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Title: Rosemary and Rue
Series:
October Daye #1
Author: Seanan McGuire
Rating:
1 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages:
287
Words: 106K
From
October-daye.fandom.com/wiki/Rosemary_and_Rue
Prologue:
June 9, 1995
Half-fae
changeling October Daye is on a stakeout for her private investigator
/ knight errant job when she gets a call from her human boyfriend
Cliff and Gillian. Simon Torquill appears and Toby follows him to the
Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate Park in the hopes of locating the
missing Luna and Rayseline Torquill. Simon meets up with Oleander,
then turns Toby into a fish when he catches her spying. She is kicked
into the koi ponds where she and Lily are trapped and forgotten for
fourteen years.
Chapter
1-2: December 23, 2009
Toby
regains her true form and seeks help from her longtime friend Evening
Winterrose to set up a new human identity. She rejects most of Faerie
including Sylvester and her changeling friends Mitch, Stacy, and
Kerry, choosing instead to work at Safeway and occasionally offer
toothpicks as aid in the local pixies’ territory wars. When Mitch
visits the store, she pretends not to know him even though Gillian
and his daughter Cassandra used to be playmates.
While
heading home from a work shift, Toby is caught by the dawn and her
human illusions are forcibly stripped away. Tybalt appears while she
recovers from the pain of the magic, and they banter before going
their separate ways. She arrives home to find a page of Duke
Sylvester’s service waiting with a message, but she refuses to hear
it as she has refused all the other messages.
Toby
dreams about her mother Amandine, who had been married to Toby’s
human father until Toby’s Changeling’s Choice, administered by
Sylvester, forced mother and daughter back to the Summerlands. She
also dreams of the day she escaped the koi pond and sought Evening’s
help to get back on her feet, even as Cliff and Gillian rejected her
for abandoning them for fourteen years.
Chapter
3-4: Awoken by her cats Cagney and Lacey, Toby listens to several
increasingly frantic voicemails from Evening which culminate in
Evening binding Toby to find Evening’s killer right before Toby
hears Evening get murdered over the line. Toby drives to Evening’s
apartment where she magics the human police into believing she
belongs there. She finds splatters of Evening’s blood and the
human-like corpse left by the night-haunts. She uses her Daoine Sidhe
abilities to taste the blood and relive Evening’s final moments,
learning that unidentified attackers killed her with iron bullets.
Chapter
5-7: Toby travels to the Court of the Queen of the Mists to announce
the death using the fae’s formal customs, but the semi-mad Queen
refuses to believe her. Next Toby goes to Home, an underground
community of Changelings led by Devin, who had given refuge to Toby
as a teenager after she ran away from Amandine and the Summerlands.
Toby confronts teenagers Dare and Manuel before they allow her to see
Devin. She recalls her own time as Devin’s lover and lackey, and
how she and Devin had argued when Toby started dating Cliff and
became pregnant with Gillian. In the present, Devin insists that he
would have helped Toby after her return from the pond if Toby had
allowed it. He explains that Evening was a benefactor for Home, and
he pledges Home’s resources to helping Toby find her killer. In
exchange, Toby will be in his debt. Devin encourages her to break
ties with Sylvester, since although she won’t talk to Sylvester she
is still his sworn knight, but she refuses.
Chapter
8-10: On the way home, Toby encounters a rose goblin who gives her an
unmarked key. Evening’s binding tells Toby that the key is
important, so Toby next heads to Evening’s mortal place of
business, Third Road Enterprises. The binding tells her that the key
will “open the way into Goldengreen,” Evening’s knowe. Using
the key at the mortal business gives Toby access to the offices and
leads her to a hidden hope chest. Toby recognizes that she must hide
it, so she makes a bargain with Tybalt to keep it safe. He refuses at
first, telling her to take it to the Queen or the Tea Gardens, but
then accepts it and puts Toby in his debt.
Chapter
11-12: Although she is exhausted, Evening’s binding uses
increasingly painful means to urge Toby to keep hunting the truth.
Toby visits Shadowed Hills to inform the Torquills of Evening’s
death and to ask for help. She recalls that Sylvester went mad when
Luna, Raysel, and Toby all disappeared, and only snapped out of it
when his wife and daughter returned to him. Toby’s magical
abilities are tested by a footman who makes her design a court outfit
with her magic, which adds to her magic burn. Quentin, the page who
visited her home earlier, announces her to the Torquills. Sylvester
is delighted to see her but shocked by the news of Evening, and more
shocked by Toby’s binding to find the killer. As the Torquills
mourn Evening’s death, Toby flees to the rose gardens and is
followed by Connor, who attempts to make small talk with her but is
clearly unhappy in his politically arranged marriage to Rayseline.
Chapter
13: Quentin finds Toby after Connor leaves, and she learns that he is
in blind fosterage to Shadowed Hills. She tries to relax his
pureblood prejudices and formal mannerisms, and they agree to hang
out after things calm down. Sylvester and Luna are upset that Toby
indebted herself to Home on her quest, and they reiterate her welcome
at Shadowed Hills. She promises to stay in touch.
Chapter
14-16: On her way home, Toby realizes someone is in the car with her
and she drives manically to keep them off-kilter. The intruder shoots
her with iron and she flees the car, escaping on a city bus that
takes her to Golden Gate Park. She tricks the Tea Garden’s gate
attendant into letting her in and, growing increasingly weaker, she
falls into a koi pond only to be rescued by Tybalt, who brings her to
Lily. The Undine heals Toby, then chides her for her apparent death
wish before sending her off with Julie and Ross as escorts. The trio
are attacked en route to the taxi and Ross is killed. Tybalt kills
the attacker and claims he helped so he won’t be stuck with the
hope chest.
