions, and magical interludes. A lot was still left up to the reader to decide if it was worth pursuing (who is Maeve, for example) because the background would provide depth but no change in meaning to the plot.

The biggest weakness to the book was that it had to cover so much back story that McGuire had to simplify some relationships too much. The who-done-it really wasn't a who nearly so much as a why, though McGuire tried for some misdirection using a couple of the secondary characters. She also killed off some secondary characters whose deaths weren't quite necessary, especially toward the end of the fight. The biggest strength to the book was its simplicity of presentation. McGuire did not aim for Epic! Worldbuilding! Fiction! She crafted and presented a character, a problem, help and harm, and pulled it all together nicely in the end. The ending was almost LKHamilton in its brevity (unfortunately), but can be excused as the first in a series.

ROSEMARY AND RUE, which gets its title from Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale, is a gritty and glorious true urban fantasy. I defy you to put this book down after the first chapter.

The world building in ROSEMARY AND RUE is among the best I've ever read in an urban fantasy. The world of the Faerie is as dangerous and beautiful as a glass rose. In the human world, unbeknownst to us, Kelpies lurk in dark alleys, Pixies wage wars over grocery store turfs, and bridge trolls drive taxis. Full blooded Faeries have always derided the Changelings with their mixed human and Faerie blood, and forced them to survive the cruel and ruthless life on the fringes of both worlds.

The writing is also beautifully textured. Seanan masterfully brings her world to life by giving her readers a completely sensory experience. The signature scents of magic unique to the one who cast it, the feel of acidic iron slicing through faerie flesh, the sound of dawn cracking apart the illusions of the previous night. You will believe you are in ROSEMARY AND RUE rather then just reading it.

My only complaint is the nature of some of the relationships in ROSEMARY AND RUE. Toby grew up in a place called Home, a kind of Dickens-esque refuge for Changelings that is run by another, more powerful Changeling. The relationship that they had was seriously twisted and abusive. It didn't make sense to me that Toby would harbor any lingering feelings for him.

Overall, ROSEMARY AND RUE shocked me with how good it was. Toby is an excellent damaged yet strong heroine in the vein of Kate Daniels, the urban and fantasy elements are given equal importance in Seanan's Faerie/San Francisco setting. There promises to be more revelations about Toby in the subsequent books in this series. A Local Habitation is available now, and An Artificial Light, the third October Daye novel will be released on September 7, 2010.

Sexual Content: References to sex. References to prostitution. References to sexual abuse.

Finally I've found a good pure urban fantasy that features faeries! And this book is definitely urban fantasy NOT urban fantasy/paranormal romance. I would liken this book to book 1 of the Dresden Files, but that would lessen the uniqueness of its 'voice' and world.

A lot of authors try to bring faerie into cities and fail, with the faeries ending up being just humans with pointy ears or the boundaries between the two seeming forced and unnatural. Rosemary and Rue is not one of these - it strikes just the right note between the eerie otherness of faerie and the 'real world' city of San Fransisco. There are doors to different farie kingdoms - knowes - spread all over the city but the world-building is so clever that you never doubt this. The fae themselves are as varied, interesting, beautiful and deadly as anyone could want. My favourite minor character is Tybalt,the King of Cats, who I suspect (hope) will turn into a love interest in later books, although he is not presented as such in this one.

The story is told in first person by October "Toby" Daye, a half-fae half-human changeling. The plot sparks off with the murder of one of her faerie friends who binds her to find out who did it. Toby is a character struggling to cope - after spending 14 years as a fish under a curse she is out of step with both the human world and faerie and has lost her family. At the start of the book she just wants to be left alone by faerie and lick her wounds. Her friend's murder forces her to act but she still struggles against her lot for the greater part of the book. Much of the time she is reacting rather than acting, fumbling around blind. This can be irritating but it rings true to the character. By the end she has grown as a character.

I feel this book has great potential as a series. There's lots of questions that still need answering. The world building in the first one was brilliant and by the end Toby has grown enough that you want to read more about her. 4 1/2 stars rather than 5 because the plot progressed slowly at times, taking second place to world-building. I'm looking forward to reading the next one.

Just as I start to think that I could not stand to read another Urban Fantasy, an author produces a book that causes me to get excited about this genre again. And I will state up front that I have already pre-ordered the second book in this series due out in March 2010. However, anyone who is cliff hanger phobic should not worry. This book is complete within itself with a satisfying ending.

The viewpoint character, October "Toby" Daye is a changeling. She was working as a detective in San Francisco in 1995 with a young daughter and a fiance that she loves dearly, when Something happens. This Something rips her away from her happy life for 14 years. When the reader picks her up again she is working the night shift in a grocery store and trying to avoid all of her Fae contacts.

Of course she isn't left in this relative peace. There are events occurring among the Fae and a geas is set on she to compelled her to become involved in a search for a murderer. And the adventure begins.

The world building is excellent. In fact, I'm so excited about this book that I'm a bit incoherent.

Just to let potential readers know what to expect-- not a romance, not a fluffy comedy, not a horror novel, not a Young Adult novel. I would however urge anyone who enjoys a good fantasy novel to give this one close look.

Thank you, Ms McGuire

Long Overdue! Forgive me!!!

Rosemary and Rue: An October Daye Novel
Seanan McGuire
DAW (2009), Paperback, 368 pages

Drat it, Seanan! You really do make it hard to not write a spoiler filled review! I shall endeavor to do your craft the credit it deserves. Sigh

Rosemary and Rue may be Seanan's debut novel, but is FAR from the beginning of her writing career. As a writer who has her quill in all manner of projects, from novels to writing - and singing - baudy songs, to doing what she does in her `other life' (which benefits many people greatly) she's always processing huge amounts of information to be used later. And she eventually will find a place for every single scrap of it. I know she will!

Having said that, R&R is a complicated story from the start, as we discover Toby, a half-bred human/fairy, trying to put things together after spending a considerable amount of time rather inconveniently indisposed after the PI assignment she was working goes terribly wrong.

As a Private Investigator in San Francisco she handles all kind of cases, from the mundane missing mutt to the crafty dealings of the Fae. She settles down to a `relatively' normal life, working at Safeway, because her PI license was suspended during her unexplained absence, and comes home one morning (liking the night shift) to find a message that embroils her in an investigation - whether she likes it or not.

This is something that she can't walk away from, and has her ranging the locales of San Francisco as well as the ways to the Faerie Lands. You see, she's not just Toby Daye, the worst night clerk Safeway had ever seen, she's also October Daye, Knight of the Shadowed Hills, in service to His Grace, Duke Sylvester Torquill of the Shadowed Hills and the Daoine Sidhe.. You just know it's going to get complicated.

Ms McGuire writes a complex and crafty tale... far too much to be one book, or even the three that are currently contracted for. There are a lot of loose threads hanging around this tapestry, but I believe, given the opportunity, Seanan will skillfully weave them all together in as many books as it takes. When she does, it will be a truly spectacular tapestry.

Overall; 4 Stars (hate to dock you that star, but there are still too many things running around loose in here. One of them probably carried it off -- are Rose Goblins like raccoons and find *Shiny* things irresistable?)

Original review resides at [...] (c)2010 SomewhatBent ~ Limited license granted to the store.com for non-exclusive use of content contained herein.

Rosemary and Rue was a wonderful series starter for the half fae/human changeling private detective October 'Toby' Daye. Toby is drawn back into the Fae world she's been trying to avoid, due to the shame of failing a client and grief over losing her human family, as the result of a stakeout gone bad. But drawn back in she is. And against her will or not it, it makes no difference because solving a Fae friend's murder is now a matter of life or death - Toby's.

Toby was a likeable and promising heroine, but I am hoping that she's used up her quota of brushes with death for the series. I realize that part of leaving Toby mortally wounded multiple times was too show what she was up against, and to emphasis the handicap of being only part Fae - having all of the weaknesses without but not having the major magic to even the scales. But really the best part of the story for me was the alternate San Francisco which was home to numerous hidden Fae holdings and the incredible variety of Fae species living there. McGuire populated his world with so many different kinds of Fae creatures that he felt the need to include a glossary in the front of the book, but actually he did a good enough job in the story of explaining even the 'walk-ons' that I didn't have to look once.

There already two more October Daye books waiting in the wings, can't wait to see what McGuire does with this series and its incredible world.

I'll be honest, when I first started this book, I did not like it. The seperation of the mother and her child bothered me so much that it soured the majority of the following pages. There were times when I honestly wasn't sure I wanted to finish it. It just bothered me that much. But I kept going and continued with the series, and I'm so glad I did.

Toby, the "hero" of the series, is half normal, half Faerie. After a horrible, magical incident that caused her to lose over a decade of her human life, she turns her back on her supernatural half and tries to live as a human recluse. When her last true friend is murdered, she "bounds" Toby into finding her killer, forcing Toby to re-enter life, both human and Faerie.

Toby is forced to reconcile with the people that let her down and that she herself let down. She teams up with former enemies, and makes new ones. She struggles with learning how to accept both sides of herself and she fails quite a few times. That's what makes her so endearing. She doesn't have all the answers and doesn't pretend to.

This was a wonderful book. It introduces characters that make you want to see them again (and luckily, most you will). The writing is witty and heartbreaking at the same time. While the ending is a little easy to see coming, it doesn't diminish it's impact. It was a fun book to read and a wonderful start to a series.

Rosemary and Rue finds a nice balance between a hard-boiled detective novel and faerie fantasy. Toby, our protagonist, suffers triumphs and defeats, such as the loss of 14 years of her life that shatters her relationship with her fiancee and daughter. This is all in the first two chapters, so no true spoilers. The rest is Toby trying to fight her nature, her world and ultimately beat the bad guys. But nothing is simple in this book. Nor is it depressingly harsh and horrible. There is tempered hope and overall the effect is thinking entertainment, not depressing, despite the realities such as good people dying and nothing wrapping up with pretty paper and perfect bows at the end. And, yes, there is an ending, no cliffhanger beyond wondering what the characters will do next to get on with their lives. I wanted a light read, but this is better than that, an entertaining read that creates an entire world with its own rules but the trappings of San Francisco.

The comparisons so far--which are inevitable and often helpful--are to Jim Butcher, Tanya Huff and Kim Harrison. I'd add Sue Grafton and Emma Bull and the more entertaining detective novelists from the Golden Age. My favorite genres are fantasy and mystery and this combines both for a fun read suitable for a wide audience. I'm looking forward to the series...

October "Toby" Daye, is a changeling who is half human and half fae. After a private investigation goes wrong she falls victim to a spell that turns her into a fish where she spends fourteen years of her life in a pond. When the spell finally breaks she retreats to a normal life where she lives as a human working in a grocery store. She refuses to live part of her life with or around the fae. The murder of Countess Evening Winterrose pulls Toby back into the fae world. Unable to resist Evening's dying curse, left in a voice mail, Toby is compelled to find the killer or killers.

I found this world of the fae with the hidden doors that lead to the faes Knowes and the people behind those doors, very unique. Toby doesn't have very many real friends in the world of the fae. It's not a black or white world but a world of gray. I thought the book was different and entertaining, but often bleak. No one person is truly her friend or her enemy except for her liege. It had some very good action scenes with shootings and poison by lead bullets. She was often hurt and running and it made for a very entertaining read.

Rosemary and Rue takes place in San Francisco, but is set in the world of faerie, and tells the story of half-human, half-Fae Toby (October) Daye. Toby has been doing her best to live a solitary human-life, but a murder and a binding spell force her to return to the world of Faerie. Literally unable to do anything but, Toby begins a hunt for the truth about the murder, but uncovers much more than she bargained for along the way. A twist at the end of the first chapter had me hooked, and from there I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen to Toby as she worked to uncover the killer. And since Toby is actually racing against time in her quest to solve the murder, the story never slows.

Seanan has created a rich and layered world that exists right along side of our own, and is populated with truly fascinating characters. Toby is smart, strong and brave, but she's also the type of character that you can't help but thinking "I want to be friends with this girl". On the surface, Rosemary and Rue is a supernatural mystery, but it's also a story filled with heart that touches on issues that many of us struggle with in our daily lives. I believe anyone who enjoys a well written, riveting supernatural tale will thoroughly enjoy Rosemary and Rue.

I had been eyeballing this title on the shelves for weeks, completely indecisive on whether or not to purchase an unknown. I had been burned before on poorly written romance masquerading as urban fantasy. Happily, I was wrong!

The grittiness of the world, the cruelty, the unfairness, the struggle, and eventual betrayal made McGuire's world building wholly believable and enthralling.

What really intrigued me and kept me turning pages was October's struggle. Her loss. Her way of dealing. You see very active movement and growth from the first moment you meet her to the final pages and her triumphs as well as personal losses. It's not that you are cheering for her but you feel vast empathy for the things she's going through and the things she went through.

The potential for McGuire's world to grow bigger and more intriguing is endless. She's set a very good base for October's powers as well as a logical set of rules for magic and power. As long as she sticks too it I'll happily be buying the next book.

I highly recommend this is you're looking for some fascinating world building and intriguing characters. It is NOT like Laurell K. Hamilton nor J.R. Ward. I would liken it to a darker version of Charles de Lint.

Courtesy of Lost Art Audiobook Review

On Narration:
This is the first time I've heard Mary Robinette Kowal read. She is also the author and narrator of Shades of Milk and Honey. It was an excellent reading, very appropriate for the character. The narrative voice is light and young-sounding, but with enough of an edge to pass for what I would consider the voice of a half-fairy, tiny, light, bounty-hunting kickass woman. There are a lot of interesting accents, and moments of injury and weariness in the audiobook, and Mary Robinette Kowal's reading carries the emotion. My only criticism is that some of her more interesting or intricate accents, for Tybalt and Lilly, for example, require her to slow down her reading and enunciate very carefully, which does drag out certain parts.

