An Artificial Night

By Seanan McGuire

An October Daye Novel

Toby Daye, knight errant and half-fae PI, has always be what you might call danger-prone. She manages to get herself fairly messed up a bit too often for her friends tastes, and it shows no sings of stopping. See, the problem is that whatever she's getting shot at, stabbed for, turned into a fish because of, et cetera, is usually very important. This time is no different.
Children are disappearing: fae, changeling, and human. They disappear in the night without a trace, and all the signs point to Blind Michael. Two of Toby's best friend's children have disappeared, and another won't wake. Blind Michael takes children every century for his hunt, the fae to ride, the humans to be ridden. Now Toby must face an enemy more dangerous than any before, and time is running out. She is in the realm of childrens' games now, always fair and never kind. Kids are in danger, the Wild Hunt rides, and Toby's Fetch just showed up at her door.
How many miles to Babylon?
It's threescore miles and ten
Can I get there by candlelight?
Aye and back again.
If your feet are nimble and your steps are light
you can get there and back by the candle's light.
I know I've said this before, but I really love Toby, Seanan McGuire, and the Luidaeg. Oh, and May, but she's new to anyone who hasn't read the whole series already. May's Toby's Fetch. She's fun, even with the whole harbinger of death thing. Anyway, as always, SUCH a good book. Lyrical, funny, enthralling, and suspenseful. Toby's in as much trouble as usual, and as usual she's letting her hero complex do the thinking. Such an amusing idiot, that girl is. Gives her friends too many heart attacks for their comfort, but that just makes it more entertaining. LOVE IT! I need to go reread it now. Bye!

A Local Habitation

By Seanan McGuire
An October Daye Novel


After a shattering fifteen years, mostly spent as a fish, Toby's life is slowly staring to reassemble itself--she's got a PI licence in the mortal world, friends , and most importantly, she is not dead. However, that last one may change, and quickly. When her liege lord Sylvester Torquill, Duke of Shadowed Hills sends her to check up on his niece, it wasn't supposed to be overly dangerous. January O'Leary is the countess of Tamed Lightening in Fremont, and hasn't been in touch with Sylvester for a while, which is unusual. Sylvester wants Toby to check on her and make sure its all right. It isn't supposed to take more than a few days, and she is to take Quentin, the Daoine Sidhe page from Shadowed Hills, so he can get some experience. However, as we all know, nothing is that simple with Toby
When Toby gets there she finds an odd place, even by Faerie standards. She also finds blocked phones, dead Faeries, and lots of secrets. The most worrying thing, even besides the killer stalking Tamed Lightening, is that when the victims die, the night haunts don't take the bodies and switch them with human-seeming replacements. (For why this is so bad, check the Glossary for a description of the night haunts and their habits.) Now Toby must find the killer, hopefully before whoever or whatever it is kills her, Quentin, Connor, Tybalt or anyone else.
Well, once again, I loved, absolutely loved this book. I always appreciate novel forms of faeries and critters, and A Local Habitation did not disappoint.  I had never heard of some of these creatures and concepts before. Seanan McGuire has created a wonderful sequel to Rosemary and Rue, with all of its predecessor's dark charm and gripping writing. I have read this entire series so far and am waiting with bated breath for the next one. If you don't like murder mysteries or dark worlds, this book may not be for you. However, if you don't mind a little violence, dark humor, and some creepy characters, this series can be funny, enthralling, and absolutely addictive.

Ballad: A Gathering of Faerie

By Maggie Stiefvater

Sequel to Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception


After the events of last summer, James Morgan was really hoping not to have to deal with faeries again. He thought all that mess would stop once he got to Thornking-Ash School of Music. Fat chance of that happening. Now he has Nuala, a "faerie muse [with] vaguely psychic vampire tendencies" as he puts it hanging around, insulting him and trying to lure him to his death, the king of the dead singing in the hills outside the school  every night, someone killing solitary faeries for some unknown reason, and Dee falling apart completely. Oh, and anyone with half a brain can tell that James and Nuala are going to wind up in love. Which is a bit of a problem, seeing as every sixteen years she burns to death on Halloween and then comes back with complete amnesia (and she needs to suck the life out of someone to survive anyway, but the burning thing is the main problem). And guess what this Halloween is?
Alternating between James and Nuala's points of view, with some of Dee's unsent text messages, this is seriously one of my all time favorite books EVER. Seriously. James is so snarky and clever and FUNNY! Maybe not the most action-packed book, but when it's this well written, who cares? It's gripping and awesome anyway. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT! I only read Lament once or twice, but I have read Ballad like five times already. Probably more, actually. Purr, purr, purr. YEEHEEHEEHEEHEE!

