T;LDR: A fish out of water (literally), a snarky heroine with a foot in both the fae and human worlds, but acceptance from neither, needs to solve a crime, figure out where she belongs, and find a family to call her own. Rosemary and Rue is the first book in yet another of my favorite urban fantasy series.
Not to be redundant, but I could almost cite word for word the text I used when reviewing Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews, except for the world-building and the paths both characters are on. They both are snarky, stubborn, too heroic for their own good, determined to save everyone – especially the forgotten, and find out new things about who they are and what they can do as the series’ develop.
My favorite trope, found families and saving the little guy, is again thoroughly explored in the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire. The main character, October Daye, is snarky, stubborn, and a little suicidal, who cares way too much for her own good.
I love this book for its characters, especially The Luidaeg (The Sea Witch). I also love how fully in-depth the Celtic Mythology is explored and revealed in the world building. And I love how the modern human world is woven in and around the fae world.
The Plot
October Daye, a changeling, breaks a spell that has kept her fish for fourteen years and comes back to a world that is very different. Her human husband has moved on, proclaiming her dead and remarrying, and her daughter doesn’t remember her and also thinks she abandoned them. Because they are human, Toby can’t tell them about the spell or her half-fae nature.
On her own and stumbling to figure out where she belongs, one of her friends, Countess Evening Winterrose is murdered. Toby is unable to avoid the Countess’ death curse and is pulled back into the fae world to investigate the murder. If she fails to find the killer in time, she will also die.
As Toby finds neither good nor evil on all sides, it becomes harder and harder for her to figure out who the bad guy in this story is. Will she solve the murder before the curse or the assassins trailing her kill her?
Major Complaints about the Plot
One of the major complaints of this book is how meh the plot is. Not a lot happens, Toby runs around getting attacked, bleeding and tasting the blood to see who could’ve killed Evening. There aren’t a lot of clues dropped and Toby wouldn’t see them if she did.
And I can’t say they’re wrong. She does bounce around getting hurt or maimed, or getting someone else hurt or maimed. She trusts the wrong people, never once wondering what’s changed since she’s been gone. She also fails to see most of the clues in front of her face.
And some of this continues on into the next book. The series does improve, but… a lot of these same issues continue for a book or two (or four). Toby does grow throughout the series, but only to a point.
I found some of the writing to be clunky as well, although not enough to make me put it down. I love the story and the world enough that I’m able to get past all of these issues.
To Sum Up (Too Late!)
This is not the best first book of a UF series. It’s not nearly as good as the books that follow and definitely had a different tone from them as well. I did not like the Devin character – at all – and I found Toby’s constant careening around from one painful experience to another to be a bit painful.
So how can I say this is one of my favorites? Because I love the characters and their interactions. I love the mythology and the way McGuire mixes the modern world and the fae world. I love that while Toby eventually finds out she has special powers, she doesn’t figure that out until we’re further in to the series. She learns her special powers at the same time as we do, instead of it being all bestowed on her at once.
And I love The Luidaeg. A very powerful Firstborn child of Oberon and Maeve, she likes appearing with acne, pigtails held together with ducttape and a trashy cockroach filled apartment. After all the years she’s lived, and what she’s sacrificed, she still cares. She still puts herself out there, even when she doesn’t have to.
I will say the most recent books released have dampened my enthusiasm for the series. They are good, but there are issues with the way some of the characters are portrayed. Toby is still missing clues right in front of her face, to the point that I’m yelling at the book. I would’ve loved to see this series mature in a more dynamic way, but that isn’t the case.
I still recommend it though, even with all of those problems. While I may not rush out and purchase the latest volume as it drops, I still purchase them rather than wait for the library to stock them. And that means the series still has legs for me. Even if they’re a bit wobbly.
About the Author
Seanan McGuire was born in Martinez, California, and raised in a wide variety of locations, most of which boasted some sort of dangerous native wildlife. Despite her almost magnetic attraction to anything venomous, she somehow managed to survive long enough to acquire a typewriter, a reasonable grasp of the English language, and the desire to combine the two. The fact that she wasn’t killed for using her typewriter at three o’clock in the morning is probably more impressive than her lack of death by spider-bite.
Seanan is the author of the October Daye urban fantasies, the InCryptid urban fantasies, and several other works both stand-alone and in trilogies or duologies. In case that wasn’t enough, she also writes under the pseudonym “Mira Grant.” For details on her work as Mira, check out MiraGrant.com.
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