The structure of Rosemary and Rue is very formulaic, but for the record, that's a good thing. All good stories have certain features in common. The story, the twist, the archetypes, are all familiar, even mythical. There is a very strong call to action here in the form of a binding - Toby must find Overall, the audiobook presents a great mythical journey set in a modern-day fairy tale. You get gripped from the first of Toby's mishaps. Although, I have to admit that even though the storyline was very good, I only truly connected with Toby on the second part of the audiobook, after the awesome car scene over the Golden Gate Bridge.

The use of fantastic elements in Rosemary and Rue is pretty phenomenal. I particularly enjoyed Seanan McGuire's take on some of the more interesting fae. For example, the kelpie you meet in the book is fascinating - a large black horse with glowing red eyes that just happens to smell like the sea, and of course have very, very sharp teeth. Also, there is nothing cuter than the idea of the rose goblin - a kitty cat covered with rose thrones that rattles them when it gets upset. It's also nice to see a few more tales, tiger stripes, and fox ears on characters outside of anime.

However, I had this terrible feeling of sadness throughout the audiobook. I'm hoping that as the journey progresses the listener might get to see Toby return to a more normal world, where she might be reunited with her human family, or find some sort of a happy existence beyond constant nightmares, living alone barely on minimum wage, in fear for her life. Throughout Rosemary and Rue, it seems like the universe is out to kick Toby when she's down. Even the title itself is a terribly sad reference in the book that you only understand at the very end.

Every year at Comic-Con, I get a stack of books from the freebie piles on the various publisher tables. All of them have glorious things written on the backs, and all of the publishers say wonderful things about the authors and stories. Most get skimmed through once and put on a shelf.

This year, one of the books in the stack was "Rosemary and Rue" by Seanan McGuire. The cover blurbs teemed with references to Tanya Huff and Jim Butcher, who are among my favorite authors in the crowded "Urban Fantasy" genre.

So anyway, I got home after the con, and grabbed a book at random from the stack to be read while I was soaking my sore feet and back in the tub. It turned out to be Rosemary and Rue, and I was worthless at my real job the next day, as I'd finished the book the previous night.

McGuire writes brilliant, four-dimensional characters, and has built a world for them to inhabit that, while familiar to those who read urban fantasy, is different enough and credible enough to make it it's own place. The protagonist, October "Toby" Daye, is a halfie with skills, a history, and an attitude, all of which make it hard for her to live either in the real world, or in the world of Faerie.

But McGuire goes well beyond the usual neither-nor angst of typical fantasy adventures that feature a young female protagonist, and builds characters with depth, hidden qualities, inner and outer conflicts, and lots of self-doubt, without getting slick, maudlin or self-pitying (the few instances of "why me?" in the book are in places where most of us would probably say something noticeably less polite), and without getting slick or predictable.

The characters know each other. How much, as is true of real life, is in constant question. Some like each other, some don't. Some trust each other, most don't (which is wise). There is magic, but it is subtle, and the rules are pretty clear and are followed fastidiously.

So far, the world is one that is personal, and is not scheduled to be ended by Toby. That is a nice change, and I am looking forward to seeing how McGuire keeps her characters honest. Much as I enjoy a good "Let's blow things up!" novel occasionally, I greatly prefer one where the characters, regardless of species, are *people*, and have to deal with life as it happens to them. McGuire delivers.

What a fascinating book! There were some really sad sections for our main character, Toby, but I enjoy a bit of angst now and then. The pace was fabulous and the author's take on Faerie and Fae realms is so intelligent and unique. It's clear she did her research, too. The writing was awesome and flowed so easily that I could just curl up and forget the rest of the world!

Toby did tend to put up personal walls, but I'm hopeful that she will learn to allow others to assist her in the future instead of attempting to fight all her battles alone. There is tremendous potential here. I'm moving to the next installment ASAP!

"All magic hurts," says October "Toby" Daye, and she'd know better than most.

_Rosemary and Rue_ begins in 1995, when Toby, a half-faerie/half-human P.I., runs afoul of some nasty faeries while trying to solve a kidnapping. Toby is cursed, rendered out of commission for fourteen years, and in the process loses the happy human life she'd been trying to build.

It's been six months since Toby was released from her curse. She wants nothing to do with the fae, but the fae won't let her go that easily. When Countess Evening Winterrose, with whom Toby shared an uneasy friendship, is murdered, she lays a geas on Toby in her final moments: Toby must solve the crime or forfeit her own life. Rosemary and Rue tells the story of Toby's investigation of that murder, and of her reunions (some happy, some not) with the faeries she knew in the past.

My overall impression of _Rosemary and Rue_ is one of pain, both emotional and physical. Seanan McGuire makes our heart ache for Toby in the first few chapters as we learn her history. As for physical pain, this woman gets hurt more often than Devon Monk 's Allie Beckstrom, and that takes some doing.

McGuire has done a great job of world-building. She's done her research about faeries, and it shows. I always like it when an author can successfully make fae culture seem foreign -- governed by rules completely unlike our own -- rather than just a more glamorous version of human culture. McGuire's take on faerie society and etiquette is reminiscent of Emma Bull 's. The buzz about _Rosemary and Rue_ is that it's a book where "old school" and "new school" urban fantasy meet, and in that respect, the buzz is accurate. I also liked the hints of faerie history and the way McGuire wove her fantasy world into the real geography of San Francisco. There are also a few delightful inventions that are all McGuire's own, like the rose goblins. (I wonder how my dog would get along with a rose goblin...)

I was a little disappointed in the novel as a whole. The problem, I think, is Toby. She's not driving this story. I wanted to see her shake off her inertia and kick some butt or, since she's presented as a "brains" character rather than a "brawn" character, kick some metaphorical butt by doing some great detecting. But while Toby is constantly in trouble, getting shot, etc., she doesn't take the initiative very often. Even the solution to the crime is almost handed to her. Then there's her love life. When Toby sleeps with a real sleazebag of a character, McGuire proves that even a fade-to-black scene can leave an icky taste in the reader's mouth.

That said, I will be reading further in the October Daye series. I really like the world Seanan McGuire portrays here, and I think I could come to love Toby if she sticks to the resolutions she makes at the end of _Rosemary and Rue_. (And if she realizes that a certain gentleman of the feline persuasion is actually quite enamored of her. Team Tybalt, all the way!)

I have read this entire series....twice. It's one of my favorites. The first book is good, the second book is okay (better if you like technology since the main scene is in a facility with an orphaned wood nymph that has been somehow placed into a computer, essentially creating an A.I. character), and the third book on just get better and better. I love Toby and the development of all of the other characters. Later in the series, the King of Cats becomes more and more involved in the plotlines and he ends up being a great character. Altogether a well written series.

This one had me instantly hooked. I loved Toby's(October) inner dialogue from the start. She was such a quirky fun and sarcastic character. For all the bad stuff that happened to her she could still pick herself up and try and live. It tends toward the darker, grittier spectrum of Urban Fantasy but I don't mind the darker stuff too much. The only thing I found semi confusing was in this was all the different kinds of Fae. There are so many types that it got hard to keep them straight and what kind is what. It doesn't draw away from the story at all but its just confusing to remember who's who. So I'm definitely going to continue with this series, I can see it being a lot of fun.

I admit I was predisposed to adore this, being a long-time fan of her blog. However, this is urban fantasy with much more developed fae world that I've ever seen - there are rose goblins and cait sidhe and undines and hobs and all sorts of fae in here. Most other urban fantasy takes one or two of the more well-known types and only makes mention of the rest. This level of detail shouldn't surprise anyone who has even the vaguest idea of what-all goes on inside Seanan's head - it's a very busy place.

When I think about other urban fantasy, specifically the fae-world-alongside-our-own kind, they pretty much all use a clueles POV character - that way the author can explain things about faerie to them and hence to us. But Toby is an integral part of this world from the get-go. She has a life, a family, a history, etc. - all richly intertwined with the lives of the fae whe interacts with. After a very brief set-up in a prologue, we are basically dropped down in the middle of this and just expected to keep up as best we can. I suspect that this will make for the best kind of re-read; the kind where you find new things or connect new dots that you didn't notice the first time.

I confess to occasionally stopping to giggle at a particularly Seanan-esque turn of phrase, like "That's unexpected. And kind of insane." or "He gave me the sort of look usually reserved for people with contagious diseases and unpaid bills." or even "I'm a Selkie. We drown people semiprofessionally". Also, I kind of want a pet rose goblin now.

I look forward to re-reading this, as well as tagging along on Toby's next adventure (while safely out of gunshot range). We only have to wait 6 more months.

This book has a definate case of exposition overload, a condition common to first books in a series, with a healthy dose of over-telling on the side. It's a book full of unrealized potential and falls just short of being good.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD: October Daye is a changling (half faerie, half human) who works as a privite investigator both in the human world and for her fairy superiors. The book opens up with her on a particularly dangerous case for the fairy world, when she is caught spying on the bad guys. They transform her into a fish and dump her into a pond where she's stuck for fourteen years. After the fish incident, which essentially ruined her life, she wants nothing more to do with the faerie world. She's forcibly drawn back into it, however, when an old friend, Evening, is murdered and charges Toby to solve said murder.

Now I want to comment first on the things I liked about the book. It has a great openning that manages to make you instantly involved in Toby's story. You feel sorry for her, and you're curious about what's going on with the villians and why she's in this situation in the first place, and eager to learn more about the faerie world. The world building has so much potential, using a lot of vaguely familiar folk lore and mythology as well as some unique ideas. The characters also had tremendous potential, though there are a few too many to really name.

The first and most pressing issue is Toby herself. In a first person narrative, the main character carries the story--if you like that character, chances are the book will be enjoyable. I did not hate Toby. I sympathized with her, I wanted things to improve for her, and I liked her personality just fine. But as a PI she seems useless. We are told at the beginning that she's good at what she does, despite not having much magic or physical power, but this is never shown. All we see is her stumbling along, not spotting clues until they fall in her lap, and getting injured. You could make a drinking game out of the number of times she's injured in this book. Toby also has some serious issues when it comes to her social relationships, and that was a bit off putting. She's very inconsistant, saying she dislikes a character but then acting in a way that demonstrates otherwise.

If your looking for an intellectually stimulating murder mystery, this is not the book for you. The villain behind it all is extremely obvious to the reader long before Toby catches on, but I guess the mystery isn't the point. The world building was obviously the author's priority. The plot rambles along, convincing you that Toby really has no idea what she's doing, while explaining various details about the faery world. In my opinion, everything would have been better if the author had stuck with the plot introduced in the prologue rather then getting distracted by Evenings murder. I would much rather learn about faeries through a story of court politics and kidnapping then watch a PI dance in circles around an obvious murderer.

The world building is the most positive aspect, but even that has it's issues. Much of it relies on the reader having heard some of the mythology once before. For example the author refers to Oberon or Maeve very casually, not taking a lot of time to explain their role, significance, or place in this particular story. As mentioned, I would have prefered to spend more time learning about the faery world and less time chasing the villain.

Despite this harsh review and my disapointment in this book, I believe this series may be salvigable. I will probably go on to try book two and hope for improvement. This, however, is a two star book.

Plot Summary: The story begins fourteen years ago, when October Daye was a wife, a mother, and a liar. Her family didn't know that Toby was a changeling, a half-human half-faerie knight who served a pure-blooded faerie nobleman, and one day she just vanished. Fast forward to the present, and Toby is going through the motions of living, but her heart isn't in it. Her human family thinks she's a deadbeat for disappearing and then reappearing, and her faerie sire is trying to pull her back into his world. Her avoidance ends when a powerful countess curses Toby just before her death, and binds Toby to find the murderers.

I predict that this new series will be an urban fantasy powerhouse. It was beautifully woven and heartbreakingly tragic; I felt tears pricking my eyes after the prologue, and I don't consider myself a complete softy. I admire Seanan McGuire's prose for making me feel the magic with all five senses, and whether it was beautiful or terrible, it was always alien and strange. I felt like a trespasser who was given a secret tour of a San Francisco that no human will ever see and live.

Our heroine, October, survives a tragedy only to find herself living one. She's an empty husk, working the graveyard shift at a grocery store to keep herself one step above poverty. Toby won't contact anyone in faerie, and she mistakenly assumes that her life can't get any worse. That's before a murdered faerie countess binds Toby with a fatal curse - find her murderers or die trying. It's not long before Toby is in the crosshairs herself, and the threats to her life reveal that she desperately wants to live.

The bulk of the story reads like a fantasy who-done-it thriller, and Toby is a scrappy fighter who lives up to my expectations. This is the first of at least three novels: "A Local Habitation" comes out March 2010, and "An Artificial Night" comes out September 2010. That's going to be a long wait for me.

I'm a big fan of Seanan McGuire through her psuedonym Mira Grant and the fantastic Newsflesh series. This book did not disappoint! The prologue hits hard and then the book doesn't really slow down until the very end. I sat down and read it in one sitting, which I can't say happens with most books I pick up these days, but the pace just sucked me right in. Highly recommend and looking forward to chewing through the rest of the series!

For those looking for a fresh dosage of new reading after getting the latest fix of Dresden Files, look no further than the fresh voice of debut author Seanan McGuire and the first in her October Daye mystery series, Rosemary and Rue. Think Harry Dresden, but make him female, set her in San Francisco, and accept that the world of Faerie not only exists but has portals linking to our own world and the characters of fable are very real and terrifying.

