Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire

In this story we are introduced to October "Toby" Daye, (or at least I was) but a quick glance at the cover suggests that there are (or will be) other stories starring this half human-half fae woman. Here I must admit to a small bias on the part of the reviewer for halflings/halfbreeds/mixed heritage persons of any sort, that is, if the character is even minimally developed. There is just something about the struggle to assimilate two, usually conflicting, cultures into a manageable perspective that appeals to me. But let's put this aside aside and get on with the review...





We start of with a glimpse of Toby's life as a fully 'human' character. She had decided to reduce her ties to faerie in favor of marriage and family, you know, the whole 'white picket fence' thing. So she is happily indulging in a typically human life. Her family is, of course, completely unaware of her mixed heritage. She works as a private investigator, mostly human jobs but she does occasionally work for the fae, and she is in fact on an important assignment for her fae liege Lord. While she is on this stake-out (trying to find her Lord's missing wife and child) she is caught out and turned into a koi and she languishes in this state for 14 1/2 years.

After spending over a decade as a goldfish, she is understandably bitter. She cannot return to her human family (they thought she was dead and upon her return, thought she abandoned them) and she is pretty pissed off at the fae, in general. Yes, we have a dual heritage strife! Whoo hoo!

So, she settles into a mundane and solitary life working as a grocery clerk. Several of her former fae acquaintances have made attempts to contact her and re-involve themselves in her life but she wants nothing to do with it, or them rather. She is quite content to scrape by with her lowly but satisfyingly solitary clerk position and has decided that her two cats are all the company she needs.

So she goes, if not merrily, as contentedly as possible, about her life until one day she returns home to discover a series of messages on her answering machine from a former fae friend (of sorts), Countess Evening Winterrose. In a series of increasingly alarming messages, Winterrose begs Toby to come to her, to help her because she is in some vague, yet deadly, danger. The messages culminate in Winterrose leaving a binding/curse on Toby (apparently answering machines transmit such things perfectly well) and she is then killed while still on the line. Toby is now forcibly bound to discover who has killed Winterrose and if she does not succeed in an unspecified amount of time, she will die herself. Talk about some motivation eh?

Toby resents the binding curse mainly because she would have been compelled to discover who had killed her old friend (of sorts) and perhaps more importantly, why, without it. Now, however, if Toby dallies too long in her efforts toward this 'case' the curse manifests itself in physically painful ways. Toby thus sets out to reintegrate herself into the fae world.

She presents herself to the Queen of Faerie to inform her of Winterrose's death and is basically tossed out on her ass and told to never discuss it again (suspicious eh?). She then tracks down her old boyfriend/man who totally took advantage of her in her early, angst filled youth (readers opinion there) and he agrees to assist her...in fact he seems to have been waiting for her to return to him. Along the way she finds a key which eventually leads her to a box that contains a bit of fae power that should not be left untended. This forces her to track down the prince of cats, a fae named Tybalt. Toby has known Tybalt since early childhood and while he has always been rather cruel to her (but he seems to have some kind of attraction/fascination for her), she feels that he can be trusted to guard the box for her. Eventually she makes her way back to her liege lord, Duke Sylvester and his now returned family, Duchess Luna and their daughter Rayseline. The Duke and Duchess are thrilled to have her return to them and are quick to assure her of their assistance in any way she might need.

So Toby's prospects look pretty good. She has a Duke and a scalawag backing her up and the box that lies at the heart of Winterrose's death is safe. Now she just has to figure out who-dun-it. Her inquiry leads to a slew of mini-adventures, most of which are rather entertaining. It becomes apparent fairly quickly that someone is gunning for her, as if the curse wasn't enough! So now she is dodging assassins as she searches and it's becoming ever more difficult to know who she can trust. On top of all that, she still has two cats to feed and she's about to lose her job!

Of course in the end Toby manages to figure out who killed Winterrose so the curse is lifted. She had plenty of close calls but as I mentioned at the top, this appears to be a series so it was a given that she would survive.

It is of note that as she goes along on her quest she encounters a variety of fae, all of whom are described in great detail. This is one part of the book that I thought was very well done. Rather than having all of the fae look like versions of Tinkerbell or a Keebler elf, they are divide up into species, of sorts, and tend to take their characteristics from animals. The Duchess for example, has a relation to foxes and as such has pointed teeth and three luxurious tails. The hierarchy among the fae and their half-blood relations is also explored and exemplified along the way. I had expected that the conflicts would be more race related but the underlying issue really seems to be class. The full blooded fae are more powerful (magic-wise) and they have the potential for immortality. This leads to a superiority issue when they deal with their half-blood relatives who are much weaker in their practice of magic and they will only live for a few centuries. These tidbits really help to flesh out the version of faerie that the author presents. In fact, though the storyline itself is engaging and fast paced, I rather enjoyed the side-notes into her relationship with each of the fae she encounters. The reader gets to know the background of each person in just the right amount of detail, that is, we learn about each character without drowning in information or slowing the pace of the story.

Overall, Seanan McGuire's version of fae, coupled with a capable heroine makes this a book worth reading. Toby does not expect a man to rescue her (gasp!). She might note her weaknesses but unlike so many (too many) portrayals of female heroines, she does not dwell on them. The only time Toby was concerned about her appearance was when she was weakened by sunlight and her glamor slipped, exposing her pointed ears and strange eyes to mortal view. This may not be the best book ever but it is definitely worth reading. I, personally, am looking forward to the next installment...cough, cough *hint* Frizzy....

Verdict: B+