It’s been a year since the events of One Salt Sea, Toby Daye is throwing herself into danger and figuring out an exit plan as she goes, and her friends and allies are worried that she’s going to get herself killed one of these days; so honestly, nothing has really changed from the first five books. So when Etienne, her liege’s seneschal, shows up asking for her help, Toby figures this is one more cliff to throw herself off of, and (unfortunately, quoting Cassandra Clare here) “try and figure out how to sew a parachute on the way down”. See, back when Toby was missing, Sylvester went a little off the deep end and Etienne needed to escape the Knowe sometimes for his own sanity. While out, he ran into one Bridget Ames, fair maiden and Professor of Folklore at UC Berkeley (this fact is not important with Etienne being a member of the Fae and will not blow up spectacularly in his face at any future time). Well, when a Fae and a Professor love each other very much, Mr. “All About the Rules” begats a Changeling. Only now Chelsea, said now-teenage offspring, has come into her powers unexpectedly, and with her inheriting her father’s ability to open portals, her disappearance could spell disaster for everyone. Can Toby find her before her existence becomes known, or Chelsea opens doors she really shouldn’t? And is anyone going to convince Toby to stop with her death wish?
I have to say this is the book is one of my favorites. The writing is as usual cracking, and Toby for all her depression (why? I just don’t see it; you’re better off without him, seriously) is on top of her game. A lot of the old favorites make comebacks (Tybalt, Walther, Quentin, Jin, May, the Luidheag, Raj), and we get introduced to some new ones; Li Qin Zhou, April O’Leary (from A Local Habitation)’s second mother is someone who when I first read the book I knew was going to grow on me. Of course we also get the return of some characters that I had wished I would never see again; Samson and Officer Thornton. One of these (thankfully) is never seen after this book; the other, gets even more annoying on their reappearance.
The plot moves quickly along; one of the many things I like about McGuire’s writing is that even if the book is not my favorite, I’m never bored reading it. Another is that when you go back and reread the series, you can see all the threads and layers that interconnect and show you how long McGuire has been laying the foundation for a big reveal. And she gives the fans (or at least a lot of them) what they want; the ending of the book has me screaming, “Yes, finally!”, even though this was my third time reading it and I already know quite well what was coming, the resolution is just that satisfying.
There are few series that I would gladly reread from Book One to the end, or at least so far published (side-eying you, any Cassandra Clare series); Toby Daye will always be one of them though. If you haven’t picked it up yet, then start with Rosemary and Rue and get going. Though I would recommend the 10th Anniversary Edition; I haven’t mentioned in my reviews of the series so far, but a lot of the books include bonus short stories, and that edition includes the story of how Toby found the Queen of the Mists her Knowe.