October Dae is a changeling (half-human half-fae) who has never really felt she belongs in San Francisco, or the realm of Faerie for that matter. A private detective, who seeks to help out her kind when they are in trouble, has her world changed when she is turned into a koi fish in the opening pages of the book and finds herself trapped beneath the waters for fourteen years and six months. The spell finally breaking, she returns to a very different San Francisco. While she attempts to acclimatize to this future world, a high ranking elven lady is found murdered, and as Toby investigates she finds herself magically bound to the woman until the mystery of her death is solved.

And so begins a fascinating story wonderfully blending the incredible sights of San Francisco and its noire foggy nights with visits to the world of Faerie where everything is new and very different. McGuire even provides a glossary for those having trouble with the faerie jargon. With three books slated for publication (and McGuire currently working on book five) the author doesn't give too much away in this premiere tale, but just enough to leave readers hungry and wanting for more. Fortunately they won't have to wait too long, with the second in the series, A Local Habitation, due out March 2nd 2010.

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in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake and Meredith Gentry series. The same elements are there: Main character who has specialized or marginal magical abilities, making her a misfit in both supernatural and normal worlds, with lots of emotional baggage, who is determined to maintain her status as a relatively free agent. Lots of politicking, murder, violence, intrigue and sexual attraction. This book has an interesting plot and well-drawn, sympathetic characters, who while introspective, do not engage in the extensive soul-searching/rationalizing that Hamilton's characters do, nor do they engage (so far) in the multiple, tiresome,sexual encounters that have come to dominate Hamilton's books. (Yes, there can be too much sex in a book, and in a series.) I read fantasy for fun and this book delivers. Additionally, the universe is well-built, with lots of room to grow, lucky for us!

This is a promising first book in a new series. Like I said above, I found many elements of the story to be familiar but any fan of fantasy will find much to enjoy here. Fans of Laurell K. Hamilton who are looking for a lighter touch and a less baroque storyline will be particularly pleased. I am looking forward to the second book, coming in March, 2010.

In San Francisco private investigator Toby Daye is a half-breed part human and part fae. She avoids magic like it's the plague having spent fourteen years as a fish following an investigation that turned ugly. She refuses cases that have even a potential taint of magic.

However, in spite of her avoidance doctrine, a female elf in her dying last breath curses Toby who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The elf's last wish is for Toby to uncover who murdered her; if she fails Toby will die quite painfully. With an incentive like that , Toby makes inquires that lead to magical and mundane assassination attempts. If she survives the attempts to kill her, she still has to survive the killing curse with her time running out or she will die anyway.

This is a super new urban noir fantasy that will remind readers of Cast A Deadly Spell though six decades later and just less than 400 miles to the north. The story line is fast-paced from the opening scene as readers meet the magic-phobic half-breed heroine who does not want to be tied in knots as the incredible Ms. Limpet and never slows down as she works a particularly nasty personalized case. ROSEMARY AND RUE is a winner in a sub-genre that has been butchered recently with zillions of imitations.

Harriet Klausner

I don't write reviews, ever. I'm making an exception for the October Daye series because I love it that much. It is one of the best book series out there. Well written, exciting, fun, with plot threads that span the whole series even while each book is complete in itself. Toby Daye is one of my favorite protaganists--competent yet human, with a terrific biting sarcasm. The cast of supporting characters is unique and engaging. I generally buy all my books used, but I buy October Daye new--paper and audiobook versions! If you are looking for a well-written, engaging, fun, exciting, and all-around awesome urban fantasy, look no further than Toby Daye!

This debut novel from Seanan McGuire is set in the foggy city of San Francisco. The heroine is a changeling, October "Toby" Daye, half-human, half-fae, who worked as detective before she was spelled by a Fae she was pursuing in an kidnapping investigation and her life turned inside out.

I loved that Toby is written as plausible heroine, she's not the stereotypical, kick-butt broad that saturates the Urban Fantasy sub-genre. She's a likeable and realistic character who is smart, resilient, conflicted, and fallible...no indestructible, super-powered femme weighing down the story. Similar to Jim Butcher's irreverent character, Harry Dresden, Toby tends to be somewhat awkward, a bit stubborn, and goes her own way; naturally these are the very traits that gets her into trouble.

I was completely immersed in the story as Toby tried to solve the murder of her friend Evening Winterrose, a pureblood Faerie. Before dying, Evening put a death curse on Toby to find Eve's murderer or die in the attempt. Under the penance of death, Toby dons her investigator shoes to find the murderer and see justice done.
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This first in a series is very promising. The book is gritty urban faerie fantasy and is chock full of mystery and suspense. McGuire is an engaging writer and I thoroughly enjoyed this refreshingly unique world of full-blood fairies and half-blood changelings inhabiting the California coast.

This review is based on an "Uncorrected Proof for Limited Distribution NOT FOR SALE" copy provided to me as part of the the store Vine program.

You know this book will be different when it starts with a pronunciation guide. This books has more types of fae creatures than you can shake a stick at. The protagonist is a young female half-breed, half fae, half human. Her mom is lost in the Summerlands, and her dad is dead. She's a Private Investigator, and she uses her powers to help track down evil. Little does she know, she'll be forced into a job, which is going to get her killed one way or another.

I really liked this book. It has lots of twists and turns. Keeping all the different types of creatures straight is a little tricky.

I never did find out what the title "Rosemary and Rue" had to do with the story. The only occurrence I remember is when someone uses it as a curse (the non-magical, something didn't go right kind.)

According to the back, books 2 and 3 are already on their way. I can't wait.

This book kept coming up as suggested reading and I was reluctant to even try it. When it got to the point that it felt like every book I was picking up was dull, I decided, why not?

I read it in one night. I absolutely could not put this book down. It was fudgen' fantastic. October Day is an amazingly created character with a story that contains extraordinary and complex conflicts. It reads more like a detective novel, where October is trying to solve the murder of a friend. Yet, there are the smaller conflicts that leave huge obsticles for Tobie. Such as the fact that she is a changeling (someone with one human parent and one fae parent). This makes her an outcast in the fae society...the same one where she is trying to solve the murder.

I think I've backspaced five times. I so want to talk about this book and all the problems October has to face, but I would hate to spoil the story for new readers. I did not read the back or any reviews before picking up this book and I have to say that discovering so many surprises, twist, and turns in this story truly made it the best book I've read in a long time. I'm overanxious to read the next October Day novel.

I love urban fantasy, and I particularly love urban fantasy about fae folk, so I was excited to get my hands on this novel. October "Toby" Daye is a changeling -- half-human, half-fae -- trying to get by in the human world and keep herself from getting entangled in fae politics ... again. Unfortunately for her, one of the purebloods is murdered, and the victim puts a binding on Toby to force her to find out who committed the crime. Unwillingly, Toby is pulled back into the world of fae politics, and her life is consequently put in danger.

This was a fun book to read, but the pacing was a little off for me. Toby spends a lot of time being shot at and otherwise attacked, and the resolution, when it comes, is sudden. I also had problems with some of the mistakes Toby made. I don't want a perfect protagonist, sure, but since Toby supposedly has years as a private investigator under her belt, some of the mistakes she makes don't make sense. According to her past, she has a lot of street-smarts, but she doesn't demonstrate them here.

Overall, this is a fun novel, and I look forward to reading more of October Daye's adventures.

It took me a little while to get into "Rosemary and Rue" but I found it to be an enjoyable read even if it was a little thin in the details. I enjoy a good fantasy and I love the premise of a changeling detective living in San Francisco (I live in the Bay Area too) but the mystery has too many holes in it. For example, the major case that Toby was working on as the story begins (the kidnapping of her friend/Queen and her daughter) is never truely resolved, the murder that occurs later in the story involves an artifact but where did the victim acquire the item and how did the bad people know she had it when none of the nobels seemed to be aware of it and how did the bad guys "hide" their identity so that the blood magic wouldn't reveal them. The author implies that some things are just a mystery and in real life that's true but in works of fiction when an author uses this excuse it tells me they just didn't know what to write. In spite of it's shortcomings, the book was fun and I hope the next October Daye mystery will pay a little more attention to the finer details.

This is a delightful fairy tale (in the truest sense of the words!) that combines interesting characters with some genre mixing (detective and fantasy) that is extremely well done.

It is true that this mix has seen a lot of books in the past few years, but only rarely has such an engaging main character (October Daye) been introduced. This story of a half-fairy "changeling" and what happens when she is turned into a fish for 14 years, and then tries to get her life back on track is both fascinating and fun.

The author has clearly grounded herself very well in the traditions of such stories, and just does a knockout job. I recommend this book very highly.

ROSEMARY AND RUE took me completely by surprise in its ingenuity and cleverness. By the time I had reached the second chapter, I was so hooked on the protagonist's sassy, sarcastic wit, I knew I'd found a fantastic new series to really engage my inner reader.

Any fan of the Dresden Files will immediately connect with October "Toby" Daye, McGuire's changeling main character. Half human, half fae, Toby would love nothing more than to hang out with her cats and pretend that the faerie world doesn't exist. Luckily for us, the faerie world has a much different plan for her. But she won't go quietly.

I cannot recommend this incredible new series highly enough.

I'm a big fan of Seanan McGuire through her psuedonym Mira Grant and the fantastic Newsflesh series. This book did not disappoint! The prologue hits hard and then the book doesn't really slow down until the very end. I sat down and read it in one sitting, which I can't say happens with most books I pick up these days, but the pace just sucked me right in. Highly recommend and looking forward to chewing through the rest of the series!

For those looking for a fresh dosage of new reading after getting the latest fix of Dresden Files, look no further than the fresh voice of debut author Seanan McGuire and the first in her October Daye mystery series, Rosemary and Rue. Think Harry Dresden, but make him female, set her in San Francisco, and accept that the world of Faerie not only exists but has portals linking to our own world and the characters of fable are very real and terrifying.

October Dae is a changeling (half-human half-fae) who has never really felt she belongs in San Francisco, or the realm of Faerie for that matter. A private detective, who seeks to help out her kind when they are in trouble, has her world changed when she is turned into a koi fish in the opening pages of the book and finds herself trapped beneath the waters for fourteen years and six months. The spell finally breaking, she returns to a very different San Francisco. While she attempts to acclimatize to this future world, a high ranking elven lady is found murdered, and as Toby investigates she finds herself magically bound to the woman until the mystery of her death is solved.

And so begins a fascinating story wonderfully blending the incredible sights of San Francisco and its noire foggy nights with visits to the world of Faerie where everything is new and very different. McGuire even provides a glossary for those having trouble with the faerie jargon. With three books slated for publication (and McGuire currently working on book five) the author doesn't give too much away in this premiere tale, but just enough to leave readers hungry and wanting for more. Fortunately they won't have to wait too long, with the second in the series, A Local Habitation, due out March 2nd 2010.

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in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake and Meredith Gentry series. The same elements are there: Main character who has specialized or marginal magical abilities, making her a misfit in both supernatural and normal worlds, with lots of emotional baggage, who is determined to maintain her status as a relatively free agent. Lots of politicking, murder, violence, intrigue and sexual attraction. This book has an interesting plot and well-drawn, sympathetic characters, who while introspective, do not engage in the extensive soul-searching/rationalizing that Hamilton's characters do, nor do they engage (so far) in the multiple, tiresome,sexual encounters that have come to dominate Hamilton's books. (Yes, there can be too much sex in a book, and in a series.) I read fantasy for fun and this book delivers. Additionally, the universe is well-built, with lots of room to grow, lucky for us!

This is a promising first book in a new series. Like I said above, I found many elements of the story to be familiar but any fan of fantasy will find much to enjoy here. Fans of Laurell K. Hamilton who are looking for a lighter touch and a less baroque storyline will be particularly pleased. I am looking forward to the second book, coming in March, 2010.

In San Francisco private investigator Toby Daye is a half-breed part human and part fae. She avoids magic like it's the plague having spent fourteen years as a fish following an investigation that turned ugly. She refuses cases that have even a potential taint of magic.

However, in spite of her avoidance doctrine, a female elf in her dying last breath curses Toby who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The elf's last wish is for Toby to uncover who murdered her; if she fails Toby will die quite painfully. With an incentive like that , Toby makes inquires that lead to magical and mundane assassination attempts. If she survives the attempts to kill her, she still has to survive the killing curse with her time running out or she will die anyway.

This is a super new urban noir fantasy that will remind readers of Cast A Deadly Spell though six decades later and just less than 400 miles to the north. The story line is fast-paced from the opening scene as readers meet the magic-phobic half-breed heroine who does not want to be tied in knots as the incredible Ms. Limpet and never slows down as she works a particularly nasty personalized case. ROSEMARY AND RUE is a winner in a sub-genre that has been butchered recently with zillions of imitations.

Harriet Klausner

I don't write reviews, ever. I'm making an exception for the October Daye series because I love it that much. It is one of the best book series out there. Well written, exciting, fun, with plot threads that span the whole series even while each book is complete in itself. Toby Daye is one of my favorite protaganists--competent yet human, with a terrific biting sarcasm. The cast of supporting characters is unique and engaging. I generally buy all my books used, but I buy October Daye new--paper and audiobook versions! If you are looking for a well-written, engaging, fun, exciting, and all-around awesome urban fantasy, look no further than Toby Daye!

This debut novel from Seanan McGuire is set in the foggy city of San Francisco. The heroine is a changeling, October "Toby" Daye, half-human, half-fae, who worked as detective before she was spelled by a Fae she was pursuing in an kidnapping investigation and her life turned inside out.

