Chimes at Midnight / Seanan McGuire

4 out of 5 stars

Things are starting to look up for October "Toby" Daye. She's training her squire, doing her job, and has finally allowed herself to grow closer to the local King of Cats. It seems like her life may finally be settling down...at least until dead changelings start appearing in the alleys of San Francisco, killed by an overdose of goblin fruit.

Toby's efforts to take the problem to the Queen of the Mists are met with harsh reprisals, leaving her under sentence of exile from her home and everyone she loves. Now Toby must find a way to reverse the Queens decree, get the goblin fruit off the streets--and, oh, yes, save her own life, since more than a few of her problems have once again followed her home. And then there's the question of the Queen herself, who seems increasingly unlikely to have a valid claim to the throne....

To find the answers, October and her friends will have to travel from the legendary Library of Stars into the hidden depths of the Kingdom of the Mists--and they'll have to do it fast, because time is running out. In faerie, some fates are worse than death.

October Daye is about to find out what they are.

Shades of Lud-in-the-Mist! Replace Hope Mirrlees’ fairy fruit with goblin fruit, a very addictive substance for changelings and mortals, and you have one of October’s problems in Chimes at Midnight.

If I ever need to plan an insurrection, I would want Ms. Daye by my side. Even without her usual Fae powers, she is a force to be reckoned with. Mostly because of her awesome assortment of friends and acquaintances. Now including the Fae librarian, Mags!!! I knew there had to be a library stashed away in the land of Faerie somewhere and it is excellent. Constantly moving & disguising itself, but a temporary library card guarantees that it sits still until your crisis is over.

More Tybalt, more Luidaeg, an evil goblin fruit pie, revelations about young Quentin, plus Toby gets to lead a rebellion against the Queen in the Mists. What more could an October Daye fan ask for?