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| Image courtesy of Penguin Random House and DAW |
Rosemary and Rue is the first book in the October Daye urban fantasy series by Seanan McGuire. It is a pretty standard urban fantasy starring a detective that is caught between the mundane world and the magical. In this case, it’s the world of faerie.
The main character, October Daye (Toby to her friends), is a
detective in the employ of one of the fey lords, with a mortal husband and
daughter. She’s on a mission for her lord to rescue his wife and daughter when
she’s caught and trapped for long enough for the world to move on without her.
Fast forward to the present and you have Toby working a
night job and pretending that the fey world doesn’t exist until an event forces
her back. Shenanigans and violence happen. Bad guys are revealed. Bad guys are
dealt with.
This book has some rough edges. Primarily in the form of
repeated information and minor tangents instead of moving forward. The other issue that I had was that Toby spends almost no time actually detecting
and almost the whole time reacting to outside forces and being brought to the
brink of death repeatedly only to be miraculously saved by one of the very
powerful pillars of faerie.
Thinking about it now, it feels as much a vehicle for
introducing all the power players of the series as much as it's about the
mystery that triggers the book. More so in some cases, as the mystery isn’t all
that much of a mystery since the whole thing relies on her just getting the time to get
the key item that she tried to get earlier, but didn’t have the time.
All that said, the book is entertaining enough if you’re not
looking for anything too deep and want something to read after the Dresden
Files and still want more urban fantasy detective tales.
The prequel novella at the end is really good though. She's proactive, clever, and all the power players still do their thing without taking anything away from Toby. The novella gives makes me want to give more of the series a chance.
3 out of 5.
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