I loved that Toby is written as plausible heroine, she's not the stereotypical, kick-butt broad that saturates the Urban Fantasy sub-genre. She's a likeable and realistic character who is smart, resilient, conflicted, and fallible...no indestructible, super-powered femme weighing down the story. Similar to Jim Butcher's irreverent character, Harry Dresden, Toby tends to be somewhat awkward, a bit stubborn, and goes her own way; naturally these are the very traits that gets her into trouble.

I was completely immersed in the story as Toby tried to solve the murder of her friend Evening Winterrose, a pureblood Faerie. Before dying, Evening put a death curse on Toby to find Eve's murderer or die in the attempt. Under the penance of death, Toby dons her investigator shoes to find the murderer and see justice done.
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This first in a series is very promising. The book is gritty urban faerie fantasy and is chock full of mystery and suspense. McGuire is an engaging writer and I thoroughly enjoyed this refreshingly unique world of full-blood fairies and half-blood changelings inhabiting the California coast.

This review is based on an "Uncorrected Proof for Limited Distribution NOT FOR SALE" copy provided to me as part of the the store Vine program.

You know this book will be different when it starts with a pronunciation guide. This books has more types of fae creatures than you can shake a stick at. The protagonist is a young female half-breed, half fae, half human. Her mom is lost in the Summerlands, and her dad is dead. She's a Private Investigator, and she uses her powers to help track down evil. Little does she know, she'll be forced into a job, which is going to get her killed one way or another.

I really liked this book. It has lots of twists and turns. Keeping all the different types of creatures straight is a little tricky.

I never did find out what the title "Rosemary and Rue" had to do with the story. The only occurrence I remember is when someone uses it as a curse (the non-magical, something didn't go right kind.)

According to the back, books 2 and 3 are already on their way. I can't wait.

This book kept coming up as suggested reading and I was reluctant to even try it. When it got to the point that it felt like every book I was picking up was dull, I decided, why not?

I read it in one night. I absolutely could not put this book down. It was fudgen' fantastic. October Day is an amazingly created character with a story that contains extraordinary and complex conflicts. It reads more like a detective novel, where October is trying to solve the murder of a friend. Yet, there are the smaller conflicts that leave huge obsticles for Tobie. Such as the fact that she is a changeling (someone with one human parent and one fae parent). This makes her an outcast in the fae society...the same one where she is trying to solve the murder.

I think I've backspaced five times. I so want to talk about this book and all the problems October has to face, but I would hate to spoil the story for new readers. I did not read the back or any reviews before picking up this book and I have to say that discovering so many surprises, twist, and turns in this story truly made it the best book I've read in a long time. I'm overanxious to read the next October Day novel.

I love urban fantasy, and I particularly love urban fantasy about fae folk, so I was excited to get my hands on this novel. October "Toby" Daye is a changeling -- half-human, half-fae -- trying to get by in the human world and keep herself from getting entangled in fae politics ... again. Unfortunately for her, one of the purebloods is murdered, and the victim puts a binding on Toby to force her to find out who committed the crime. Unwillingly, Toby is pulled back into the world of fae politics, and her life is consequently put in danger.

This was a fun book to read, but the pacing was a little off for me. Toby spends a lot of time being shot at and otherwise attacked, and the resolution, when it comes, is sudden. I also had problems with some of the mistakes Toby made. I don't want a perfect protagonist, sure, but since Toby supposedly has years as a private investigator under her belt, some of the mistakes she makes don't make sense. According to her past, she has a lot of street-smarts, but she doesn't demonstrate them here.

Overall, this is a fun novel, and I look forward to reading more of October Daye's adventures.

It took me a little while to get into "Rosemary and Rue" but I found it to be an enjoyable read even if it was a little thin in the details. I enjoy a good fantasy and I love the premise of a changeling detective living in San Francisco (I live in the Bay Area too) but the mystery has too many holes in it. For example, the major case that Toby was working on as the story begins (the kidnapping of her friend/Queen and her daughter) is never truely resolved, the murder that occurs later in the story involves an artifact but where did the victim acquire the item and how did the bad people know she had it when none of the nobels seemed to be aware of it and how did the bad guys "hide" their identity so that the blood magic wouldn't reveal them. The author implies that some things are just a mystery and in real life that's true but in works of fiction when an author uses this excuse it tells me they just didn't know what to write. In spite of it's shortcomings, the book was fun and I hope the next October Daye mystery will pay a little more attention to the finer details.

This is a delightful fairy tale (in the truest sense of the words!) that combines interesting characters with some genre mixing (detective and fantasy) that is extremely well done.

It is true that this mix has seen a lot of books in the past few years, but only rarely has such an engaging main character (October Daye) been introduced. This story of a half-fairy "changeling" and what happens when she is turned into a fish for 14 years, and then tries to get her life back on track is both fascinating and fun.

The author has clearly grounded herself very well in the traditions of such stories, and just does a knockout job. I recommend this book very highly.

ROSEMARY AND RUE took me completely by surprise in its ingenuity and cleverness. By the time I had reached the second chapter, I was so hooked on the protagonist's sassy, sarcastic wit, I knew I'd found a fantastic new series to really engage my inner reader.

Any fan of the Dresden Files will immediately connect with October "Toby" Daye, McGuire's changeling main character. Half human, half fae, Toby would love nothing more than to hang out with her cats and pretend that the faerie world doesn't exist. Luckily for us, the faerie world has a much different plan for her. But she won't go quietly.

I cannot recommend this incredible new series highly enough.

While visiting my girlfriend this weekend, I started reading her copy of "Rosemary and Rue" and couldn't put it down. I ended up reading late into the evening - despite some dour looks from my girlfriend - because I had to know who the villain would turn out to be. The detailed descriptions of the characters and the city of San Francisco really brought the story to life for me. One detail that had me rolling with laughter was changelings attitude towards Tinker Bell! I grew up reading classic fantasy and science fiction books and this was my first "urban fantasy" book. It won't be my last! My own copy of "Rosemary and Rue" is on the way and I'm really happy that the next book in the series will be out in less than 6 months (March 2010). Given the great cast of characters introduced in the first book, I suspect that many interesting adventures await Toby! Don't fear for my safety because my wonderfully understanding girlfriend loved the book too!

This is the first book in this series and though it is the first series McGuire penned, it is the last series I started. I was not an urban fantasy fan until recently because I thought they had too much romance, but since reading the other McGuire series and some others, I find that many novels in this genre are fun reads.

The October Daye novels are firmly rooted in the fae world and while I am no expert on it, McGurie writes with a knowledge and confidence that made me feel like this is what the fae world is like. I never at a loss in this new world. The story is fast-paced with Daye being both strong and vulnerable which is not an easy task.

As with all the McGuire (and books under her pseudonym Mira Grant) stories, they are first person and intimate. Rosemary and Rue is not a mystery even though the main thread is Daye's need to solve a murder, but it has many of the elements a good mystery has.

There are a few rough edges in the writing which is to be expected from a first book but they are not serious issues and only serve to slow the book down slightly here and there and caused me to re-read a paragraph or two.

I liked the story and plan to read the rest of the series.

I wanted to like R&R very much--because I've known [info]seanan_mcguire for years, like her, and wanted to like her first novel.

Fortunately, this wasn't hard -- Rosemary and Rue is a fun, character centered urban fantasy detective novel, densely populated with people who have their own histories, and (as befits a novel about the fey) is filled with fairy tale allusions like "A goose girl up in lady's clothes" (and plenty of others where that came from, but I lost my book on the way to work, so I can't hunt for them. woe).

The story is written in first person, and October ("Toby") Daye, the heroine of the novel, is a a lot of fun to listen to. The setup -could- have her as an angst-puppy, whining about her life...but she doesn't. Instead, as we eventually see, she's an established hero--with relationships, a reputation, a good measure of self confidence, and, while she's not strong enough physically to avoid the genre-common parade of scenes where she's beaten up, knocked out, or otherwise massively discommoded, she's certainly got a fair complement of powers.

All that said, while it's certainly a thread running through the book, this isn't a powers book--and while there's a central detective story, it isn't primarily a detective story either. Toby's faerie magic isn't (in this novel, anyways) combat useful--instead, it makes her better at what she is already good at (e.g. being a detective). Enough better, in fact, that aside from the several attempts on her life in the progress (and some other complications I'm not going into), Toby's progress toward solving the mystery is straightforward--she has appropriate magic, and once she has time to breathe, she used it in the right way to get the answer (not that the magic is easy--magic in this book--as is proper for a novel with as many faerie themes, is rarely easy or without complications).

So, if it's not a mystery, what kind of book is it?

A character one, mostly. This book has a truckload of characters--and just when you're figuring it's getting crowded in there, Seanan drives up with the second truck. And the writing is good enough that it doesn't make you feel overwhelmed--there's a complex weave of relationships among the cast, some of which Toby's aware of, some not so much, so new additions to the cast drop into the lattice of this novel's relationships and are immediately accessible--particularly since for every person new to Toby, there's at least one who has a history and a story to go with it. And as much as the mystery and its solution is straightforward, the way it turns on and impacts the relationships among the cast is anything but. Even the denouement (which caused me to more or less reread the entire book) hangs on the relationships and character-building throughout the book. The worldbuilding, too, is very cool--with the faerie culture having a nice mix both of original and traditional elements (rather like the rest of the book, really), and the oaths--traditional Celtic symbolism mixed with ideas from the created faerie culture, are a very nice touch.

And while the story is wrapped up here, there are plenty of intriguing loose ends leading into the later volumes of the series--there are plenty of plot hooks and intriguing possibilities left open.

Overall? It's a fun, beautifully written, rewarding urban fantasy that I intend to reread and recommend--not to mention hunt down the other books in the series as they come out to find out what happens next!

I never would have thought I would enjoy this book so much. I was desperate for something to read and happened upon this. I loved it. The story is fresh and interesting. The characters are unique and enjoyable. The overall impact of the book is memorable. So often when I finish a book, it just goes away. This has been in my mind enough that that I have suggested it to several people I met in store lines.

I am headed off to buy the next in the series.

*Note: I listened to this as an unabridged audio and the narrator was excellent. I've added Mary Robinette Kowal to my list of repeat readers.

I reread this novel for a book challenge. This is just an absolute amazing series and I loved rereading this novel again. I really want to read through the rest of the series again now. If you love urban fantasy this series is a must!

I'm pretty generous when it comes to rating urban fantasy books. I always try to find at least a few things that I liked about the story and/or the characters, which usually lands them a solid three-star rating.
However, Rosemary & Rue definitely earned my FIRST 2-star rating, and I'm really disappointed that it had to come to that seeing that the first installment appeared to be so promising based on all the reviews.
There's not one thing that made this book particularly bad, it's practically everything.
I had to force myself more than once to keep finishing this book, and I only did because I didn't want it to be the first one that I did not finish.
I never got a sense of who the main character, October Daye, really was, and it's as if I saw her world through foggy glasses.
After spending fourteen years as a fish in a koi pond, October is turned back into a changeling (fae-human offspring), only to realize that the world and people around her have moved on. Her former fiance and now teenage daughter want nothing to do with her, and she struggles to rebuild her life. Several months later, a binding forces her to solve the murder of a fae/pureblood that she has known for many years, and if she fails to satisfy the binding, she will die. The plot definitely sounds interesting and there is a lot of material to work with in terms of character development, but it never quite comes together.
The story is written in first-person POV, but it's as if you're seeing October through the eyes of a stranger. You don't know how she truly feels about something or someone, and you never get a sense of how people feel about her. All her actions and dialogue (which is mediocre at best) is befuddled with her mysterious interior monologue reminding me of overdone poems that leave readers scratching their head. The fae mythology is not very well explained either, and you feel like a blind Alice is leading you through Wonderland.
The supporting cast was lackluster and strange, and the one character that was fleshed out made me want to strangle Seanan McGuire.
In order to solve the murder mystery, October enlists the help of a changeling named Devon, her former "pimp" and abuser, who has continued with his shenanigans during her absence. She even witnesses him beating teenage boys and girls, but still manages to lust after him. Fast forward about two-hundred boring pages to the beginning of Chapter 27 (after Devin killed a girl), and October states, and I quote, "Until today, I'd never known that he could be evil." That example basically sums up everything that is wrong with Rosemary & Rue.

I have been having trouble finding Urban Fantasy I like and this one was a surprise. I enjoyed the protagonist, she wasn't perfect, she struggled the whole way through against creatures that were far more powerful than she was and gets the upper hand through her own unique means and does not do so unscathed. She is believable and interesting with her own quirks that irritate me but keep me interested. I finished the first book and immediately picked up the rest of the series, swallowing it down in a week.

If you like authors like Jim Butcher, Kim Harrison, Patricia Briggs and Faith Hunter I definitely recommend this series!

If you're tired of the regular vampires and werewolves in your urban fantasy, you should read Rosemary and Rue instead. It is a combination of mystery, fantasy, and a little dash of romance.
Our kick-ass and hard-boiled heroine is Toby Daye, a half-human and half-faerie who got hurt during one of her investigations. As a result, she loses her family, her life, and her trust on both the humans and the fey. She decides not to get involve with anything that has to do with fey community and tries to live her life as ordinarily as possible. But when one of her closest friends is in trouble, she has no choice but to get involve, and in the process, save her own life.
Rosemary and Rue has a very good premise. It is certainly different than the usual vampires and werewolves stuff, and the main character is very compelling in her own way. But the reason it only get 4 stars from me is because the pacing seems off and some parts in the middle are dragging. The beginning is intriguing but I'm disappointed that there is very little mention on the bad guys who had hurt Toby. Toby mentions that she will find them and get revenge on them, so I'm guessing that mystery will get resolve in next books.
I'm also a little bit disappointed in some parts of the story, like the fact that Toby is suddenly free from her curse, and the people who had supposedly disappeared are back, without any explanation on how. I want to know what happens to her former family and why Toby doesn't seek them out. If Toby did, I must have missed it. I hope Ms. McGuire will clarify these things in the next books.
Other than the questions above, I have enjoyed Rosemary immensely. It is a well-written story with an interesting web of characters, not to mention the intriguing world of faerie, it is no surprise that I'm counting the day for the release of A Local Habitation.

