I love October's character. She's had great development throughout the book series. Simon's story makes me especially sad, however.

This book is an excellent addition to the series. McGuire has great talent as a novelist. The action she sets up lead readers through the plot with excitement. Her character development creates characters that feel real and as a reader I care, relate to them and want to see characters achieve their desires. The world McGuire creates is an extremely diverse and developed setting. I will definitely be recommending this book and the series to my library patrons.

Absolutely love everything Seanan McGuire has written, and this book is no exception! It's really a great series.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<SPOILERS>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Sorry about the spoilers, however, I did warn you!

I hate to say this but the reason this book got such low stars from me (but not 1 star like I think I should have, 'cause I did manage to finish the book) is that it was one of the most boring and predictable of this series. I actually fell asleep several times while reading this book and it makes me question whether or not I should keep on reading this series.

Toby had just returned from her bachelorette party (for which she just sat around sneering and rueing the fact that she couldn't get drunk)-Gods forbid that such a badass admit to having a good time even if it was a Karaoke Bar to or just go with the flow (I'm rolling my eyes here if you can't already tell)- when she is visited by her mother Amandine and is forced to search for her sister August. Bad things happen to Toby's beloved and to Jazz (naturally) Simon re-enters the picture of course, and they leave on a quest to find August. Naturally, the Sea Witch has her hand in what will be an epic disaster.

Most of the book was spent explaining things that we the readers already knew and re-explained them over and over again -much like how we used to hear about Toby's coffee addiction in past books. She has lost most of her Fae-ness (again) and of course gets hurt (what's new?)


We finally and thankfully get to the end and of course things couldn't go worse, she is asked not to return to Sylvester's court, Luna still hates her, Toby and her beloved DON'T get married etc, Simon is now on the loose and looking to pay back Toby. *sigh*

*ARC supplied by publisher

"Things are slow, and October “Toby” Daye couldn’t be happier about that. The elf-shot cure has been approved, Arden Windermere is settling into her position as Queen in the Mists, and Toby doesn’t have anything demanding her attention except for wedding planning and spending time with her family.

Maybe she should have realized that it was too good to last.

When Toby’s mother, Amandine, appears on her doorstep with a demand for help, refusing her seems like the right thing to do…until Amandine starts taking hostages, and everything changes. Now Toby doesn’t have a choice about whether or not she does as her mother asks. Not with Jazz and Tybalt’s lives hanging in the balance. But who could possibly help her find a pureblood she’s never met, one who’s been missing for over a hundred years?

Enter Simon Torquill, elf-shot enemy turned awakened, uneasy ally. Together, the two of them must try to solve one of the greatest mysteries in the Mists: what happened to Amandine’s oldest daughter, August, who disappeared in 1906.

This is one missing person case Toby can’t afford to get wrong."

Eleven books in a October Daye is going hardcover! Not that there was any doubt that Seanan wasn't "making it."

Brightest Fall is the book all October Daye fans have been asking for. This book answers a lot of questions that fan has been wondering about over the series. It was a thrilling read and I didn't want to put it down till I was on the last page. It left me wanting more and asking myself just where the series was going from here. I need to know what happens to Toby and the Gang after all the drama they went through in this book. Can't wait to read the next book. Will be counting down the days till it comes out. Seanan McGuire is a excellent writer and really draws you in to the world of Toby and the gang.

Interesting installation for the series, we get a lot of time with some much loved characters and (finally!!) some more information about the meta plot!!

** Note: it's impossible to review this book without including spoilers for previous stories so please don't read this review unless you're up to date with the series and have read at least as far as Once Broken Faith **

Just when everything seems to be going right in Toby's world something, or in this case someone, has to come along and ruin it. Toby should be focusing on planning her wedding but an unexpected, and not particularly pleasant, visit from Amandine turns her life upside down and leaves her with an impossible task on her hands - track down Amandine's oldest daughter, August, who has only been missing without a trace for about 100 years, or both Tybalt and Jazz will pay the price. Failure isn't an option but Toby is going to have to pull out all the stops, including working alongside her sworn enemies, if she wants to have a chance at succeeding.

Amandine has been pretty much a minor character in the series so far, we know she's a firstborn and we know she's Toby's mother (and a pretty crappy mother at that!) but apart from the occasional brief appearance we've not really seen much of her so I was quite excited at the prospect of getting to know her. Well you know that saying "be careful what you wish for"? That definitely applies here because Amandine is so much worse than I could ever have imagined and I felt so badly for poor Toby for everything that Amandine puts her through. The Luidaeg may be Toby's aunt but she's been more of a mother to her than Amandine ever has or will.

