Review: Rosemary and Rue by Seanan Maguire

October "Toby" Daye, a changeling who is half human and half fae, has been an outsider from birth. After getting burned by both sides of her heritage, Toby has denied the Faerie world, retreating to a "normal" life. Unfortunately for her, the Faerie world has other ideas...

The murder of Countess Evening Winterrose pulls Toby back into the fae world. Unable to resist Evening's dying curse, which binds her to investigate, Toby must resume her former position as knight errant and renew old alliances. As she steps back into fae society, dealing with a cast of characters not entirely good or evil, she realizes that more than her own life will be forfeited if she cannot find Evening's killer.

I read Rosemary and Rue as a buddy-read with Aurelie at the beginning of the year. I didn’t know much about the book or the series except that Aurelie loved it and wanted to do a re-read of the whole series.

October Daye is unlucky in just about every day. She hardly has any powers, is divorced, and hasn’t seen her daughter after being cursed for over a decade. She’s just trying to survive when someone she used to consider a friend spells her and makes her research her death. I have a thing for unlucky characters. You know they’re going to make bad decisions which makes for good entertainment. Tobey is no different. She spends a lot of time nearly dying, and then running headfirst into danger again.

The world Maguire created is magic, with hidden courts, sanctuaries, fae, and other mythic creatures. The mystery driving Tobey is just one thing that kept me interested. I was also looking forward to the next wondrous thing she encountered. But at the end of the book, I wondered how much I actually enjoyed it. I don’t care much for the fae, their world, or lore so the emotional connection wasn’t there like it would be if there were dragons or demons.

I give Rosemary and Rue four stars. It’s a fast-paced urban fantasy with fae folk. Even though these two things are not my faves, I still enjoyed reading it, especially with a friend. I might continue the series at a later date and scream at Aurelie when Tobey gets herself nearly killed once again. Probably multiple times.