Please bear with me as I try to tell you how awesome Rosemary and Rue is without spoilers. (I detest spoilers.) The book follows October "Toby" Daye, a private investigator who happens to be half fae. Trapped between two worlds, Toby tries to make the best of a bad situation as she works to solve the murder of one of her powerful fae friends.

What I enjoyed most about this book was Seanan's use of very simple magic to blur the edges between reality and fantasy. I've grown too used to magic users wielding staves or wands and shouting incantations--it's easy to forget that the fantastic can be as simple and subtle as the fluttering of a moth's wing.

Tanya Huff commentated that if she and Jim Butcher wrote a book, it would be Rosemary and Rue. I have to agree with her: if you enjoy Tanya's mix of magic and mundane, and Jim's take on paranormal investigations, you'll love this book. I almost feel this is what Laurel K. Hamilton was trying to do, but Seanan can actually write.

I've not very familiar with the urban fantasy genre, but I am very familiar with the author. Yet, I was still hesitant to read a book about...faeries. Thankfully, it's also a murder mystery!

October "Toby" Daye is a private investigator in San Francisco. There's your urban. She's also a changeling, half-fae and half-human. There's your fantasy. She denies the world of Faerie, however, and chooses to live as a human. But just when she thinks she's out, they pull her back in! A prominent pureblood is murdered, and Toby--having known the deceased--must solve the murder and bring the killer to justice.

There are a few other things I ought to tell you about Toby. Her life kind of sucks, but she doesn't let the world get her down. She's rather sarcastic and doesn't take crap from anyone. She's prickly, you might say. She struggles financially. She puts great trust in her animal companions. She's attracted to a Bad Boy and a Good Guy. The very first time we see her, she's on a stakeout.

Oh yes, I'm going there: this book is like Veronica Mars, Faerie Detective.

When you have a prickly private eye solving a murder in San Francisco, there is really no other option but to make your story totally noir. Which this book is, to my great delight. Toby is nocturnal, so all the action occurs at night. She has issues knowing who she can trust. There are hired killers and seedy establishments. People get shot. Honestly, the book is so good at being noir that I was thrown when some of the more fantasy elements appeared.

And that's because most of the fantasy is blended seamlessly in with the story. It's the setting and background for the story; it's not the story itself. The worldbuilding is very complex and well researched; the denizens of Faerie are divided into various breeds, like cats, all of which have Irish and Gaelic names (thankfully, there's a pronunciation guide in the beginning). Each race has different magical abilities and character traits (although I felt that the "Such-and-suches are always X, and this such-and-such was no exception" idea was overused, as if all the races have homogeneous personalities). They live under a medieval-type system with kings and queens and knights and courts and fiefdoms. There's a fair bit of Shakespearean influence as well. The whole history and society of Faerie is very well thought out, down to the prejudices that are bound to arise between purebloods and half-bloods. It's a little confusing in its complexity, but you just have to keep paying attention since Toby only provides information when it's relevant.

I do love a good murder mystery, and although I did clue in to the culprit before Toby did, it didn't lessen my enjoyment of the story. What really drew me in was Toby herself. I was hooked on the book by the end of chapter two, even before the actual plot kicks in, just because of Toby's voice and her character. This was a woman who had gone through hell and come out intact, just like my dear Veronica.

ROSEMARY AND RUE is a great start to the series, and I can't wait to read more of Toby's adventures. Seriously, I've begun going into Toby withdrawal. I considered reading the excerpt of A LOCAL HABITATION to get my Toby fix. She's not quite a marshmallow, but I still want s'more.

The October Daye series is action packed and once you start reading you won't want to put it down. When you're done you will look to the next one. I am not known to be a big reader and I just keep going to the next book. (on book 8 already).

OK, after all the recommendations here, I finally read this great book. Oh man, this is not your typical fantasy. I mean, this is hard and gritty urban fantasy. There are no elves traipsing through the woods or unicorns grazing peacefully in the meadows, this is just the hard gritty underbelly of how tough it is to be half human and half Fae in today's world.

BTW, Ms. McGuire and myself share our middle and last names but we are not related (that I know !).

BTW2, Ms. McGuire also writes under the name Mira Grant and her first book there has been nominated for a Hugo.

About 3.5 stars. Besides the fact that October Daye is the worst PI EVER, I still liked her personality and style. She was a likable MC. This book isn't even the one that made me think she was the worst PI ever...the next one is, but even so - she makes a lot of mistakes and never listens to good advice. I like the secondary characters for the most part. This book is more of a world builder, so it didn't really capture me yet.

Oy. I dunno. On one hand, I was immediately pulled in by the premise. On the other hand, there seemed to be no progression. Yes, there was plenty of action, but the storyline fell flat for me. I don't even know how I got to the end, but all of a sudden after a whole lot of things happening that seemed to have no connection, BAM - story's over. The culprit reveal was a doozy, though - I'll give it that.

I will say that the series has potential and so I'm intrigued to read book 2. There are a lot of interesting aspects in this story and in the world the author has built, if she'd just weed out the bad and unecessary. Why do we need to know the name of every kind of fae imaginable when 90% of them don't actually play a part in the story? That's silly and just manages to take away from your storyline.

I love the interaction between Tybalt and Toby and hope for much more of this. (fingers crossed)

Rosemary and Rue excelled in some aspects but fell flat in others. The best part was the first 100 pages, especially the prologue. The characters were interesting and the mystery, plot, and detective work were intriguing. However, the different types of creatures weren't explained. It seemed like the fae had impossible lineages like seal hydra horse, which I couldn't wrap my head around. There was nothing special about the environment, the magic, or the plot. I found nothing unique and special that set this apart from the myriad of other urban fantasies out there. Rosemary and Rue was enjoyable, and would have been much more enjoyable if the amount of suspense and detective work found in the first 100 pages carried through the book. Instead, I felt that the plot dragged horribly though the middle, and then the mystery was suddenly solved with little effort. Also, some of the decisions the main character made didn't make sense to me. Like sleeping with her old father figure/pimp? I'm not really sure I understood their relationship. I also didn't like that the main character seemed to run around blind to danger without thinking much. Overall, the mystery was pretty straight forward with little to no surprises, and the characters weren't strong enough nor likable enough for me to continue on in this series. A good fantasy read, a tolerable mystery, but nothing special.

It's such a tried-and-true formula in urban fantasy: mythical creature and/or fantastical society live one step to the left of humankind's mundane existence. There are a million hidden interstices that most of us never notice, and we'd be grateful for this if we knew, for the fantasies lurking beyond our sight are more often fanged and dangerous than sweet and friendly.

October Daye, a cynical and perpetually caffeinated lapsed PI, is a half-faerie attempting to keep her head down and lead a mundane life in San Francisco. The novel proper begins after some significant torture and personal losses, so she's pretty dedicated to this drama-free lifestyle. Unfortunately, as a knight still in the service of Sylvester Torquill and a friend to some of the more powerful local faerie denizens, Toby isn't allowed her wish. The death of Evening Winterrose, hated friend and beloved irritant, and her last, powerful curse drag Toby back into the wonderful nightmare-world existing in tandem with our San Francisco: a world of cat-like rose goblins, doors into the Summerlands, runaway changelings, and an ancient sea witch. It's a world where one wrong step - political or otherwise - could kill you. Or worse.

As you can see, this debut novel from Seanan McGuire plays to type; yet I can say, without a doubt, that this is the best urban fantasy novel I've read in five years. I make this assertion drawing from a pool of novels by Charlaine Harris, Tanya Huff, Emma Bull, Patricia Briggs, and others.

One important element to any urban fantasy is the urban aspect: it's not enough for the narrative to take place in any city, where the urban center is poorly described and becomes passive background. The city must become as much a character as any changeling investigator, with clearly described locales and an affecting atmosphere. McGuire succeeds in spades here: I have never been to San Francisco, but the city came to life for me in this novel and the immediacy of that understanding heightened my immersion in the story. ROSEMARY AND RUE was clearly written by someone who has walked many miles in that city and is intimately acquainted with its heart.

McGuire's main character, October Daye, is as strongly and uniquely portrayed as San Francisco. Toby, as a halfblood and a PI, could so easily have become a bland cipher; instead, she is a believable, strong, and yet flawed heroine with a nuanced voice. Toby is almost perpetually annoyed and sleep-deprived, spends most of the novel subsisting on caffeine and sheer stubbornness, and yet her perspective never devolves into tiresome whinging. She is a deeply-hurt woman who is stumbling toward a measure of recovery while trying to do right by a friend and, incidentally, save her own life. The resulting journey is fascinating: the perspective is truly first person limited, so Toby sometimes does seemingly stupid things and is blind to things the reader may think are apparent - but things aren't always so blazingly clear, are they, when you're the one experiencing some serious and real drama?

Beyond developing a compellingly dynamic protagonist and portraying San Francisco in an absorbingly realistic manner, McGuire succeeded in creating a three-dimensional fabric of reality: the other characters in the narrative aren't just background for Toby to interact with. They are people who have lives and backgrounds that are clearly important both to the current story and whatever is to come. The King of Cats has a long history with October, the moonstruck-mad Queen wasn't always so, and the kitsune duchess seems to tend secrets as much as roses in her underhill home. They are all worlds unto themselves. This is the best sort of debut novel: a window into a reality ready-made for exploration, where causality is as much a force as it is in our real lives.

Further, McGuire's depiction of Faerie and its denizens reveals that an incredible amount of accrued knowledge went into the world of ROSEMARY AND RUE. She delves beyond kitsune and selkies, beyond even Daoin Sidhe and Cait Sidhe, into coblynau and Tylwyth Tegs: while the specifics of her society and much of these faeries' interactions may be all McGuire, each of these creatures exists in folklore. Anyone interested in faerie lore and folklore, especially of the United Kingdom (in this novel), will be incredibly delighted by the breadth and depth of the author's research.

ROSEMARY AND RUE isn't without its flaws - at times, the exposition overbalances from stage-setting to distracting, and the mystery does seem to wander a bit aimlessly in the middle - but the exhilaration of getting to know this particular San Francisco and this particular Faerie more than compensate for any of those drawbacks. Moreover, these are flaws that I don't expect will continue past this debut: the occasional over-exposition was due to initial worldbuilding, and any issues with plot pacing are overcome with experience. Considering that DAW is poised to release two more titles in the October Daye series and that the author's blog indicates she is currently working on the fourth and fifth titles, McGuire is daily gaining more experience as a storyteller. I look forward to each Toby novel being better than the last, and can't wait to get my hands on them. Honestly: if you're an appreciator of urban fantasy and you're looking for some new blood that's actually vital, it's imperative that you pick up ROSEMARY AND RUE.

I could not put this book down. I was taking into a dark and gloomy place. The picture felt complete and the distraction of my normal life fell away for a short period of time. I love books that do this gloomy or light I feel refreshed when I'm back as if I went on a short vacation without all the hassles of packing and travel. I don't need to take the time to repeat the subject of the books as it has been well described by other reviews and in the summary of the book. If you love visually rich stories that might be a bit dark you will love this book.

Toby Daye has a good chance of becoming my new favorite half-elf private eye. Rosemary and Rue is a well-rounded Urban Fantasy novel that flirts the edges of Elf Punk. Toby is well-portrayed. After her life is turned on end for the second? third? time, she gives up on all things Fae (including half of herself). For part of the book, she is a shell of a woman, with only hints of her former Knight/hero self. Afraid to face any more failure or betrayal, she leads a dull and unfulfilling life. When a powerful full-blooded Fae is murdered, Toby is left with no choice but to investigate the crime. She gets sucked back into her old world and is forced to face parts of her past she would rather stay hidden and forgotten. She's tough and smart, world-worn, but still hopeful. Toby grows so much in the book that it's almost a "coming of age for the second time" kind of story. Some of the secondary characters are not as well developed. Readers will likely let that slide because this is the first in a series and the author deftly begins world-building, introduces a large cast of players, and still manages to tell a compelling story. I've already placed the second in the series, A Local Habitation: An October Daye Novel in my wish list and eagerly await its planned March 2, 2010 release

Well, my first-ever review of Rosemary and Rue was posted on my blog shortly after I read it and basically consisted of me saying "OH MY GOD THIS BOOK IS AWESOME." To whit:

"I am struggling to find words for this other than "OH MY GOD". When I came out of the bedroom, I passed the book along to [my girlfriend] with a sort of wordless flail, trying to say something before eventually just holding the book out for her to take. This book is fantastic, and blew me away in a way that I haven't been blown away by a book since I first finished Return of the King when I was 14, or maybe Wicked and Lost Souls when I was 19. Regardless, it's been years since I had an honest-to-goodness, I really can't even speak right now, tears and pain and beauty and joy and life and death and the UNIVERSE in my head and in my chest, stars in my eyes reaction to a book. And this one did it for me."

I don't know if it really needs more than that, but I'll do my duty as a reader and give as proper a review as I can.

