A Local Habitation (October Daye)

Originally posted at vampirebookclub.net

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Harriet Klausner

When the main character is a quasi-immortal private investigator, an expectation is she will know how to investigate. Instead, October Daye would not know a clue if it shot her in an intimate area with an iron ball. I like the world McGuire draws, with Rose-Goblins, magic-breaking dawn, and her fae civilization. Good back-drop does not confer a 'get-out-of-plotting' card.

October Daye finds herself sent to solve a straight-forward mystery with political ramifications in the nearby fae Kingdom of Tamed Lightning, where they do computer programming. She has extreme documentation... she does not read it. She has people begging to tell her everything... she does not talk to them. If you've read *real* mystery books before, you'll hate this novel. The urban fantasy setting does not redeem a bad plot (which I had figured out around page 80). As a detective, October is unskilled and unaware of it.

Plot Summary: Faerie Knight October Daye is tapped by her sire to locate a missing royal relative. Toby travels to Silicon Valley with a teenage courtier in tow to find a group of faeries who run a software company. Toby is clueless when it comes to technology, but she takes charge when the first body turns up. She's also got her hands full dealing with a sexy surfer dude, a puss in boots, and a smitten selkie.

Seanan McGuire's first book, Rosemary and Rue: An October Daye Novel, knocked me down with a feather. It was one of the best urban fantasies I read in 2009, and so my expectations for A Local Habitation were sky high. I'm happy to say that this sequel is only a smidgen short of perfection. It almost reminded me of a good old-fashioned murder mystery, with a set group of suspects and a rapidly rising body count, but instead of `the butler in the hall with a candlestick,' this was more like, `the faerie in the cafeteria with an axe.'

Once again I connected with Toby's no-nonsense attitude, and this time she seemed more comfortable being in her own skin. She's tough without taking it to some unbelievable level, and her Halfling nature means that she's usually the underdog in any faerie fight. I'm glad Toby's not working in grocery stores anymore, and she's doing what she does best - solving supernatural mysteries.

One of my favorite characters from Rosemary and Rue is back, and I'm talking about Tybalt, the King of the Cats. Toby and Tybalt tangle in ways that raise my hopes for some sort of future between these two. I won't hold my breath, because Ms. McGuire is an unpredictable plotter, but she just might be building a first class slow-simmer romance here. My fingers are crossed, because all of my favorite scenes involve the slinky King of the Cats. Meow!

With two strong starter books, I'd say that the October Daye series is off to an awesome start. Book three, An Artificial Night: An October Daye Night, will be released in September 2010.

Trolls, selkies, pixies, hags,
Urban fairies, such a drag?
PI Toby hits a snag.
I bought this book in a paper bag.

Yes sir, yes sir
I read the book, sir.
Characters were found dead dropped, sir.
It did tricks with flips and plots, sir.
I'll do tricks with bits and words, sir.

Changeling Toby (slightly tipsy)
Gets a message from liege Lord Sylvestie
To check on niece Jannie
In her county and see what all.

Jannie's staffers, slowly shrinking.
Bodies in the yard (but not a-stinking)
Night haunts missing
their cadaver call.

Bad things happen (of course)
Toby's no "hero" (maybe the horse)
Blood analysis, her recourse
But tells her no tales at all.

First person, check!
Lady PI, check!
Rare talent, check!
Supernatural, check!
Main char. with connections!
I got sub genre Bingo!
How about you?

I had problems, if you could guess
at the narrator's form of address
To the audience;
it was so flat and dull.

Explanations I desired,
But they were bogged down and mired
in a flood of names.
Palm to forehead, I smack.

For the rare times exposition a-came all forthcoming
Mostly the characters were running
Away from the truth
and Toby, the sleuth,
Seemed to let politics dictate her prying.

Instead there is action,
Without the satisfaction
That sympathetic voice
Could have lent
To my bookish distraction.

The lack of emotion
Upset my promotion
of this book's notions
And the pacing, oh man!
Rush, rush, rush!

The pace goes so very fast
That no character moments last.
Sadly thus
The characters were all so very small.

Since the plot went by in a blur
I'm afraid I must very much defer...
It was all right, but not a whit more.
It suffered most by being stuck to October.

It was a shame (I do declare)
Since for the setting, I was so there.
The fantastic and modern
Is an awesome concoction.
Why do so few nail it right on the hair?

In deft mitigation
I did have some cause for celebration
For April, whose data configuration
Was of a cause of much fascination
For the interesting vice
Of a cool character device,
She's a Dryad who lives in a server.

A dryad she is to the core
(Although not really like those of yore)
Her character growth
Was better than Quelf
Twice as interesting and sincere, what's more!

Now if the plot
had gotten a shot
From "mystery" rather than "thriller"
You would find me
Much happier be
And less of a rude joy killer.

And "What overall?" say you?
I find that I must be true
That my wordplay (while lacking)
Has done much satisfacting
For my woefully pouty moue.

"Not terrible," say I
"And not really so high
My expectations should have been set.
Perhaps the book previous
Was infinitely more devious
And a better plot to go fly."

Yes, I know I should be getting along,
Because those who have now heard my song
Flee in stark fear
Whene'er I come near
For my rants, they tend to drone on.

P.S. Yes, I am aware that my poetry is truly awful.

