A LOCAL HABITATION: October Daye #2 - Seanan McGuire

From the back of the book: 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.

Half-human, half-fae, outsiders from birth, most changelings are second-class children of Faerie spending their lives fighting for the respect of their immortal relations. 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 easy as it seems. January runs a company that produces computer fantasy games, and her domain is a buffer between Sylvester's realm and a rival duchy whose ruler is looking for an opportunity to seize control. And that is the least of January's problems. For Tamed Lightning has somehow been cut off from te other domains, and now someone has begun to murder January's key people. If Toby can't find and stop the killer soon, she may well become the next victim.....

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I loved the first in the series, ROSEMARY AND RUE, but this one made me holler! It was like reading an Agatha Christie, like 10 LITTLE INDIANS, but on hellah steroids. The suspense was killer, the murders were intense, and October on the job was classic.

Toby keeps it together somehow. I really don't know how she does it. She's had to deal with being a changeling and she could easily have a big ol' chip on her shoulder. She doesn't let it all get to her though. Or that's the appearance anyway.

All I know, Toby kicks ass, takes care of her peeps and makes sure no one gets left behind if she can help it.

Five intense beans....

Books in the House - Mon - 27 Sep 2010

From my lending library Jenna:
AN ARTIFICIAL NIGHT: October Daye #3 - Seanan McGuire, UF, MPB
UNSYMPATHETIC MAGIC: Esther Diamond #3 - Laura Resnick, UF, MPB

and because she's da bomb diggity:
STRANGE ANGELS: Strange Angels Book One - Lili St Crow, YA UF
BETRAYALS: Strange Angels Book Two - Lili St Crow, YA UF
JEALOUSY: Strange Angels Book Three - Lili St Crow, YA UF

Jenna won the above Lili St Crow series at Lili's book signing at Powells Cedar Hills location and gave them to me! And she had them signed to me! Thank you Jenna!!

She also sent me:
NATIVE STAR - M K Hobson, Wild West fantasy, signed by the author

And the below image shows what my buddy Bonnie (Redlady's Reading Room) sent me:

ROSEMARY & RUE: An October Daye Novel - Seanan McGuire

From the back of the book: The world of Faerie never disappeared: it merely went into hiding, continuing to exist parallel to our own. Secrecy is the key to Faerie's survival--but no secret can be kept forever, and when the fae and mortal worlds collide, changelings are born. Half-human, half-fae, outsiders from birth, these second-class children of Faerie spend their lives fighting for the respect of their immortal relations. Or, in the case of October "Toby" Daye, rejecting it completely. After getting burned by both sides of her heritage, Toby has denied the fae world, retreating into a "normal" life. Unfortunately for her, Faerie has other ideas.

The murder of Countess Evening Winterrose, one of the secret regents of the San Francisco Bay Area, pulls Toby back into the fae world. Unable to resist Evening's dying curse, which binds her to investigate, Toby is forced to resume her old position as knight errant to the Duke of Shadowed Hills and begin renewing old alliances that may prove her only hope of solving he mystery...before the curse catches up with her.

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I read this a few weeks ago, but wasn't sure how I would write a review that would do this justice. I honestly still don't think I will do the book justice, but I want to write the review before the new year.

This is one of my favorite books of the year. This is an amazing, intelligent, action packed story that I could not put down once I started it. Well, I had to put it down to sleep at some point, but I didn't want to.

Toby gets sucked back into the fae world and she really is just trying to fit in where she can in the human world. She's half of both worlds and wanted by neither. There is a changeling world that she can belong, but she'd rather not.

The whole book exhausted me and I can't imagine how Toby kept going after each ass kicking she got and gave. She has friends where she least expects them and enemies everywhere. I loved seeing the ways of the Faerie world, scary as it had a tendency to be.

I really look forward to the rest of the series as it comes out and anything else Seanan McGuire writes. It looks like she has a whole bunch of books out in the new year. YAY!

Five fantabulous changeling beans.....