First off, Toby Daye, the main protagonist of the novel, is phenomenal. I want to say like she's this mix of Harry Dresden, Buffy Summers, and Veronica Mars, but that would do a disservice to Seanan's writing because Toby is so much more than that. She's a well-rounded, well-written, very original character who never fails to make me feel what she's feeling. As awesome and intriguing and engaging as the plot is, I think the characters are where Seanan really shines. Each character, even the ones you hardly see at all, have this sense of three-dimensionality to them. You know that these people aren't just little cardboard cutouts who always do the same thing and say the same thing and are just there to fill a role. They have lives, and they have secrets, and they have the potential to surprise you (or Seanan, heh) if they want to. Tybalt was brilliant (you'll know him when you get to him) and so amazingly layered and inhuman. And when I say inhuman here, it's a huge compliment, because all the Fey in this book are inhuman - even Toby has her moments - in the best way, because Fey aren't human. This is where so much urban fantasy has fallen on its face, for me - they make the Fey too human. Seanan trusts that we won't have a problem with these characters functioning and moralizing in ways that make our eyes bug sometimes, and it pays off in truly believable Fey people.

Now, while I think characters are definitely where Seanan's the most phenomenal, her story doesn't suffer a whit for it. From the get-go, there is something amiss in the world, and I couldn't wait to see what it was. There were so many twists that I was left dizzy and breathless after reading it - but it's not confusing, and it never feels like a cop-out or like the author is purposefully trying to confuse you. It's just pure and unadulterated plot, a mystery whose solution evaded me almost to the last. As much as the book has been compared to The Dresden Files (which it definitely shares a niche with, and Dresden Files fans will adore Toby), the mystery brought to mind all the years when I was obsessed with Agatha Christie and her brilliant novels - there was the same feeling when I reached the end, because all the clues were there, if I just used my "leetle grey cells" and put them together. But of course, I didn't, until almost the end.

The pacing, which everyone who reads knows can be horrifically off in a first published work, was perfect. It picked me up at the beginning and didn't let me go until the end, but never felt rushed.

Seriously. I will recommend this book to everyone - it's one of the best stories I've read this year (or many years previous), and is definitely worth its weight in gold.

Thanks to Seanan McGuire's shameless teasing in her LJ for months, I've been incredibly eager to get my hands on Rosemary and Rue and I was anything but disappointed. Like every single other reviewer trying to give their two cents without spilling major spoilers, I feel hamstrung because so much of what makes R&R beyond fabulous is tied to the Secrets That Must Not Be Revealed. What I can say is that Toby has more than ample reason to be cynical, jaded, bitter, and gunshy of the faerie realms and citizens that inhabit San Francisco and I totally sympathize with the character. With a very few, understandable exceptions (i.e., the faerie creatures whose whole reason for existing is to bring pain and misery) all the characters are wonderfully grayscale and while there were a few I definitely did not like I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel at least some sympathy for most of them about why they were the way they were. The book is very well-plotted and -paced and unfolds at the right rate (that is to say, I was reluctant to put it down at any time and had real trouble putting it down at a few really fabulous points when I had no choice but to put in a bookmark). Absolutely read this book, and then put 'A Local Habitation' on pre-order because you'll definitely want to read that one, too. Rosemary and Rue is the first of six Toby Daye novels.

I really thought that this book would be good, but halfway through I just gave up. I tried to push myself to finish it but there were just so many things that weren't interesting to. It was overly detailed with Fae rules that I didn't even understand, characters that were bland and uninteresting, and a plot that moved slower that maple syrup in January. I thought it would pick up after a while but 150 pages in, nothing was happening. It was a huge disappointment!

Even though I really enjoyed this book I agree with most of the other three-star reviews here. The author created a wonderful and enthralling world but she doesn't seem completely sure what to do with it. The plot is meandering and pretty superficial, and it feels superficial. I felt overwhelmed by all the characters the author kept throwing into the mix, and it many of them should have been left out or introduced earlier (such as the cat girl, Julie). I started off liking the main character but she's such a screw up that it was difficult for me to sympathize with her. She's very childish. She insists another character is out to ruin her life when all he does is make a few mean comments. She doesn't seem to understand any of the people around, especially the ones that love her which is particularly grating since these characters are constantly saving her and basically doing her job for her. By the end of the book she becomes a semi-helpless punching bag to be ripped apart, over and over and over again. The few times that she is pro-active end in disaster and death. I understand that the author wanted to depict a darker world but her storytelling abilities don't match her world building skills so the story seems forced and not believable. The pacing, the characterization, and the plot all felt so awkward and unnatural.
All this said, I don't think Rosemary and Rue is a bad book. I did enjoy it but it's not quite worth paying for. Check it out at the library, if you can.

Toby Daye has a good chance of becoming my new favorite half-elf private eye. Rosemary and Rue is a well-rounded Urban Fantasy novel that flirts the edges of Elf Punk. Toby is well-portrayed. After her life is turned on end for the second? third? time, she gives up on all things Fae (including half of herself). For part of the book, she is a shell of a woman, with only hints of her former Knight/hero self. Afraid to face any more failure or betrayal, she leads a dull and unfulfilling life. When a powerful full-blooded Fae is murdered, Toby is left with no choice but to investigate the crime. She gets sucked back into her old world and is forced to face parts of her past she would rather stay hidden and forgotten. She's tough and smart, world-worn, but still hopeful. Toby grows so much in the book that it's almost a "coming of age for the second time" kind of story. Some of the secondary characters are not as well developed. Readers will likely let that slide because this is the first in a series and the author deftly begins world-building, introduces a large cast of players, and still manages to tell a compelling story. I've already placed the second in the series, A Local Habitation: An October Daye Novel in my wish list and eagerly await its planned March 2, 2010 release

I adore this series, and have whole-heartedly recommended "Rosemary and Rue" every time someone tells me they needed a new read. The characters are fun, and the dialogue makes me laugh, cry, and shout - sometimes all at the same time. If you like Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series, you will definitely like this one.

After seeing Rosemary and Rue recommended by Bitten by Books, All Things Urban fantasy and the store, I gave it a try. Reading a book by a new to me author is like opening a gift. You never know how you are going to feel about the gift. I am glad I opened this one up. I really like Toby and her friends. I enjoy books that the characters come together as a family. I was sorry to see some go. I ordered the next three books and am currently reading a Local Habitation. It is turning into one of those books I
hate to put down to do things like go to work, etc. LOL. I am not going into the details about the
book because I like to be surprised when I open a gift and other reviewers have already done so.
Just give the series a try. You will be glad you visited Toby's world.

The main character is flawed and engaging, the plot tight, and the premise and worldbuilding outstanding. Not only did I enjoy the book, I was sucked into the series. Great stuff and wonderful writing.

I'm pretty picky with series books. Combine a serious case of Too-Many-Books syndrome with a general preference for originality over "comfort" reading, and you get a reader who'll happily abandon a series after one book if that book can't evoke any reaction beyond, "Yeah, that was pretty good."

Happily, Rosemary and Rue, the first published novel by Seanan McGuire, is more than pretty good. (Full disclosure: Seanan's a friend, but I'm trying my best to not let that affect my judgement.) R&R is the first book featuring private investigator October Daye. October - Toby to her friends - is a changeling, daughter of a human father and a powerful Daoine Sidhe mother. In the Prologue, a case goes horribly wrong, with disastrous consequences for Toby. When we see her again, she's abandoned her career and withdrawn from all her friends, scraping by in the human world, wanting only to be left alone.

You can't, as the song says, always get what you want. An old friend (if that's the right term), Evening Winterrose, Countess of Goldengreen, is murdered, and uses a dying curse to force Toby to investigate and bring the killer to justice. (Which means Evening is Sidhe Who Must Be Obeyed, Daoine think?) So the story is both urban fantasy and a detective story, and succeeds at both.

The things that most matter to me in a book, that draw me in if done well, are world building, characterization, and humor. McGuire is strong in all of those areas. Toby's fae-riddled San Francisco, and the Faerie lands and courts she visits, are rich with detail, often beautiful, sometimes frightening. There are different races, and mixes of races, at every turn, and McGuire has obviously not only done plenty of research, but thought about the personalities and interactions within this diversity. (I hope that at some future point, she explores the politics of pure-blood vs. mixed-blood lines within the courts.) It gave me a moment's pause when I encountered a Kitsune among this mostly European-derived population, but then, if the Sidhe could cross the Atlantic and the North American continent, why couldn't a Kitsune cross the Pacific?

The characters are varied, interesting, and often sympathetic. Toby herself is, by turns, noble, prickly, snarky, guilt-ridden, smart, and very, very foolish. I don't know that I'd ever care to meet her, but I liked reading about her, and by the end, I cared what happened to her. And there are a number of supporting characters I'll be happy to encounter again.

The humor comes mainly from the snark. A number of the characters, Toby in particular, know how to turn a funny/sarcastic phrase. I didn't actually laugh out loud until I read Tybalt's note in the preview of A Local Habitation, the second Toby book, but I smiled and chuckled several times. It's a welcome bit of leavening in what's often a grim story. (I admit, however, to a bit of skepticism that a Selkie noble, who has apparently lived his entire life in the Summerlands, would use the word "semiprofessionally" in casual conversation.)

Another strength is the richness of Toby's backstory. As of the start of this book, she's already had a tumultuous, accomplished life. She has a set of friends, enemies, and those in between who'll no doubt continue to affect her life. A number of past events are alluded to, with the indication that we may learn more about them in future books.

Finally, R&R is about more than the detective plot. It's about re-establishing connections, dealing with guilt, and (to steal a phrase from the book) finding the way home. This adds a depth, a feeling of meaning, that far too many series books lack.

R&R isn't a perfect book. McGuire (via Toby's first person narration) sometimes includes recaps of what's just gone before, which isn't necessary. I wish Toby had been a bit more active at times, less willing to have others tell her what to do. (Granted, there were reasons for it, but still.) I wanted to know more about (excuse the vagueness) how the villain of the piece knew about the existence of the MacGuffin and performed a key bit of magic. I didn't quite accept the delay in following the final key piece of evidence.

But the bottom line is simple: I'm going to buy A Local Habitation when it comes out next March. I want to spend more time getting to know October Daye and her world. Which is more than I can say for either Harry Dresden or Sookie Stackhouse.

I am a great fan of writing and reading stories about protagonists in a heap of trouble digging themselves out to win the day. Rosemary and Rue is exactly that kind of book. In less than the first 100 pages, October "Toby" Daye, a half-breed Daoine Sidhe and former street kid, is cursed twice, loses everything she holds dear, winds up in a job she hates and has an unpleasant encounter with the King of Cats. Frankly, if I were Toby and I met Seanan on the street, I would punch her.

Yes, I really loved this book. Toby is a flawed protagonist in all of the right ways. She is scared, hurt, angry, and forced to do things she would have done anyway but resents the power that is forcing her to do exactly that. Every person Toby turns to for help she knows she cannot trust. Every person who loves Toby is hurt by this lack of trust. But, honestly, the reader cannot fault Toby. She is acting in a logical and emotional-if reactionary-manner to everything that is happening to and around her.

One of the best parts about Rosemary and Rue is the fact that while it is one step into the world of the Fey, changelings, pixies, trolls, and goblins, there is still a true sense of reality. Having once lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the story is set, I can imagine the world of Oberon's court just beyond visible sight. The places are real. The emotions are real. The pain, loss, and infrequent joys are real. So real that sometimes this is a hard book to read. Fortunately, it is a harder book to put down.

Seanan McGuire's funny, raw, and engaging style of writing has put her at the top of my "new favorite authors" pile. I highly recommend Rosemary and Rue as a fantastic debut novel and eagerly wait to see what comes next both in this series and from the author.

Full disclosure: this review may be biased. Not only is the author a friend, but I'm in the proofing pool. I've had the privilege of watching this book and the entire series grow over drafts and years. This probably makes me biased, but it also gives me a perspective that reviewers reading it for the first time might never get.

From the very first draft I ever read, years ago, Rosemary and Rue hooked me. Hard. Every time a new flip came, I reread faithfully from the beginning-- you have to, to do a good job proofing, because things change throughout the book-- and every time, it hooked me just as hard. I spent hours not particularly noticing if anyone spoke to me, I neglected my friends shamelessly, because I was absolutely absorbed.

In fact, this has happened with every book in the series so far. I was recently asked to suggest excerpts from An Artificial Night (book 3) to go in the back of A Local Habitation (book 2). Going back through my file, I really did mean to just skim the book for sections to suggest. I wound up reading for an hour, completely oblivious, pulling myself out of it to get some work done, and then diving back in for hours more. I got completely and willingly lost in a book I'd already read from beginning to end dozens of times. That should tell you something right there.

Rosemary and Rue is the first book in a series, but each book is a complete story. Seanan skillfully combines satisfying endings in each book with hints and pieces of an overarching story arc that left me craving the next book like an addict, but didn't leave me dangling with cliffhangers. Proofer perspective again: Seanan doesn't deliberately spoiler us, but she'll tell me what the clues point to, if I ask. I know what's coming. I don't know everything, but I know a lot; I know some things that won't be revealed until, book six or so. And knowing what's coming, I'm still dying to read each book as she writes it. They're that well-crafted, that full of things that draw me into Toby's world and make me want to stay; I don't just want to know what happens next, I want to know how; I want to know what it's going to look and feel and taste like. With these books, it's not just the gripping plot; getting there really is half the fun.

One thing that hooks me most in a book is world-building, and the Toby Daye series has that in spades. And hearts and diamonds and cups and staves and pentacles. The Bay Area that Seanan knows and loves combines with the world of Faerie from her extensive folklorist background, and sports her own twists and touches. Both worlds are vivid and real, sometimes enchanting and magical and sometimes frightening and violent, and I find myself craving every scrap of detail about Fae rules and culture and how they interact with the mortal world easily as much as I crave to know how Toby's going to get out of her next scrape.

