Sunday, December 11, 2016

A Red-Rose Chain by Seanan McGuire



Title: A Red-Rose Chain
Author: Seanan McGuire
Series: October Daye #9
Publisher: DAW
Release Date:  September 1, 2015   



Things are looking up.

For the first time in what feels like years, October “Toby” Daye has been able to pause long enough to take a breath and look at her life—and she likes what she sees. She has friends. She has allies. She has a squire to train and a King of Cats to love, and maybe, just maybe, she can let her guard down for a change.

Or not. When Queen Windermere’s seneschal is elf-shot and thrown into an enchanted sleep by agents from the neighboring Kingdom of Silences, Toby finds herself in a role she never expected to play: that of a diplomat. She must travel to Portland, Oregon, to convince King Rhys of Silences not to go to war against the Mists. But nothing is that simple, and what October finds in Silences is worse than she would ever have imagined.

How far will Toby go when lives are on the line, and when allies both old and new are threatened by a force she had never expected to face again? How much is October willing to give up, and how much is she willing to change? In Faerie, what’s past is never really gone.

It’s just waiting for an opportunity to pounce.




Toby, why do you like to risk your life so much? Why? Why? 


The October Daye series is one of my favorites UF series. It has a great magical world with some crazy faerie in it. It also has a super strong female character, willing to do whatever is necessary to keep evil at bay. It doesn't matter that during this process she ends up covered in her own blood and on the brink of death at least a dozen times. 



“Just thinking about how long it’s been since I’ve managed to wind up covered in blood,” I said. “It’s like a new trend. A blood-free trend.” 

A Red-Rose Chain has Toby being sent by the new Queen of the Mists, Windermere to act as a diplomat in the Kingdom of Silences, run by King Rhys and whom recently issued war against the Mists. Anyone who knows Toby knows she's the least capable person to behave as a diplomat. It's hard to keep Toby silent while she witnesses injustices or abuse of power which describes Rhys to a t. Worse is that Rhys is accompanied by the deposed Queen of the Mists. Someone who hates Toby and wants her dead. 

    “Change sucks. No one’s going to argue about that. Change is hard and painful and sometimes         we wind up losing things we wanted to keep forever.” 

What a mess! Poor Toby, she's always getting thrown into dangerous situations. Half the time she has no idea what the true motives are. I wasn't happy with Windermere sending her to Silences. Windermere should have known she was risking Toby or Toby's friends lives. Toby's friends don't let her go to battle alone anymore. She has great friends and an even more awesome fiancee. 


Tybalt stole some great scenes for me. He was funny, sarcastic, sweet, romantic, and just the perfect mate for Toby. As King of Cats goes, he is formidable.

“Ah, but, you see, I have wooed and won the woman of my dreams. Admittedly, some of those dreams would be more properly termed ‘nightmares,’ but I don’t believe we get to be that picky when talking about such things.”

I love so many of the characters. Quentin is becoming so much more. I do hope we can see his coronation at some point. Walther had a very important task in this novel. I can see how what he does is going to be a game changer, bringing so much happiness but also a lot of problems which I'm sure would become trouble for our dear Toby.

“Change sucks. No one’s going to argue about that. Change is hard and painful and sometimes we wind up losing things we wanted to keep forever.” 


One thing that I missed on this story, was the epic battle I have come to expect. Who knows, maybe I'll get one in the next book. 

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

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