Chapter
17: Toby is driven home by Danny to find Devin waiting on her
doorstep. Devin administers to Toby’s latest wounds and they sleep
together, Devin trying to convince her to give up her hunt.
Chapter
18: Toby is fired from Safeway for being no call-no show. She can’t
make herself care given everything going on. A doppleganger posing as
Gillian visits and attacks Toby, who wants to believe her daughter is
ready to make amends. Dare and Manuel come to the rescue and Dare
kills the doppleganger with her iron knife, but in the attack Toby is
yet again injured.
Chapter
19-20:They take her to Home, where Devin yells at the kids for
slacking on guard duty. He tries to persuade Toby to give up her hunt
for Evening’s killer, which she physically cannot do even if she
wanted to. Dare asks how Toby met Devin, and Toby recalls how he
rescued her from the streets as a teenager. She encourages Dare to
break free of Devin, but Dare brushes her off. Devin tells Toby that
he will send word to Sylvester that she is safe. Toby learns that
Devin called in a favor from the Luidaeg to heal her.
Chapter
21: Toby, Manuel, and Dare head to Goldengreen to investigate
further. She runs into Connor, who was sent by Sylvester, and
discovers that Devin lied about updating the Duke. She makes Connor
cut himself to prove he is not another doppelganger, identifying him
by the scent of his blood and magic. Toby suggests that Raysel might
be the killer, and they again acknowledge their mutual attraction
even though Toby refuses to let Connor cheat on Raysel. They realize
they are not alone in Goldengreen, and in fleeing they accidentally
jump off a cliff into the ocean. Connor uses his selkie abilities to
rescue Toby from panic-drowning as she flashes back to the pond.
Chapter
22: Dare and Manuel find them on the shore and they return to
Shadowed Hills. Luna agrees to give the teens sanctuary. She also
recognizes that Toby has been healed by the Luidaeg and tells Toby
she must visit the Luidaeg to learn how to escape Evening’s
binding. The rose goblin shows her the way.
Chapter
23: The Luidaeg introduces herself, shows Toby a vision of Maeve’s
Firstborn, and identifies herself as one of them. Toby barters
Evening’s key for the answers to her questions. She learns that
hope chests can turn changelings fully human and that Devin has
future plans for Toby. Toby does not ask her final question, which
leaves the Luidaeg furiously in her debt.
Chapter
24: Back at home, Toby names the rose goblin Spike; the cats have
warily accepted its presence. Toby asks Cagney and Lacey to bring her
to Tybalt, being his subjects, and they grudgingly take her to the
Court of Cats. She asks Tybalt for the bloody shirt he had worn at
the park, and Julie attacks her because she blames Toby for Ross’s
death. Tybalt asserts dominance over Julie, gives Toby the shirt, and
tells Toby to leave as Julie continues to struggle.
Chapter
26: Toby seeks Lily’s help to reawaken the blood on Tybalt’s
shirt. Lily tries unsuccessfully to dissuade Toby from riding the
blood, and Toby learns that Devin is Evening’s killer. The binding
nearly lulls Toby into a peaceful death, but Lily snaps her out of
it. Danny takes Toby to Home where she confronts Devin. He says he
killed Evening so he could use the hope chest to become a pureblood.
He wishes Toby had come back to him, then orders Manuel to shoot her.
Manuel hesitates and he, Dare, Devin, and Toby fight. Devin kills
Dare. Manuel kills Devin.
Chapter
27: Sylvester and Shadowed Hills arrive for cleanup. Dare is buried.
The hope chest is returned to the Queen, who is now in Toby’s debt.
Toby accepts her place in the world of the fae.
I had seen several reviewers who were long time fans of this series
(it's up to book 14 or 15 I think?) and from what they had written,
it sounded very interesting. I knew this was Urban Fantasy, a genre I
have a VERY mixed relationship with, but was hoping it would stay
away from the tropes that have driven me away from the genre in
general. Unfortunately, as you can tell from the rating I gave the
book, this read didn't work out as I was hoping it would.
This was the very definition of female urban fantasy as far as I'm
concerned. Everything that bugs the living daylights out of me about
UF was here, in spades.
Spunky, full of attitude woman
multiple love interests from the past
family drama ramped up to 11
poor decisions by the main character leading to drama ramped up to
20
main character “taking care of herself” even while being rescued
by others over and over and over
did I mention attitude coupled with bad decisions?
Bad Decisions
doing things for the good of others without asking them, talking to
them about it or in any way seeing if it actually IS good for them
alienating family, friends and pretty much anyone who could help in
the name of being spunky and full of attitude
And that's enough for me. I will not read a main character who acts
stupidly, gets away with it because of authorial fiat and then gets
to call it “I can take care of myself” bullshit. Toby Daye (the
titular character's named shortened obviously) is exactly the kind of
character who I hate. Not the kind of character I love to hate, or
love to hate and read about, but simply hate.
I hated almost every page I read and seriously thought about DNF'ing
this at the 9% mark. I guess I fell into the trap of thinking that
this couldn't possibly stay this bad and so kept reading. By the end,
I was seething on the inside, almost frothing on the outside and felt
like I had wasted my time. Even Psychic Grandma rattled her chains at
me for being so dumb as to go all the way to the end. Considering I
never listen to her about her ironing tips, I wasn't about to start
with “reading advice” from her either though.
The only good thing is that at under 300 pages I didn't invest much
time and I can now get rid of the whole series from my tbr list.
13'ish books gone in one fell swoop and able to add another series to
my reading rotation.
If the bullet list of things sound like something you'd like, then go
for it and may you find more joy than I did.
★☆☆☆☆