Rosemary And Rue

By Seanan McGuire

Book One of the October Daye series

Being turned into a fish for fourteen years can really mess up your life. Just ask half Faerie private investigator and knight errant, October Daye. Toby is a changeling: half human, half Daoine Sidhe. After being turned into a fish for almost a decade and a half, Toby gave up being a private investigator, and tried to distance herself from the world of Faerie. Now she has no choice but to resume her old position as knight errant and delve back into Faerie. One of her closest friends, the faerie Countess Evening Winterrose, has been murdered. Killed by iron, one of the most painful ways to kill the fae. As she died, Evening cursed  Toby, binding her to find Evening's killer, or find only her own death. I absolutely LOVED Toby, Rosemary and Rue, and this entire series, of course. Toby is one of those characters who just don't seem to be able to keep themselves and their lives in one piece. In this book alone, she is turned into a fish for practically a decade and a half, shot at multiple times, attacked by a Doppleganger, has hired thugs attempt several times to kill her, and nearly drowned after falling off a cliff into San Francisco Bay.  You see what I mean? AND the other two books in the series add a good PARAGRAPH to that list. Geez. Anyway, this is a great book all around, though perhaps a bit dark and violent in parts. READ THE BOOK!

Wondrous Strange

By Lesley Livingston

For seventeen-year-old actress Kelley Winslow, life isn't going too badly. Sure, the director for the production of A Midsummer Night's Dream that she is in is, umm, demanding, but she's landed a good role. She's playing Titania, the fairy queen. Then, suddenly, her life is starting to fray at the edges. There's a horse on her bathtub, a wierdo is apparently stalking her, and she may be the long-lost daughter of the faerie king, Auberon. Oh, and the gates to Faerie are about to open, which is BAD. I've given the lecture on faeries elswhere, and I'm not giving it again. For Sonny Flannery, the afformentioned wierdo, life is emphatically not going that well. He is one of the guards for the gates of Faerie, and with the gates about to open, his workload is going way up. Then there's the fact that he's found King Auberon's daughter, and he may be falling in love with her. Oh, and another faerie queen, Mahb, wants to awaken the Wild Hunt. Again, NOT GOOD. The Wild Hunt is a faerie war band. They are evil, ok? They love killing and destruction, and they really don't like people all that much. Therefore, their being awakened is BAD, got it?
I really liked this book. The plot is great, the writing is good, and the faeries are just the sort I like. Look for the description in the Glossary if you need more info. Puuurrrrr, good book. Fans of Lament and Impossible may like this one.

Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception

By Maggie Stiefvater

Sixteen year old harpist Deirdre Monaghan meets Luke Dillon at a music competition. He offers to play a duet with her and they win the competiton. That is when her life starts to change: she begins to find four leaf clovers everywhere, becomes able to move objects without touching them, and begins to see the faeries. They are watching her, and as the story unfolds it becomes clear why; their Queen wants her dead. Luke may be a faerie killer, even her dog may be fay. Can she survive? Can Luke? Can her best friend James? If you liked Impossible you will enjoy Lament. Beautiful and haunting, it is one of the best faerie tales I have read, and I mean faerie tales. Faerie tales and fairy tales, in my mind, are not the same thing. Fairy tales to me are things like Cinderella and Peter Pan, while faerie tales are things like Lament.

Impossible

By Nancy Werlin

Generations ago an Elfin Knight cursed the women of the Scarborough family. Each generation must try to perform three impossible tasks using a version of the song Scarborough Fair as a guide. They have all failed. Now it is seventeen year old Lucy's turn. Can she do the tasks in time or will she go the way of her mother and the rest of the Scarbourough women? Written around the song by Simon and Garfunkle, Impossible is beautifully written, with a wonderful plot and characters. I like the song Scarborough Fair, and loved Impossible even more. However, I enjoyed it, but if you don't like romance novels you may not want to read it.