Toby's wedding to Tybalt is finally here. A more lighthearted romp than the most recent books of the series, the main tension of the book comes from the reader wondering if McGuire will actually allow the wedding to occur, and what the consequences of it might be. At this point, with the series being fifteen books in, the reader is either in it for the long haul or has already given up. However, it finally does feel like Toby's adventures might actually be coming to a close starting with this book and related novella which deals with aftermath. There are plenty of political loose ends which still need to be resolved, so I am sure more Toby books are coming soon.

Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Well, we finally made it to the altar. Or at least, the book about the altar. No spoilers on if we actually get there or not. ;)

Toby and her motley crew (at least, a big chunk of them... someone has to hold down the fort at home!) make their way to Toronto for "the big day!" which obviously means that she's walking into trouble and stabbystabs and bloody clothes.

We've got intrigue. We've got danger. We've got elfshot and blood and poison and disguises and royalty and deception and meeting new kinds of Fae and pomp and ceremony and SO MANY CHARACTERS in the same book!

And most importantly.... THE LUIDAEG - one of my favorite characters of all time, ever, EVER.

You definitely should NOT start with this one. This is 15 books and countless short stories worth of history and plot and character development leading up to a wedding. Please don't do yourself a disservice and read this without the depth of all of that backing it up. :)

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

(Also includes a fun novella, With Reveling, that takes place immediately after the final scene of the book!)

Look I love this book series like very few other things - it's her first long running urban fantasy, and one of the ones that got me into the genre - and admittedly the standard I hold many new reads to. I think you always wonder if this will be the book where the series loses the mark, but this book is debatably my favorite. McGuire's writing is go good - clever, and funny, and deep, her characters are so so human, even when they aren't, and the world she's built is deep, and full of thorns and roses. It's honestly a testament to her writing skill she can write so many different types of books, build such clear worlds, and keep readers engaged book after book after book.

I'm not going to write a lot of spoilers, because honestly in the 15th book that's impossible to navigate. The most important thing about this book, with utmost sincerity, is what a joy it is to read. The last few years have been rough on us all, and without getting into details, this book was exactly what I needed.

If you read the series, grab this one without a second pause, though I suspect most of us have already preordered. If you haven't read this series, go start it, it one you should absolutely begin.

ARC received from NetGalley.

"Toby's getting married! Now in hardcover, the fifteenth novel of the Hugo-nominated, New York Times-bestselling October Daye urban fantasy series.

It's hard to be a hero. There's always something needing October "Toby" Daye's attention, and her own desires tend to fall by the wayside in favor of solving the Kingdom's problems. That includes the desire to marry her long-time suitor and current fiancé, Tybalt, San Francisco's King of Cats. She doesn't mean to keep delaying the wedding, it just sort of... happens. And that's why her closest friends have taken the choice out of her hands, ambushing her with a court wedding at the High Court in Toronto. Once the High King gets involved, there's not much even Toby can do to delay things...

...except for getting involved in stopping a plot to overthrow the High Throne itself, destabilizing the Westlands entirely, and keeping her from getting married through nothing more than the sheer volume of chaos it would cause. Can Toby save the Westlands and make it to her own wedding on time? Or is she going to have to choose one over the other?

Includes an all-new bonus novella!"

Even a pandemic doesn't stop Seanan churning out the bestsellers!

FINALLY!!! It finally happened...I was really beginning to wonder if it would ever happen. Sigh. I love Toby and her crew more with every installment and this one was the best so far! AND IT FINALLY HAPPENED...YEAH!!!!

When Sorrows Come is the Fifteenth (!!) book in Seanan McGuire's urban fantasy "October Daye" series, her first of two long running urban fantasy series. I pretty much love this series - it's not high art or deep in its themes or whatever, but it's a really fun urban fantasy series with great characters, a really strong world that does deal at least somewhat with real aspects of our own world (even as it deals more and more as it goes on with the Fae rather than with ordinary humans). And its fae world is really creatively done, its characters have grown tremendously over time, and honestly I just love so much of it all, even when the series does have the occasional off book here and there.

