REVIEW: Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire

Summary: October "Toby" Daye, a changeling who is half human and half fae, has been an outsider from birth. After getting burned by both sides of her heritage, Toby has denied the Faerie world, retreating to a "normal" life. Unfortunately for her, the Faerie world has other ideas... The murder of Countess Evening Winterrose pulls Toby back into the fae world. Unable to resist Evening's dying curse, which binds her to investigate, Toby must resume her former position as knight errant and renew old alliances. As she steps back into fae society, dealing with a cast of characters not entirely good or evil, she realizes that more than her own life will be forfeited if she cannot find Evening's killer.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Overall: An entire series based entirely on Fae that I actually love. I’ve read a few books where the Fae take center stage (and, no, Throne of Glass doesn’t fall into this category) and I haven’t stayed with very many of them. This series? It has eight books, is on going, and I’ve read every scrap of material set in this world that I can get my hands on. Seanan McGuire has created an fantastic and dangerous world for her characters to navigate, and I have yet to read an installment that disappoints.

Thoughts: Rosemary and Rue is the first in this series. The main character, October Daye, a San Francisco native, is a changeling woman who gets turned into a fish for fourteen years. When the curse binding her to her fishy form breaks, Toby avoids everything from her old life. Her daughter grew up without her, her fiancé moved on and she wholeheartedly believes she’s failed her liege lord, Sylvester Torquil, in every way that counts.

When she’s forced to reenter the Fae world via an unbreakable curse and the murder of a friend, Toby goes to two people: Sylvester, one of the daoine sidhe, and Devin, a changeling man who runs Home.

Home is basically a place for runaway changelings to go. They’re essentially street kids and Toby used to be one of them, which kind of blinds her to the manipulative tendencies of Devin even though she knows he’s a manipulative, abusive bastard. And though Toby is wholeheartedly welcomed back by Sylvester, she only uses the help she’s been offered when its almost too late.

Toby is cripplingly self-reliant. Normally being self-reliant is a good thing, but refusing all forms of help is another story. And then she accepts the help of the wrong person. How fun.

The world McGuire set up is a great one. It takes old court traditions, like kings and queens kind of court, and mixes it with modern day life. Toby tries to navigate both and one thing I love about this book is that it shows the consequences of her living in between the worlds.