Ah, Toby. October Daye, half-human private investigator, sarcastic and impulsive, trying to do what's right even when she hates it, sucked back by that very sense of right and wrong into the world she tried to leave behind. Seanan's characters are all like Toby-- layered, imperfect, trying to be true to themselves but as unpredictable and fallible as anyone else. Even a great mystery will never hook me if the author doesn't make me care about the characters. In Rosemary and Rue, even the characters you wouldn't particularly want to get to know are still people you kind of want to know more about.

Mystery! I'd recommend Rosemary and Rue just as highly to mystery fans as to SF/Fantasy fans. I'm a fan of urban fantasy, where the magical and fantastic still exist right here in our cities, cleverly hidden from all but the most discerning or the most unlucky. I'm also a fan of murder mysteries, and I read an embarrassing number of them. So I feel I can say this with fannish authority: these two great tastes never tasted so great together!

What makes it work is that Seanan doesn't sacrifice the one genre for the other. The mysteries in each book-- as well as the overarching mysteries across the series-- aren't simple and telegraphed; there's no obvious butler-did-it, nor is there an obvious least-likely-person-did-it. At the same time, Seanan doesn't use the classic and infuriating trick of withholding vital information about the plot until the last five pages of the book just to make it impossible to guess, ("what you all didn't know is, Bob was a prison guard twenty years ago, and Bill was an inmate there!") Mystery plotting is a tricky balance, and I think Seanan strikes it well.

Yet urban fantasy isn't just a stage setting here. Walk through any bookstore's mystery section and you'll find loads of gimmick series: musician mysteries, cat mysteries, cookie mysteries (recipes included!), racehorse mysteries (okay I like Dick Francis a lot, but still), theatre mysteries, etc. Many of them are well done, but most of them are still only using their "thing" as a gimmick. The October Daye series isn't an "x mystery" series; it's an urban fantasy series in which there are compelling mysteries. It's a tale of a woman caught between two worlds and trying to live in both, a portrait of those worlds and an introduction to the people who live there.

It's unavoidable that I'll get a little gushy when talking about my dearest friends, but I promise, friendship is only enhancing the gush a little. I genuinely and highly recommend Rosemary and Rue to fans of urban fantasy, or murder mysteries, or P.I. novels, or worldbuilding, or complex characters, or folklore, or fairy tales, or Shakespeare, or British folk ballads, or just plain exciting and engrossing stories that are likely to keep you up half the night reading just one more page.

I am thrilled to have had the privilege to read and review an advance copy of 'Rosemary and Rue'.

Toby Daye is a 'changeling', the child of a fae mother and a human father. These mixed-race people, not fully accepted by the fae world, use magical disguises to pass as human and live quiet, 'normal' lives in a world that doesn't know they even exist.

Toby was a private investigator, working on cases that affected full-blooded fae and changelings. This career came to a sudden end when a case went horribly wrong and ended with Toby being enchanted and removed from the world for 14 years. In that time, her human husband moved on with his life, her changeling daughter grew up without her, and Toby has returned to a world that she barely understands.

She attempts to build a new, quiet life working menial jobs and living hand to mouth, refusing to return to doing the investigations that destroyed her life. This situation changes when a fae friend is murdered and Toby agrees (under some duress) to solve the case and avenge the death.

I don't want to say more because this is a story you should discover for yourself. The world is so real, the characters so well-written, that you will feel like you live there.

The book is the first in a trilogy but don't worry, the story didn't end with a cliffhanger. The story was complete in itself, the mystery was solved...and future occurrences were hinted at in a manner that lets me think I may have an idea what's coming without leaving me hanging. Knowing that this is book one in a trilogy means only that I came away smiling in anticipation, knowing that I will have two more opportunities to immerse myself in this fabulous world with these wonderful characters.

Lucky you, you have THREE opportunities. You will get to meet Toby for the first time in September, and then you will anticipate the future books with the same pleasure I do.

1st in the series, this is a very good book with well developed interesting characters, lots of action and mystery, a little bit of magic, and a great ending. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys science fiction. Enjoy

I absolutely adored this book! Fans of Ilona Andrews, Patricia Briggs, Kim Harrison just to mention a few should definately give this book a try. Trust me, it will not disappoint.

Really words cannot describe how much i enjoyed this, i just finished reading the second installment to this series and it just gets better! Please, please try this series so that Seanan can have an extended contract (she's only contracted for three at the moment according to her blog) in order for us to read more about Toby not to mention the delicious Tybalt, her trusty sidekick Quen . . . okay there's just way too many interesting characters for me to mention here. So what are you waiting for? Go try this series out!

One of the things I liked best about this book was that Toby, the main character, couldn't do everything alone. She depended on the help that her friends (and occasional enemy) could provide. Yet she never seemed helpless.

Yes, the villain was obvious from their introduction, but that didn't keep me from enjoying how Toby finally came to that conclusion.

Also, Tybalt, the King of Cats? He's way cool. I'd honestly rather read more books about him than Toby.

This is such a great series. I am not normally a fan of elves because they are usually portrayed as cold and cruel but the elves in this series have more range. The first book is a solid start to the series but is not the best one so far. October is a strong female lead but she makes mistakes and take some hits. I like that October is not the strongest or the best at what she does but she stays true to a purpose and knows how to lean on others.

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!!!

Full disclosure: this review may be biased. Not only is the author a friend, but I'm in the proofing pool. I've had the privilege of watching this book and the entire series grow over drafts and years. This probably makes me biased, but it also gives me a perspective that reviewers reading it for the first time might never get.

From the very first draft I ever read, years ago, Rosemary and Rue hooked me. Hard. Every time a new flip came, I reread faithfully from the beginning-- you have to, to do a good job proofing, because things change throughout the book-- and every time, it hooked me just as hard. I spent hours not particularly noticing if anyone spoke to me, I neglected my friends shamelessly, because I was absolutely absorbed.

In fact, this has happened with every book in the series so far. I was recently asked to suggest excerpts from An Artificial Night (book 3) to go in the back of A Local Habitation (book 2). Going back through my file, I really did mean to just skim the book for sections to suggest. I wound up reading for an hour, completely oblivious, pulling myself out of it to get some work done, and then diving back in for hours more. I got completely and willingly lost in a book I'd already read from beginning to end dozens of times. That should tell you something right there.

Rosemary and Rue is the first book in a series, but each book is a complete story. Seanan skillfully combines satisfying endings in each book with hints and pieces of an overarching story arc that left me craving the next book like an addict, but didn't leave me dangling with cliffhangers. Proofer perspective again: Seanan doesn't deliberately spoiler us, but she'll tell me what the clues point to, if I ask. I know what's coming. I don't know everything, but I know a lot; I know some things that won't be revealed until, book six or so. And knowing what's coming, I'm still dying to read each book as she writes it. They're that well-crafted, that full of things that draw me into Toby's world and make me want to stay; I don't just want to know what happens next, I want to know how; I want to know what it's going to look and feel and taste like. With these books, it's not just the gripping plot; getting there really is half the fun.

One thing that hooks me most in a book is world-building, and the Toby Daye series has that in spades. And hearts and diamonds and cups and staves and pentacles. The Bay Area that Seanan knows and loves combines with the world of Faerie from her extensive folklorist background, and sports her own twists and touches. Both worlds are vivid and real, sometimes enchanting and magical and sometimes frightening and violent, and I find myself craving every scrap of detail about Fae rules and culture and how they interact with the mortal world easily as much as I crave to know how Toby's going to get out of her next scrape.

Ah, Toby. October Daye, half-human private investigator, sarcastic and impulsive, trying to do what's right even when she hates it, sucked back by that very sense of right and wrong into the world she tried to leave behind. Seanan's characters are all like Toby-- layered, imperfect, trying to be true to themselves but as unpredictable and fallible as anyone else. Even a great mystery will never hook me if the author doesn't make me care about the characters. In Rosemary and Rue, even the characters you wouldn't particularly want to get to know are still people you kind of want to know more about.

Mystery! I'd recommend Rosemary and Rue just as highly to mystery fans as to SF/Fantasy fans. I'm a fan of urban fantasy, where the magical and fantastic still exist right here in our cities, cleverly hidden from all but the most discerning or the most unlucky. I'm also a fan of murder mysteries, and I read an embarrassing number of them. So I feel I can say this with fannish authority: these two great tastes never tasted so great together!

What makes it work is that Seanan doesn't sacrifice the one genre for the other. The mysteries in each book-- as well as the overarching mysteries across the series-- aren't simple and telegraphed; there's no obvious butler-did-it, nor is there an obvious least-likely-person-did-it. At the same time, Seanan doesn't use the classic and infuriating trick of withholding vital information about the plot until the last five pages of the book just to make it impossible to guess, ("what you all didn't know is, Bob was a prison guard twenty years ago, and Bill was an inmate there!") Mystery plotting is a tricky balance, and I think Seanan strikes it well.

Yet urban fantasy isn't just a stage setting here. Walk through any bookstore's mystery section and you'll find loads of gimmick series: musician mysteries, cat mysteries, cookie mysteries (recipes included!), racehorse mysteries (okay I like Dick Francis a lot, but still), theatre mysteries, etc. Many of them are well done, but most of them are still only using their "thing" as a gimmick. The October Daye series isn't an "x mystery" series; it's an urban fantasy series in which there are compelling mysteries. It's a tale of a woman caught between two worlds and trying to live in both, a portrait of those worlds and an introduction to the people who live there.

It's unavoidable that I'll get a little gushy when talking about my dearest friends, but I promise, friendship is only enhancing the gush a little. I genuinely and highly recommend Rosemary and Rue to fans of urban fantasy, or murder mysteries, or P.I. novels, or worldbuilding, or complex characters, or folklore, or fairy tales, or Shakespeare, or British folk ballads, or just plain exciting and engrossing stories that are likely to keep you up half the night reading just one more page.

I am thrilled to have had the privilege to read and review an advance copy of 'Rosemary and Rue'.

Toby Daye is a 'changeling', the child of a fae mother and a human father. These mixed-race people, not fully accepted by the fae world, use magical disguises to pass as human and live quiet, 'normal' lives in a world that doesn't know they even exist.

Toby was a private investigator, working on cases that affected full-blooded fae and changelings. This career came to a sudden end when a case went horribly wrong and ended with Toby being enchanted and removed from the world for 14 years. In that time, her human husband moved on with his life, her changeling daughter grew up without her, and Toby has returned to a world that she barely understands.

She attempts to build a new, quiet life working menial jobs and living hand to mouth, refusing to return to doing the investigations that destroyed her life. This situation changes when a fae friend is murdered and Toby agrees (under some duress) to solve the case and avenge the death.

I don't want to say more because this is a story you should discover for yourself. The world is so real, the characters so well-written, that you will feel like you live there.

The book is the first in a trilogy but don't worry, the story didn't end with a cliffhanger. The story was complete in itself, the mystery was solved...and future occurrences were hinted at in a manner that lets me think I may have an idea what's coming without leaving me hanging. Knowing that this is book one in a trilogy means only that I came away smiling in anticipation, knowing that I will have two more opportunities to immerse myself in this fabulous world with these wonderful characters.

Lucky you, you have THREE opportunities. You will get to meet Toby for the first time in September, and then you will anticipate the future books with the same pleasure I do.

1st in the series, this is a very good book with well developed interesting characters, lots of action and mystery, a little bit of magic, and a great ending. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys science fiction. Enjoy

I absolutely adored this book! Fans of Ilona Andrews, Patricia Briggs, Kim Harrison just to mention a few should definately give this book a try. Trust me, it will not disappoint.

Really words cannot describe how much i enjoyed this, i just finished reading the second installment to this series and it just gets better! Please, please try this series so that Seanan can have an extended contract (she's only contracted for three at the moment according to her blog) in order for us to read more about Toby not to mention the delicious Tybalt, her trusty sidekick Quen . . . okay there's just way too many interesting characters for me to mention here. So what are you waiting for? Go try this series out!

One of the things I liked best about this book was that Toby, the main character, couldn't do everything alone. She depended on the help that her friends (and occasional enemy) could provide. Yet she never seemed helpless.

Yes, the villain was obvious from their introduction, but that didn't keep me from enjoying how Toby finally came to that conclusion.

Also, Tybalt, the King of Cats? He's way cool. I'd honestly rather read more books about him than Toby.

This is such a great series. I am not normally a fan of elves because they are usually portrayed as cold and cruel but the elves in this series have more range. The first book is a solid start to the series but is not the best one so far. October is a strong female lead but she makes mistakes and take some hits. I like that October is not the strongest or the best at what she does but she stays true to a purpose and knows how to lean on others.

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!!!

This is a fun urban fantasy. It's similar to many in this genre. The thing I really like about it is that it doesn't turn into soft core porn under the guise of SF like so many of the vampire/werewolf/fairy books of this type do. I really enjoyed it!

I enetered reading this novel with a bit of trepidation due to all the hype surrounding it. Having read it all i can say is WOW! It deserves it. Seanen McGuire has written a novel which grabs a hold of you and doesn't let go until you're finished and wanting more.

The characters are so well fleshed out that even those which appear briefly still feel like old 'friends'. Toby is such a great character you feel all her emotions along with her and it is because of this that the book is so great. All of the urban fantasy elements aside this is really a book about personal growth and development and learning to like one's self. I can't wait for the next two novels, March is too far away...

I ignored the store's recommendation of these books for months before finally ordering this one. It was a huge mistake! The characters and stories that the author weaves together are amazing. I couldn't put this book down and burned through the other 4 in about a week. Do yourself a favor and order this book!

A wonderful new take on urban fantasy. Looking forward to the rest of the series. Even if this isn't usually your genre, but you like mystery and/or high fantasy, I think you will enjoy Rosemary and Rue.