When Sorrows Come is not an off book - it's probably going to wind up one of my favorite books in the series, if just for the ending and the attached novella. The general overall plot isn't anything special to write home about, but the characters remain great, and most importantly, this book concludes what seems like a long plot arc of this series in such a happy and enjoyable way, with the main protagonist and her family coming together in generally pleasant ways, that I just found myself smiling in the end. It's really to the point where the series could end here, and it would be a satisfying ending, even as this book still hints at more to come in the future.

Note: This review will include as few spoilers as possible, although spoilers for past books are fair game. A second post, linked HERE, will contain spoilery discussion and speculation for the series, so if you want to comment with your own thoughts, please comment there.

Note2: As is traditional with the series, the book contains an attached novella; however, unlike in most prior books, the attached novella is more of an epilogue than its own unique story, and as such, I won't be reviewing it separately.

--------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------------
When October Daye agreed to marry Tybalt, she still barely believed it could ever happen. And wedding planning has never been her thing, so she decided to keep it all as far from her mind by allowing her friends and family to plan her wedding for her - which she agreed for political reasons to take place in the High King's knowe in Toronto. It's not that she doesn't want to get married, it's just...well she's too busy with crises needing the attention of a Hero of the Realm to focus upon it.

And so, she shouldn't really have been surprised to find that her squire has gotten himself magically transformed so he can be at the wedding incognito, the invitations have already gone out, and oh yeah the wedding is in just a few days and they're leaving tomorrow for Toronto.

Nor should she have been surprised when she arrives at the High King's knowe only to immediately stumble upon a coup centuries in the making, one that requires a Hero....and not a kingbreaker....to solve. Because if it takes her getting stabbed, shot with an arrow, and just generally bleeding all over herself once more, Toby is GOING to get married. Or else.
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On one hand, When Sorrows Come is a really standard Toby story. You have Toby upset by some secrets her family and friends where keeping from her at the start, although she gets over it when she realizes their good intentions (and that what they were doing is basically what she would do, for once). You have Toby going to a new kingdom, winding up right in the middle of a Hero-level catastrophe - a coup! - and having to save the day despite establishment nobles getting in the way to some extent in a fairly dangerous fashion. Toby will get stabbed at least once, get a lot of blood on her, someone will make a deal with the Luidaeg that leads to more trouble, etc. etc. And all of this is done well, even if none of it is particularly surprising or anything really new at this point (there's basically one new type of Fae, which usually is one of the ways McGuire spices up these stories).

On the other hand, When Sorrows Come is also both Toby's wedding - finally coming after she's been engaged for 7 books now - but also a capper to a lot of character development and story arcs in Toby's life. This is particularly made clear in the bonus novella (which takes the form of Toby's wedding reception), but basically a large part of the story is based upon characters who mean something to Toby all coming together to celebrate her in the end, including characters we haven't seen in a long while who made a big impact on Toby's life.* They are all desperate to get Toby, with her own abandonment issues and her lack of concern for her own health, to the alter because they care about her, even if some of them have trouble admitting it, and a major part of this book is both Toby and these others realizing how much they care for each other and celebrating that.

*At least one of these characters' relationships with Toby seems to have been retconned by my own memory, but it's hard to care too much.*

And I love that all so much, because I've come to love Toby and so many of these characters, and so seeing them all happy in this one is just an absolute joy. The main mystery/fae crisis plot works just well enough to throw fun conflicts in the way of Toby that force the cast to demonstrate how much they all love each other, leading to well, a happy ending that feels entirely earned. The only real pure disappointment in this book is that certain characters are not present (most notably Dianda) because they had to be left in San Francisco, whereas all the important elements of this book take place in Toronto, but well again it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

So yeah, this series continues to be really great, and if you're 14 books in like I was, you will be thrilled with this one. Even if all the happiness suggests that McGuire is going to do something truly dreadful next book lol.

I'll have some more specific discussion in my spoiler-filled post, so I think I'll leave this review at that.

I eagerly look forward to the October Daye books just because I have loved this series since the beginning, and I finally got to read this latest. This book is the one we’ve all been waiting for: the marriage of Toby and Tybalt. Of course, Toby can’t do anything without a little blood, attempted king-slaying, and worrying Tybalt, and this has that and more. I found this to be an appropriate lead-up to the wedding, and I’ll leave the rest for you to read. I can’t wait to see more of all the characters, and I realized just how many are in this series as most come to the festivities. LOL! I loved getting to see all the characters again, and I’m anxiously awaiting what comes next after this. Highly recommend. I was provided a complimentary copy which I voluntarily reviewed.