A cross between Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None' and a Brothers Grimm fairy taleses the high bar that 'Rosemary and Rue' set.

Although McGuire leaves the San Francisco set of 'Rosemary and Rue', her evocative writing does not suffer for the change. She brings what could be a boring corporate campus to life, proving that it is the author, not the setting, that is the star. Her characters are similarly vivid; the protagonist October Daye (Toby), so poignantly damaged in 'Rosemary and Rue', is showing the first signs of healing in 'A Local Habitation'. Quentin, the pureblood scribe from Sylvester's court, becomes Toby's apprentice, and as he gains depth as a character, we also get to see him grow as a person. New characters abound, including January, the Countess of Tamed Lightening, (Sylvester's nice), who Toby has traveled to help; January's puzzling daughter April; and a host of others. Characters also reappear from the previous book, including Tybalt, the King of Cats, Connor, the selkie son-in-law of Sylvester, and Luidaeg, who almost defies description. The mystery begins simply, but as the plot grows, so to do the twists and turns. Although some parts of the mystery were obvious, many weren't, and I thought it was well done overall.

As someone not particularly familiar with the various denizens of fairy tales, I found it helpful to read both 'Rosemary and Rue' and 'A Local Habitation' with my computer nearby, and wikipedia at the ready. Although it was initially a bit interruptive to my reading, I quickly found it quite enjoyable; almost as if short stories and illustrations had been hidden behind certain words in the books.

McGuire has left several small hints within 'A Local Habitation' about potential future storylines, and in managing to do so without interrupting the balance of the current book again demonstrates her writing skills. I can't wait to see what happens next in the world of October Daye.

I just finished reading "A Local Habitation", and I feel a bit frustrated. I'll try to explain why without spoilers, but some of what I have to say may still be a bit spoilerish, so be warned.

In "Rosemary and Rue," the setting and the mystery were brilliantly executed, but Toby's conduct was frustrating because she seemed to be putting herself in harm's way gratuitously and unnecessarily because she didn't know how, or from whom, to accept help.

In "A Local Habitation," she seems to have gotten over that problem. Unfortunately, the mystery is unconvincing. It's unconvincing because neither Toby nor anyone else seems to ask the right questions of the Tame Lightning people or to try to explore why the phone network (which is, effectively, the dryad its liege has adopted as a daughter) doesn't seem to be able to connect TL with Sylvester's realm. *No one* seems to realize this is a possible clue to what is going on until halfway through the book, including Toby. However, some of the other characters might have a psychological reason for not looking at this detail. Toby doesn't, and Alex's flirtation with her doesn't seem to provide enough reason (especially when she's not in his presence or on the premises of TL).

So perhaps the real problem is that McGuire isn't really certain how to plot a murder mystery--to give the readers the proper amount of suspense and clues--without artificial contrivances. If that's the case, Toby needs a new job, pronto. Because after all the effort McGuire has invested in making Faerie, and the Fae, feel real, introducing those contrivances to cobble together a murder mystery damages the credibility of the world she has built. For me, it took a lot of enjoyment out of what was otherwise a well-written story, with some neat characters and scenes in it. That's why I gave this book only 3 stars. There is excellent writing and lots of potential here, but as a murder mystery, "A Local Habitation" just doesn't cut it. It's too obvious, and Daye's simply too inept as an investigator, to make the mystery parts work.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I look forward to book three.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

***SPOLIER***

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

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

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

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

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

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

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

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

Excerpt: No

The Review:

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

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

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

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

Notable Scene:

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

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

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

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

Another great book by Ms. McGuire! I will admit I preferred Rosemary and Rue to this simply because there was more character development. This is very definitely a sequel. But it has some incredibly funny moments and remains suspenseful throughout. Be aware there is murder and some questionable consent concerning romance/sexual attraction. I said there was no sexual content because there was no on-page sex not because no one was thinking about it.

When I heard that the University of Washington bookstore stocked these before their drop date, I immediately called them and reserved one, despite the fact that I also have it preordered online (I've found a home for the extra book). I picked it up around 6:00pm on Tuesday, and by 7:00pm on Wednesday I finished it by virtue of working as a receptionist at a relatively unbusy office.

This book amazed me even more than the first one did.

In the first book, Rosemary and Rue, we are introduced to October "Toby" Daye, a changeling who is half human and half Daoine Sidhe. Changelings in McGuire's urban fantasy are not faerie folk put in place of a stolen child, but rather someone who is part human and part fae of some variety or other. Toby's life includes, among other things, mysteries, murders, headaches, curses, coffee, felines, courtiers, knighthood and hijinks. A Local Habitation is the second book in the series (McGuire recently tweeted that big ideas for book 11 have hit her), and it just as full of intrigue and convolution as the previous book, if not more so. Last time, Toby had to solve the murder of a Countess under strange circumstances. This time, Toby's liege (Duke Sylvester Torquill) sends her to ALH Computing in Fremont, CA to check on his niece, January. Toby quickly discovers that all is not right, and that January's people are being murdered left and right, and that if she doesn't find out by whom and why, she may very well be next.

5/5 stars; I couldn't put this down until I'd finished it.

Details that delighted me include more information about the Kitsune race in McGuire's books, and some really damn clever magic rules.

[Edit] I switched it to 3/5 stars, because I feel that, of the 5 books in this series out at this time, this is by far the weakest.

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!!!