Rosemary and Rue

I've had this book on my tbr pile for 4 years, and I've finally managed to read it, yay :D

It's been a looooong time since I've read a real, honest to god, urban fantasy, and it actually makes me want to reread Dresden as well :D

So many books, so little time...

Worldbuilding:

The book's prologue really sets the tone for the story, and we're thrown right into the action.

Apart from some flashbacks here and there, we remain in present-day San Fransisco with the occasional hop into Faerie. There is a lot of information in this first book of the series, no surprise there. Still, there wasn't any dreaded information dump but rather a more continuous information gathering.

The scenes and settings were well-written en detailed enough.

Character development:

October 'Toby' Daye is a changeling. Her mother is fae, and her father is a human. She was a P.I. and a knight in the service of her liege before unfortunate events (I'm not spoiling!) caused her to turn her back on the fae world. Unfortunately, the fae are not done with Toby yet, and she is set with the task of solving the murder of a friend.

While she may not like the fae overly much (some exceptions, of course), I do feel that a 'normal' life was never in the cards for her (I mean, working in the 7/11 aint all that).

She has a good head on her shoulders, quickly feels responsible for those she cares about, and doesn't give up (even if it would be so much easier just to let go). I look forward to seeing her grow and finding her place in the rest of the series!

Devin, her old lover. She grew up at his feet, became his lover, and left him for a human in the end. Now he is back at her side, wanting to pick up where they left off and help her solve the mystery of her friend's murder.

Tybalt, the King of the Cait Sidhe. I really liked Tybalt, and if there was any romance in the series, I hope he is the guy/fae/cat Toby goes for. At the start of the book, however, they have a whole distrust/hate thing going on... so it might take a while :D

Sylvester, Luna, Lilly, Connor, Dare, Manuel, Quentin,... I could go on and on about all the characters that we encounter (and I hope we will read about them a lot more), but I'd be here for hours more :D But I can say this: all characters feel alive, with hopes and dreams, machinations and motives. Some are good, some are absolutely not, and most are still in the grey zone where they stand in the grand scheme of things (will we ever know, though?). They have genuine depth to them. Superb writing!

Pacing and flow:

It took me a while to get into the story, but as soon as I did, it gripped me and wouldn't let me go until the end... kinda like the curse Toby got stuck with (less lethal, though, lol).

Outstanding balance between all the conversations and action.

The book:

The book was well written with no (noticeable) errors. There is a tad of romance and a little sexual tension, but no sex described in the book (if that is important to you).

The book has 346 pages, but that is with a prequel novella "Strangers in Court" included. The story itself is 264 pages long, spread over 27 chapters, and is told from Toby's point of view.

Final thoughts:

This was the first book I've read by the author, and I was pleasantly surprised! As I said at the start of the review, it's been a long time since I've read a pure urban fantasy novel, and it reminded me why I love this genre so much. The magic, the mystery, and all that in our present-day lives... I mean... what if, you know?

I wholeheartedly recommend this book!

Rosemary and Rue was a good debut UF. It was an intro into the world of October Daye. Much of it felt like just that, an introduction into her fae world where, in the midst of solving a murder, we learn about the many,

many different types of fae and fae lines, including changelings (half breeds, like Toby). There were times where I was a bit lost. But, for your reference, there's a long list of types in the front of the book.

(I sometimes cringe when I see those, wondering how easy it'll be to follow the story without first memorizing all the info thrown at us before the first "Hi, how are ya".) If you removed all of that {world-building} the book would've been short, but still interesting.

That being said though, now that we have all been

fully educated on Toby's world and the inhabitants in it, I'm hoping book #2 will be heavier on the character interaction and lighter on the world-building. :)

October said,

"I live in a city by the sea where the fog paints the early morning, parking is more precious than gold, and Kelpies wait for the unwary on street corners. Neither of the worlds I live in is quite mine, but no one can take them away from me. Stuck between two worlds ... her journey to find "home" continues in book #2, [b:A Local Habitation|6782465|A Local Habitation (October Daye, #2)|Seanan McGuire|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275916957s/6782465.jpg|6984561].

This is a tough one to rate.

I liked the world, and that alone has me interested in continuing onward, but this story as a whole was pretty unsatisfying. It was really circular... like, every 3 chapters ended with Toby almost dying, and accepting it as she sank into darkness... and then being surprised to wake up. I mean, seriously, she was "dead" about a half dozen times in this book.

It just didn't feel like any real forward progress happened in this story at all.

I'm going to give the author the benefit of the doubt, here, and assume it was just a mess of setup for the rest of a really great series, because I've heard plenty of great things about these books from other people. We'll see.

it wasn't a quick and easy read. It didn't grab me from the beginning keeping me reading all the night. I'm not sure why. The plot is absorbing and the world-building is well done. Maybe it's because this world-building, there are so many descriptions of it and of the customs of fae. It was a bit slow from time to time. And it is definitely much darker than I expected. I'm not sure if I liked it or not. But it definitely makes the whole story more complicated and intriguing.

October is such an interesting character with all her tragic past and mixed ancestry. I don't think she likes herself a lot and I wish she eventually find her peace and a place for herself. She is one of the reasons the book is so dark in my opinion.

I will definitely read the other books in this series.

The first book needed a stronger pace & more interesting plot. It was like a babbling brook, with only a few scary depths. I fear many people drop the series because of #1. But: please hold on! I'd already gotten #2 together with #1, and because it wasn't all bad and the premise was still interesting, I read it. Boy, am I happy I did! Book 1 is a bit of a fluke and doesn't give the right idea of October Daye. What you hoped for and didn't get in #1, you'll get more in #2, and for sure in #3. The series gets better by the book. I'm at #12 now, and it's become an 'UF kickass heroine recommendation' with good story arcs per book, antagonists you can truly hate, side characters to love and a love interest that's indeed actually interesting. Not within my "Absolute Faves*", but certainly one I'm thoroughly enjoying now. (* Harry Dresden, Rachel Morgan, Cat & Bones, Kate Daniels etc).