So Toby's family reunion doesn't go well and now she's been set with the impossible challenge of finding her half sister or being responsible for the death of her fiancé. Toby is nothing if she's not determined but I have to admit the lengths she was willing to go to surprised me here, she has to go to the one person I didn't think she'd ever trust for assistance and it makes for really interesting dynamics in this story. It's hard because there are so many things I want to discuss in this review but all of them would be spoilers so I can't talk about them. What I will say is that the stakes are higher than ever, the risks are greater, Toby's life is in danger and things will never be the same again.

The Brightest Fell was everything I could have hoped for and then some, Seanan McGuire somehow manages to ramp up the level with every new book in this series and it has quickly become one of my favourite UF series of all time. I can't recommend these books highly enough and I'm desperately waiting for the next book to release.

If you are not familiar with the Toby Daye series, this is not the place to start. Ten books in, and Seanan McGuire is still expanding Toby's world. She plays a lot with the theme of "acquired family', something that is becoming more and more prevalent in today's society. I can't wait to see what happens to Toby next!

The Brightest Fell by Seanan McGuire DAW Books

Continuing the bestselling October Daye paranormal fantasy mystery series, The Brightest Fell opens with Toby celebrating her bachelorette party, ahead of her wedding with Tybalt, King of the Cats (Cait Sidhe). All seems normal, if you factor in that the party was organized by her own Fetch, May Daye (If you don’t like horrible puns, stop here), and the guests include a host of mythological creatures and shapeshifters. Among the guests singing karaoke and getting plastered, even Toby, whose half-fae metabolism sheds liquor in a matter of minutes, manages to enjoy herself. When she returns home, full of good spirits, the worst of all possible visitors arrives on her doorstep seeking Toby’s help to solve a missing persons case: her mother Amandine. More than reluctant to open any of the cans of worms presented to her, Toby is plunged into the world of the fae in search of her half-sister, August. Fast-moving, in an intricately drawn world full of fascinating creatures, hard philosophical choices, and wry humor, The Brightest Fell is a worthy addition to the October Daye series. Recommended for fans of paranormal fantasy and urban fantasy. If you have not read any of these before, McGuire includes enough background information for this volume to stand alone, but it will leave you eager to seek out the rest.

Arc Provided by Daw through Netgalley

Well this one started out with a bang, but towards the end I was fervently wishing for it to end asap.
I've read all the previous books, probably all the shorts as well, so I'm familiar with this world.

This means that having the same old things, the same old stories, the same old - character _ quirks thrown at me at infinitum became tiresome. And depressing...
Why is it that when a series starts going downhill, the publisher decides to publish it in hardback?

The author knows how to write and I have been a fan of this series since forever (book #2 excluded), but with this book I felt that the author was more concerned in keeping new _ potential _ readers up to date in Toby's world.
Hope that things will pick up in the next volume, and that Toby will kick some... you know who's ass!

I recognize that I may be one of the last readers of urban fantasy to discover the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire. The first couple of volumes that I read (not the first in the series) showed the signs of McGuire's crisp storytelling, but I will admit that I was just a little lost with who the plethora of characters were and their relationships to one another. But with this volume, the characters, the relationships, and their abilities became very apparent and I really enjoyed my time here.

October Daye is a half-breed - half human and half changeling. She's tried desperately to live her own life and not get caught up in the politics of the Summerlands ... the fae land that exists on the other side of the mirror. Though she chose to be changeling rather than human at the age of sixteen, she ran away from her mother Amandine (the Liar) at the age of twenty-five and now tries to live peacefully on earth with her Summerland and earthling friends.

As this book begins, Amandine pays October a much undesired visit. Amandine wants October to find her older sister, August. August has been missing for over 100 years.

It isn't lightly that Amandine would demean herself to seeking October's help and it is reluctantly that October agrees to help. But because Amandine is the vindictive and suspicious sort, she takes a couple of captives - October's friends - to ensure that October will complete her promise. If October hadn't had any real motivation to find someone missing for a century, she had it now.

But Amandine isn't known as Amandine the Liar for nothing.

Wow...this was fantastic. The intricacies woven into this story are tight and spectacular. The character of October became much more clear to me with this book (again ... I haven't read the entire series), and the relationships of the multitude of characters is much clearer.

I really liked the appearance of some creatures who provided a unique look at October's past, October's general character, as well as revealing the variety of life in Summerland.

