“Giants and witches, fairy-tale monsters… those are for heroes. For everything else, they have people like me.”
Changeling October Daye has been reluctantly pulled back into dealing with the fae world and all the headaches and dangers that go with it. When the Duke who granted her knighthood sends her to investigate an odd lack of communication with his niece with tense political implications Toby will have significantly more immediate concerns to worry beyond potential diplomatic incidents.
Rosemary and Rue was a great start to a fantasy series I definitely felt inclined to continue along with. A Local Habitation sees Toby dealing with different, more external threats in a book that’s honestly a step down from the first, but still a solid installment overall. The pace is just a little off and the central mystery, while decent enough, has a couple of weakness that are hard to overlook. In parts I felt Toby and others were just a little too slow on the uptake, which is a rough flaw to get by in a mystery. When the reader feels too far ahead of the protagonist, particularly one like Toby who’s usually sharp, some frustration starts to set in.
But Toby’s second adventure does shine in several of the ways her first one did. The mythology continues to be revealed in a natural, engrossing manner and McGuire’s recurring characters are a delight to observe and attempt to decipher. I also liked this more the second read through, even though I’d forgotten enough about the plot in the intervening years that there shouldn’t have been much difference in the experience. The implications of how everything turns out should have interesting ripple effects going forward.
All in all A Local Habitation was a good read, although I expected just a little more from it based on Rosemary and Rue. Regardless the series is compelling and I’m excited to move on to book three, which will be new to me.
Derailments of Thought 