...October Daye may give you a run for your money.

Rosemary And Rue is, simply, the best urban fantasy I've read in a long time. It belongs on the shelf next to Jim Butcher and Charles deLint; in some ways it's a cross between the two, but McGuire has her own distinct, quirky, and delightful voice.

(And the Luideag is TOO cool.)

I won't repeat what the other 1-2 star reviews stated, as they were right on the money. Basically, this book had a lot of potential, but I could barely finish it. The main character is worthless, and the story painfully slow and predictable. I gave it two stars instead of one because the overall writing was decent, and the backstory mildly interesting. However, I never want to read about this character again.

This novel holds up as well on the second reading. McGuire has created a terrific heroine, who walks the Twilight between human and Fae. McGuire manages to pack more into her Prologue than some do into a novel, all told in sharp, economical writing that is nevertheless detailed enough to create a whole world. Alien and original enough to be beguiling and intriguing, yet believable enough that San Francisco will never see the same again. Romantic tropes are subverted, the plot twists as intricately as the entrance to a Knowe, and tragedy and relief are what we feel at the denouement. This is a stand alone novel, but as I have read the series before, I encourage readers to keep reading as story arcs and relationships develop over time. I think I enjoyed this book even more the second time around as I wasn't racing through to find out what would happen next. Instead I could take my time and appreciate the mastery of the author.

The classic adage, "Show, not tell," has been lost in this book. With so many different mythical creatures, one might think there would ample descriptions but alas, there are next to none. She tells us the person is a redcap, a candela, coblynau, etc. but yet we never actually find out what these creatures look like. Apparently the fact that someone or something is a 'gwragen' is description enough. The story is dry, the humor falls flat, and I hate the main character. This is book is actually pretty hard to stomach, I'm surprised that I even finished it but I can tell you, I won't be reading the next one.

I am a huge fan of urban fantasy, dark fantasy, paranormal romance etc. This book certainly sounded intriguing and seemed to meet all the criteria for a potentially great book. My advice? Don't even bother. I had to force myself to finish it. It is slow in the beginning, which I could have gotten over if it wasn't then slower in the middle, and slow at the end. The characters are wishy-washy, the "heroine" is nothing more than a whiney, self-absorbed twit. I could honestly find nothing appealing about her: she is not intelligent, powerful, interesting or wise. One of the least sympathetic protagonists I have ever had the misfortune of reading about.

SPOILER: If you still are thinking about reading it (perhaps the morons who gave it a good review seem less harsh and possibly less critical than I) let me leave you with one last warning. You will wait 200 pages for something interesting to happen. 200 pages out of a 300 page book before something happens!!! The plot literally just sits there stagnating while October whines, until around page 200 when she blindly walks into an ambush and gets shot. She then cleverly responds to this by almost dying, being rescued through no power of her own, leaving against advice and wandering blindly into ANOTHER ambush, getting shot AGAIN, this time also getting a friend killed!

Total waste of time and money. This is the kind of author that litters the urban fantasy section with total junk, making it so hard to find a decent book.

Many and several moons ago, my housemate asked me if I'd be interested in reading a new book. This is something similar to asking a cat if she would like more catnip. After receiving my enthused yes, she gave me more details. The author needed people who were not already familiar with her work to do a quick, but thorough, read-through and provide feedback, all inside of a week.

This lay well within my skill-set, and was my first introduction to Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire. I caught one small continuity detail, but beyond that I was fairly limited in feedback beyond: Book good. And it was.

Well, I'm not sure how many revisions there have been between that version and the version I received in ARC form, but let me tell you, this book has gone from "Book good" to "Book AMAZING!"

For those reading this who like comparisons to other series. Quality-wise, I believe that Rosemary and Rue compares favorably with both the first book of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, and with the first book of the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton.

The main character, October 'Toby' Daye, is a changeling. This leaves her caught between the realms of Faerie and the mortal world, with obstacles and craziness from both being heaped on her head throughout Rosemary and Rue. Toby's journey through this book is precipitated by the murder of an old friend, and a very pressing obligation to solve that murder.

It's difficult writing a review, because I want to talk on and on about all the twists and turns, all the fascinating secondary characters, and the delight I had in seeing so much being set up for the subsequent books. At the same time, I don't want to give any spoilers, simply because Rosemary and Rue brings wonderful discoveries of Toby's world on every page. The degree of detail going on in the background, as she is moved forward by action scene after action scene, is just lovely.

Toby and her world feel real to me. I can picture her San Francisco, with Kelpies lurking on corners, and knowes hidden in the most unlikely of places. If someone had asked me before this book about doors into Faerie existing within a city, I would've scoffed. However, Seanan strikes the right balance between the gritty, mundane world of mortals and the otherworldliness of Faerie, and makes it seem natural and right where the two intersect.

Honestly, I can't say enough good things about the world-building. How the rules of Faerie make sense, and how you glimpse threads of the broader tapestry. I believe that Toby is dealing with a world of immortal beings, with complex and intertwining stories, loves and hates, jealousies and loyalties. Toby struggles, and I believe both in the struggles and that she will find a way through, with the help of her friends, and by relying on her own wits. Toby has been hurt by her past, but she is strong, and is capable of change to face her new realities. Seanan has me rooting for Toby throughout this book, gasping and cringing and wincing and cheering by turns. I think that is the biggest change, from the previous version I read to this one, that I can and do believe that Toby will hold her own in this precarious and deadly world.

So, September 1st, get thee to the nearest bookstore and buy a copy of Rosemary and Rue. If you love story, strong heroines, and a very folklore-based take on Faerie, you'll adore this book.

Rosemary and Rue is a cross between urban fantasy and pulp detective fiction in the most delicious way. Seanan McGuire has an amazing talent for giving her characters depth and making them real -- you'd almost expect to see one of them stepping off the BART or wandering the parks of San Francisco. This book will soon be urban fantasy canon.

Engaging story, interesting characters and good solid writing. What more can you ask for for $6?

The author has created a fascinating world and an captivating lead in October Daye. The story is complex with tons of great side tidbits. It sucked me right in.

I could not get to the computer fast enough to buy the next couple of books.

In fact, one of the best things about finding this series so late, is that I can read them all in a row without having to wait. I am getting to the end of the books, I am actually slowing down a bit because it will kill me to have to wait for the next one.

I highly recommend these books.

This book is so utterly frustrating. It's promising, with good world-building and a good authorial voice. Too bad its main character is so impossible to root for. Toby acts foolishly again and again, and blatantly misreads almost everyone around her. Reading about her isn't enjoyable.

The year is 1995 and October "Toby" Daye is on a stake out. Toby is engaged to Cliff, a human. She and Cliff also have a little girl named Gilly. They think she is a private detective who works cases dealing with deadbeat dads. But, Toby keeps a very big secret from them. She is a half-human, half-fae working on a very special case that deals with her liege, Duke Sylvester. Sylvester's twin brother Simon vanished without at trace along with Duke's wife, Duchess Luna and their daughter Rayseline. Because Toby loves and respects the Duke, she will try and find his wife and daughter.

Toby is able to find Simon in the San Francisco Japanese Tea Gardens. There Toby comes across Simon and another creature that is half Tuatha de Dannan and half Peri. Toby is wary of this Peri because they are a race that likes to cause pain. Toby watches as these two embrace as lovers would and before Toby can confront them or go for help, Simon locates her. Because Simon is too powerful for Toby, he transforms her into a koi, which is a type of fish, where she will remain in the Japanese Tea Garden pond for fourteen years.

Fourteen years later the curse has been broken and Toby has turned her back on the fae. Cliff and her daughter refuse to have anything to do with Toby because she was missing for so long. Toby walks around in a daze, working nights at a grocery store, remaining invisible and trying to be as human as possible. But the fae and those creatures that inhabit this world are all around her. Toby will have no choice but to enter back into the world that so ruthlessly destroyed her.

The reason is because one of Toby's friends, Evening, the Countess of one of San Francisco's smaller fiefdoms needs Toby's help. She left a few messages on Toby's answering machine, which Toby ignored. But when one of the messages is a binding spell, Toby has no choice but to do what Evening orders. Evening knows she will be murdered and leaves it up to Toby to find out who has killed her.

Seanan McGuire's Rosemary and Rue has one of the best prologues I have read in recent memory. I have never read one where the main protagonist is transformed into a fish and left to suffer that way Toby does. After the first twelve pages, I was expecting a rip roaring fantasy story that would keep me hooked till the very end. What I read doesn't have much to recommend.

The main problem I had with Rosemary and Rue was page after page of info dumping and needless internal dialogue. At one point I thought, there has to be more to this. Something exciting has to happen. It doesn't. There is really no action to speak of within these pages. My main problem is that there is too much telling and not enough showing. We see Toby basically sleep walking thorough each scene where we meet so many people from her past for no other reason that I can think of. We are introduced to her old lover Devin, who is some sort Oliver Twist Fagin type, but he at least bathes and is much sexier. He surrounds himself by teens he may or may not have sexual hankie panky with known as the Lost Children.

We meet Sylvester who Toby seems to still respect but can't stand at the same time. Could she possibly still have residual feelings because Sylvester was the one to have her investigate his missing wife and child that took fourteen years away of her life? His wife and daughter were returned safe and sound and Toby never once confronts these people as to where they were or wanting revenge against Simon who gave her gills. You would think after she escaped the pond she would go searching for Simon and get her revenge. You would also think those friends of Toby would want revenge for her or would aid in her fight against Simon. That never happens.

We never meet Cliff or Gilly because for reasons I can't think of, they feel betrayed by Toby. When I read this, I was very confused. Your fiancé has been missing for fourteen years and when you're told she has been found, you feel she is a deadbeat who ran out on you and you daughter? What? Wouldn't he run into her arms and cry tears of happiness that his love has come back to him safe and sound? And what's up with Toby who seems to love Cliff and Gilly so much, but only calls Cliff on the phone but never goes to see him? Of course this scenario is never shown. It is glossed over because Toby tells the reader. We are told not shown. And don't get me started on why Toby and Cliff never married before she disappeared. That in itself doesn't make sense. Why? It is another case of Toby telling the reader but not giving much explanation on why.

Many things that Toby does is told and told some more. Pages upon pages of long winded paragraphs with faery terminology and a What's Who of important faery creatures are mentioned from Toby. I felt like I was reading an encyclopedia instead of a fictional story.

Toby is very much the underdog here and her life has been a horrible one. I guess I was supposed to be sympathetic to her plight, but I just found her to be too pitiful with no spine. Toby is hurt, angry and feeling betrayed. Why wouldn't she channel this anger and kick some ass and take some names? Toby came across as too much of a sad sack, a woes is me I need some major therapy; leave me with my cats in the dark of my apartment I can barely afford because I work at Safeway.

Everything about Rosemary and Rue fell so flat. I wanted to shake some sense into Toby. Instead I felt no connection and left her to her grief where I rolled my eyes and moved onto something with more substance that will stick to the basics of writing where one will show not tell.

Kaiebabs

A few new interesting wrinkles in the genre but the characters struck me as two-dimensional and no one seemed to grow/change making the same mistakes over and over. Overall this seemed to be and overpadded short story.

October Daye is a half-fairy private investigator who was banished from the world for 17 years in the form of a fish. She returned to a family that no longer wanted anything to do with her and a murder to be solved. Being a hard boiled detective, she endured much violence and otherworldly politicking to get her man (or woman.) There are interesting characters in this novel, which is being set up as the first in a series, but on the whole it treads ground that is overly familiar in a much-done genre.

I enjoyed this book. It's almost like you came in in the middle of a multi book series but this is the 1st book. Don't quite understand that. But it's an enjoyable read and I'll probably read all of the books in this series that the author chooses to write.

I liked this book and the many characters in it. It was sometimes hard to follow because faery is so twisty with its own set of rules. It's definitely a book that needs to be concentrated on. I was clueless all the way to the end when it came to the murderer. I am interested to see what happens to October next.

Life as a changeling in San Francisco is a difficult balance, especially for Toby, enchanted for 14 years and cut off from her human lover and their child. She wants nothing to do with the fae side of the city, but is compelled to go back to that world by a curse laid over the phone by a friend about to be murdered. She must solve the mystery or die herself.

The writing's very good, the plotting's great, the heroine is a survivor who doesn't knuckle under to despair and the villains are believeable. A few things bother me, however. Unrelieved hell-on-earth gets boring after a while and I occasionally want to shake Toby and say "Look around. It's not all garbage." And the obvious setups for another book are somewhat annoying.

The real problem, however, is that eventual solution of the mystery has holes. How did the victim find out she was in danger in time enough to make three phone calls? She was a very old and powerful fae; why wasn't she able to defend herself or flee? It's a dramatically satisfying ending, but one that's easy to poke holes in.

It took a while for me to adapt to this book. The story is a little disjointed with the fairy world characters that are divided into several warring sects. The different factions are sometimes friends or enemies with an iron clad set of rules that govern promises and long term debts due for a lifetime to pay for favors performed..

I may pursue reading another of this lengthy series, but not for a while..
.

I liked the storyline overall and the world of characters created. I found it difficult to concentrate however as the author often ran off course with too many details for every single action, thought and dialogue. I actually started skipping paragraphs a third of the way through the book. Most frustrating, most of these random thoughts did nothing for the plot. I really wish she'd used them to build up the characters in the book. I'm going to purchase the second book in the series to see if there's better character development as I think the storyline has potential.

I read this book ages ago but needed a refresher before I continued with the series. This first book was a great introduction to the world and the characters. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because I think the series just gets better and better as it goes along.