I really don't want to reveal too much here because McGuire is a reading delight and making discoveries right alongside her characters is absolutely delicious. The characters are well-fleshed out and the world these stories takes place in feels full and real and not just another Charlaine Harris/Carrie Vaughn/Kim Harrison rip-off. There was so much packed in these 350+ pages that I felt I read an entire epic rather than just one book.

You'll want to read this.

Looking for a good book? <em>The Brightest Fell</em> is the 11th book in the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire. You don't need have to have read the previous ten books in this series to understand what's going on or who these characters are or to have a tremendously good read ... but you'll want to.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I’m sorry but I didn’t know that was book number 11 in a series, which is why I had to DNf it unfortunately. I apologize to the publisher.

Toby can never catch a break! Thinking that she can have a vacation, she is having some down time with May and a few others at a karaoke bar. Will the torture never end? She gets home and her Mom, Amandine,  shows up and takes her Fiancee, The King of Cats. Toby must find her sister to get her sister back. Did I hear that right? A sister? Yes, you heard right. This was exactly what Toby was thinking, and why no one told her. So in true Toby fashion, anything that could go wrong, does go wrong. I love how Toby and the other characters are always evolving from one book to the next. I recommend this book and series to everyone. I give The Brightest Fell (October Daye) 5/5 stars.

When they approved my request on NetGalley for this book I was really happy, for so many different motives: I love the author, I love this series, I love the characters and, also, because for once in my life I am not way behind with a series! (Usually I have a big problem with this point, a huge problem, to be honest!!!). And I am happy to say that I wasn't disappointed the least with this reading. As said before, this is one of those series that can be good even after 10 books, and that's great!

Yes, there are some things that I liked better at the beginning of the story, namely Tybalt. I love him, because he's sooo adorable! But I was more in love with him when his story with Toby was hate/love. And it's not that I am not happy for them, I am really happy, and I want to see their marriage (that's one thing that makes me really excited!), they deserve to be happy and they are quite the perfect match. But I loved Tybalt more when he was a little bit more antagonistic, to be completely honest with you.

But there are a lot of things that are way better in these later volumes, like the Luidaeg, she's a great character, she's one of my favorite and we see more of her as the story goes on, yay! We can see more of her, and we can discover so much about her. And she's in for some big surprise (I mean, we find her in a karaoke singing Disney's song!! How fantastic is that????????). And it's fun to see how all the characters act differently with her around. The Luidaeg is one of the best-developed characters in this book (ok, not only in this book or this series, she's one of the best characters ever!), she's so complex, so multifaceted and so fascinating! And she's so tragic that your heart hurt for her.

“I didn’t even know you invited her.”
“Uh, duh, I had to? It’s the Sleeping Beauty principle. You always invite the biggest badass on the block, or they show up later and curse everybody just to make a point. Besides, she’s having fun.

This is one of my favorite quotes from this book and you can also see the writing, the fun that you can find in these pages. Because this book is so good on so many level: the main character is always true to herself, Toby is really upstanding, all the other characters are real people, not just plain, bidimensional figures, every one of them has a life, feelings and ideas, and some of them would become your best friends. It's wonderful when you can find so many friends in the pages of the books you read!
And there is the worldbuilding too, that's so rich and full of life, and the stories, so full of adventure and puzzles. I really like this series, and every book is a gift!

In this book we can see more of Amandine, and I was happy in the beginning, because I always wondered about her, but now that I have had that I am not so happy. Amandine was really despicable, and my heart really hurt for Toby. I'm not complaining about it, mind you, I'm just telling. But Toby is so good, as in a really good person, that I felt sorry for her a lot. Because she didn't deserve Amandine as a mother. Anyway, Toby is a sort of attraction for disaster, and the Amandine's quest was just the last of them.

“Being your friend is like trying to get up close and personal with a natural disaster,” she’d said. “Sure, we have some good times, but we spend half of them covered in blood. We just want to spend an evening making you as uncomfortable as you keep making the rest of us.”
Not to be outdone, her eldest daughter, Cassandra, had blithely added, “Besides, we don’t think even you can turn a karaoke party into a bloodbath.”
All of my friends are evil"

And that's Toby for you!

I really liked this book, and I hope that the next one would be out soon because I need more of them!!!

I very much enjoy the October Day series and the evolution of October as a character. The stories are well crafted and plotted with rich detail and language. The real gem with this volume was the wonderful short story included at the end. Highly recommended for fans of the series.

I received this DRC free and early thanks to Net Galley and Berkley Press. The truth is that I am not sure how to rate this title, and so I have used my default rating that I generally give for a book that is good but not necessarily great. This is probably not accurate, but I owe a review for a book I couldn’t make heads or tails of, and so here we are.

