This is the third book in the October Daye series by Seanan Mcguire. The 4th book, Late Eclipses, will be out in March of 2011. Right now there are seven books contracted for this series. This was a great installment in this series. The book was different from the previous books in that most of it takes place in the Summerlands and it is more of a questing/adventure type of story. I loved it.

October is contacted when a variety of children go missing. It's not just fairy children either. Tybalt wants her to find some of his missing cats, her friend's half-fairy children have disappeared, and Quentin's teenage human girlfriend is also gone. October ends up having to venture deep into the heart of the world of Blind Michael, one of the First Born Fairies. The hard part isn't going to be saving the children, it's going to be saving herself.

This book was a bit different from the previous books in that it has October going through more of a quest through the fairy lands. She spends a lot of time dealing with heavy hitters, mainly First Born fairies. We get to learn a lot more about where Luna, her kind of foster mother, came from and Luna's history. It was fun to have some of that mystery dispelled. This book also gives you a lot more insight into how the fairylands work and the history behind them.

October, Toby, takes a lot of damage in this book...physically, mentally, and emotionally. The nice part about that is you see how much the people in Toby's life care about her. Tybalt and Connor are both vying for her attention somewhat. Tybalt is in the story some and teases the reader with some interesting comments and problems; again I hope that a future book really features on him. It seems like there is a lot to learn about Tybalt. All our favorites are in this story as well Connor, Quentin, Spike (the rose goblin) etc. The newest characters that join the cast are May, Toby's Fetch, and Luna's mother (whose name I won't say in order to avoid spoilers).

All in all, despite the wonderful cast of characters this book is about Toby. It is about Toby deciding how she wants to live her life and whether she will be a Hero or not. The story is dark, the pace is breakneck and the book is hard to put down. I also think McGuire's writing style has vastly improved from the first book. The dialogue sounds natural and the book is very easy to read. I love how McGuire mingles urban fantasy, mystery, folklore, fairy tales, and nursery rhymes in a cohesive way.

There are a couple things I didn't like about the book, and these prevented me from giving it a 5 star rating. I thought Toby was too passive. She gets pushed around a lot of the book and spends a lot of time passed out. This was true for the end of the second book also. Maybe Toby just needs to be tougher. Hopefully we will see her do more to drive her own destiny in future books. Also I thought Toby returning to Blind Michael's lands multiple times started to get a little repetitive. By the final time Toby returns to his lands, I was thinking "Really, we have to go back there AGAIN!?"

Overall this was a great installment in this series. You learn a lot more about the characters and about the Summerlands in general. I wish Toby had been a bit more assertive and spent less time unconscious; but aside from that I have been really impressed with this series. It is quickly becoming one of my favorites! I eagerly await Late Eclipses.

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Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Review: I found this book to be better than the second book, mostly because in this book McGuire drops the idea that October is an investigator. While the book opens with several people, including Tybalt, approaching her to ask her to help find some missing children, it quickly moves into people telling Tobe who the bad guy is, what he wants and then getting her on the path to go fight him. She really does the white knight thing much better than the investigator thing.

The story in this book was quite fun - I especially liked the interruption of the Hunt and how McGuire wove traditional tales into her story. I'm not quite certain what's up with Tobe's Fetch though, given that things did not turn out the way they're supposed to once a Fetch appears. Hopefully McGuire will give us some hints in the next book. I'd also like to see more development on the Tobe/Tybalt front. Things didn't really move forward much from where they were in the last book - although Tobe seems to have finally picked up on his interest, so I guess that's something.

Overall this book was much better than book 2. I'm looking forward to book 4.

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I'm really loving this series and kinda kicking myself for waiting so long to start them!

Toby is always putting herself in harm's way to help someone else. Usually someone not strong enough to help themselves. This time a little of Toby's help comes from a strange place. Her "Fetch" comes to her door. A Fetch is a harbinger of death. They don't always appear to the Fae, but when they do it is supposed to signal that their end is very near.

This time Toby goes up against Blind Michael. He is a Firstborn and possibly the most powerful living Fae. He runs the Hunt and ever 100 years takes both Fae and Human children to replace the riders and mounts that he has lost over the years. This time, he takes 2 children of one of Toby's best friends. Another of their children has fallen asleep and can't awaken.

In order to get to Blind Michael's lands, Toby goes to the Luadieg for help. And the adventure begins.

I give this book a solid 4 stars. The writing is solid, and although I'm not one to read critically, there weren't any obvious plot holes or dropped threads. At least, not that I wondered about at the time. Still plenty of relationships, people, etc. for future books. That's a good thing, cuz there are currently 5 more in the series and I don't think it's done yet!

These books are more serious than her Incryptid novels, but every bit as enjoyable.

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