October Daye is a changeling, half-faerie and half-human, and a knight who owes her allegiance to Duke Sylvester Torquill - a title she earned despite her half blood inferiority. One night while tailing the Duke's brother, Simon, and investigating the disappearance of the Duchess and her daughter, Toby takes a wrong step and winds up on the wrong side of magic she isn't strong enough to defend herself against - magic which causes her to go missing (can't tell you how/why - no spoilers!).Fourteen years later, she's back and having lost everything in her old life including her human fiance and her daughter, Toby turns her back on faerie and tries to live as human. Until she wakes up to hear a string of frightening voicemail messages from Evening Winterrose, Countess of Goldengreen. Just before she's murdered, Evening calss Toby and binds her with a curse: Toby has to find the murderer and dispense justice. Begrudgingly but determined, Toby immerses herself into the world of Faerie, renewing contacts once lost, making new enemies, and finding herself on the verge of death more than once.
Toby Daye is one of my favorite new heroines. She's tough and determined with a wry sense of humor, but she's also aware of her own shortcomings and knows when she needs help - even if she's too stubborn to ask for it or accept it. Her memories of Evening Winterrose made me mourn her loss even though I never got to see her character.
The plot moves quickly - the story taking place in the span of about a week, and blends the perfect amount of fantasy and magic with mystery and crime-solving. The clues and steps Toby takes to solve Evening's murder are believable and easy to follow without being predictable. The page-turning suspense had me dying to get to the end and unwilling to put the book down. Fully developed imagery and the descriptions of the elaborate world-building rival the best urban fantasy writers (such as Kim Harrison). I became so immersed in Seanan McGuire's Faerie world that I think there were times I forgot I wasn't actually a part of it.
The minor characters are complex and enthralling, each with an extent of the devious, self-serving attitude and perverted sense of honor bound loyalty, one could associate with a race of superior immortal magical beings. Tybalt, King of Cats and leader of the Cait Sidhe, was my second favorite character. His biting verbal jibes and arrogant attitude yet helpful actions had me looking forward to his scenes. And even though Toby thinks he hates her, I think he'll become a love interest in later books - at least, I hope so. Devin, the changeline leader of Home and Toby's ex-lover, and Connor, her pureblood adolescent crush, are the other two men in her life, each with their own set of complicated secrets within their backstory. And both seem to regret losing her. Then there's Cliff, her ex-fiance - so who knows what's in store for Toby's love life.
The ending didn't let me down either. I was thoroughly surprised when I learned who the Bad Guy was, and yet it made complete sense. I could look back and see the hints as well as understand her/his motives (I didn't think Bad Guy needed to explain her/himself at the end, but s/he didn't have a long monologue so it worked for me). I also liked how there are openings and subplots unsolved yet there's still a sense of closure. Evening's murder is solved, but other mysteries and problems within Faerie remain. It feels real. There's still way more to this story, but I feel satisfied. Toby's life isn't fixed by any means, but she's getting it back together, and hopefully loose ends will be tied up in the books that come.
I'm already scheming to get my hands on an early copy of book 2, A Local Habitation out March 2010, and book 3, An Artificial Night out September 2010.
Check out Seanan McGuire's website.