I jumped into this cross genre young adult, mystery, paranormal, science fiction novel midway into a very successful series. I have never had a problem doing so before. The October Daye series has sold well, and I suspect that those that have already mastered the language it uses will be delighted. But the truth is, I just couldn’t gain purchase. I set it aside several times, determined to read it with fresh eyes, but although I could sometimes follow along for a few pages, I ultimately was confounded again and again. I have seldom been so confused in my life.

Fans of the Toby Daye series will doubtless be delighted with this entry also. It may be a five star read, or a three star read, or something else altogether. I cannot say. But for those interested in starting a new series, I recommend finding the first title, listed on Goodreads as Rosemary and Rue. It’s a shame to flounder around as I did when a more engaging experience is likely for those that start at the top.

Just when Toby thinks everything has returned to what passes for normal in her world, her mother shows up and throws everything into disarray. Although disarray is par for the course in Toby's life this seemed a little extreme. It's an incredible adventure, introducing us to new characters that I can't wait to get to learn more about in future books and revealing more about characters about whom we thought we already knew everything that was worth knowing.

The more things change in this series, the more they stay the same. And that make sense in a world that features characters who have lived hundreds of years if not more. Since the very first book in the series Toby has faced so much prejudice and disdain for being a changeling. We have seen the fae characters wrinkle their noses at any and all beings they considered lesser. In many ways, this precept stands above all other things. And it’s rings more true than ever here.

The story begins with Toby in a happy place. She celebrating her bachelorette party; she has a great group of friends and family she loves. She has a future with Tybalt and she’s really quite grateful for where things stand. And that’s a huge flashing sign that everything’s about to go to hell. Which of course it does.

Toby’s mother is back. And she is horrible. We learned in prior books that Toby had an older sister, August, who disappeared before Toby was even born. Now mommy dearest wants her back and she doesn’t mind twisting the knife into her youngest daughter to do it. Amy is a Firstborn which we’ve seen in other books is usually an indicator that she is pretty lacking in empathy or morality. I doesn’t make it any easier to see how little regard she has for Toby. For God’s sake, she chose to have Toby with the mortal man. She chose to make a changeling, yet Toby doesn’t hold a candle to her real daughter, the pureblood fae.

Trust me when I say Toby has no choice but to do as her mother asks. She has the best motivation possible. And she has to make a deal with the Sea Witch to find the means to be successful in her mission. It takes her into the Summerlands and brings her face to face with the repercussions of her actions in prior books. We revisit some things that had essentially been put to bed. But in this world, nothing is ever really over.

Toby is separated from all of her tribe for the vast majority of the book, and I missed them. But this book did not feel like it existed in the bubble, because of all of those threads I talked about coming back to be tied up. Toby is put through the wringer, but isn’t she always? She goes through so much to do the right thing.

I’ll admit, it took me a little while to remember all of the backstory. The series has become quite dense, and that’s more noticeable here because the author has plucked so many strands from those earlier books. But it’s gratifying to see some of the chickens come home to roost. They almost feel like Easter eggs for a long time readers. That being said, this is not the place to jump into this series. If you are interested, you should start at the beginning with Rosemary and Rue.

There is a lot to like about this book and really nothing that I didn’t. It is hard to see Toby get so many hard knocks, but I suppose that there wouldn’t be much story left to tell if her world were allowed to give her much of a break. She is such a great character, the embodiment of a hero. Which makes sense, because that’s what she is. No matter how much it hurts.

A very good installment.

Rating: A-

I absolutely loved reading this book and short story! When I read Once Broken Faith, I had only read the series because I was approved to read it, and that was when I found my love of the series and Seanan McGuire's writing. This book, I've waited a year for it, and that just made it all the more sweeter!

Toby has a pretty messed up family! And to have her mom kidnap her fiance, that's just awful! And all because her big sister thought she could find Oberon, Titania and Maeve. This book took elements from a lot of previous books on the journey to find August, following in her footsteps. So that was a bit bittersweet!

Oh, wow, that ending of Brightest Fell, that was just killer! After everything that they went through, it cost them. They have some healing to do, and August is trying to be even more selfish and get them going again. Which is pretty awful! I know it's going to come bite them in the butt, but they deserve the break, I wish August could've seen that!

Of Things Unknown, that was a really great short story! We were in April's head, and it circles back to book 2, when she was first introduced. And yeah, it was such a great story, and I'm glad how everything worked out there!

These were just so amazing, and I need more of this series! It's just phenomenal!