When Sorrows Come is the Fifteenth installment in author Seanan McGuire's October Daye series. If you told October "Toby" Daye 6 months ago that she would find Oberon, King of all Faerie, and bring him home, she would have likely laughed in your face. If you told her she was going to emancipate herself from her own mother, and stand with Simon Torquill who once turned her into a fish that lasted 14 years, well, she would have stabbed you. If you told her that she was going to marry Rand Stratford aka Tybalt, King of Dreaming Cats, aka the man who she's fallen in love with in Toronto, well, I can't even tell you what she would say.

Needless to say everything I just said, happened. That's why the choice of who is going to control her wedding has been taken completely out of her hands for the sake of everyone. She's not allowed to see her dress thanks to Tybalt. She has no choice in what kind of cake will be baked, or flowers that will be present, all she can do it sit back and let everyone, Tybalt, May, Kerry, and Stacey control every aspect of the wedding including the day she is supposed to get married. Because, come on folks, you know damn well that Toby would likely just run off and get herself into danger or try to remove another King or Queen from power.

One could say that Toby has had a twisted life. She's a changeling who managed to get Knighted. She was then made Countess for like a day or two before giving it up, no, I'm not kidding. She's been named Hero of the Realm which comes with no benefits whatsoever. She's deposed of despots in several realms, including her own which comes with the nickname of king-breaker. She's one of only two Dochas Sidhe in existence which we haven't even talked about what that means in the long term except for annoying people asking for access to her mother.

Thanks to High King of the Westlands, Aethlin Sollys, aka Quentin's father, the right to hold the wedding and wedding party will take place in Toronto. That means crossing dozens of new realms, some of which are hostile to Toby, and finding a way for Toby's closest friends to make their way to the wedding. Once the High King gets involved, there’s not much even Toby can do to delay things even though she tries to remain confident that the wedding will take place.

Except for the whole assassination attempts on the High Throne itself which were to be blamed on Toby since she's the king breaker, therefore destabilizing the Westlands entirely, and keeping her from getting married in one of the craziest weddings you will ever read about. Well, there's the whole Games of Thrones Red Wedding episode..... Holy cats, what a ride. I would go as far as encouraging you to keep reading the the novella called And With Reveling.

There is so much that could happen next. Will Toby finally make up with her wayward daughter Gillian who can't stand the sight of her? Will Toby and August be civil towards each other now that they are standing with Simon? Will Toby and Tybalt ever visit Disneyland? And, can she do it without bringing all the teenagers with her? Lastly, what the hell is going on with Oberon?

At long last, Toby and Tybalt's wedding day has arrived! Five books and much drama, including the return of Oberon, since the bachelorette party, the big day is finally here. Taby and friends travel to Toronto, to the court of the High King, just in time to uncover a plot to depose the king and destabilize the Westlands. Beloved characters get a lot of development and details about major players are revealed, though some of the biggest mysteries remain unresolved. If you're a fan of October Daye, you need this book, and if you aren't yet, I highly recommend that you start.

I fell in love with Toby within the first few pages of the first book. Every time I get a new book in the series to read, I get excited to dive in and spend more time with the characters I adore and in this wonderful world that Seanan McGuire has built.

This book has been a long time coming and the events couldn't have played out more perfectly. Plus, the novella at the end was an excellent cap on the entire story.

So why 4 stars and not 5? Because there were points (most notably at the start) where I felt info dumped on. At times, it just killed the momentum for me. I'd noticed this in some of the previous books but it felt more extreme here.

Other than that, though, it was wonderful.

I stayed up a solid two hour after I usually go to bed finishing this ARC!
It’s hard to review a book that’s 15 in a series without spoiling stuff for folks… It really made me laugh several times, it probably says something slightly disturbing about my sense of humor that I find Seanan McGuire’s jokes funny. I did like that while there are at last a couple months titles showing in Goodreads that this one it ends in a place where you can feel good about taking a pause from this world until the next book. Maybe not a perfectly five star book because the novella at the end really just feels like the last few chapters of the main part of the book. But I’m really having to pick nits to find something to complain about. If you’ve liked the series so far you’re going to love this one too. If you like urban fantasy and for some reason haven’t read the series yet you should!