One Salt Sea

In the fifth October Daye book, the story moves around a simple idea, children should not be pawns in any conflict. The main conflict at the heart of the book is between the Kingdom of the Mists and the Undersea as the two sons of the Undersea have been kidnapped. October Daye is brought in to try

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and broker a peace as she is still learning her new place within the nobility of the Fae. Taken children, lost children and hurting children are constantly coming up and the choices that come with being a parent and the scars as well. As always with the October Daye books, the plot is gripping and the characters three-dimensional and amazing. I look forward to the next one.

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One Salt Sea is the latest adventure in Seanan McGuire's October Daye series. Continuing right where Late Eclipses left off, Toby now finds herself as the new Countess of Goldengreen, has taken on Quentin as her squire, and taken some serious steps to get her life back into control -like dating. Of

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course, it's never that easy for Toby, someone has been kidnapping the sons of the regent of the Undersea Duchy of Saltmist, and to prevent a serious fae war, Toby must find the missing boys and uncover the true culprit behind the kidnappings. With her Fetch, April, in tow, Toby finds herself pulled into her old life -the life that was ripped away from her years ago -a life that included her part-fae daughter.

As always, McGuire's heroine Toby shines. For me, Toby's honest, down-to-earth issues and realistic character flaws have always been the centerpiece of this series for me. Toby is hardly perfect, and always manages to keep readers intrigued with what she's going to do next. I seriously love Toby, and always look forward to her next adventure -if I had my way, Toby's story would keep going for many, many years.

Then, there's the setting. McGuire's unique world of faerie has always been one of my favorite parts of the October Daye series. Mcguire paints a vivid, unique world of complex fae politics and fascinating fae characters that seems like it could jump off the page at any moment. While the plot does seem a little bit recycled from previous October Daye novels, the setting and characters completely make up for it.

If you enjoyed the previous books in series, One Salt Sea doesn't disappoint. And if you haven't had the chance to read Toby's adventures yet, start off with Rosemary and Rue -it's worth it.

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Another excellent installment in the Toby Daye series. As usual, the worldbuilding rocks my socks off. Just when I was starting to feel comfortable with the world of Faerie, McGuire takes readers on an exploration of Undersea - yes, you guessed it, an entire Faerie kingdom in the ocean. The sheer

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creativity of McGuire’s worldbuilding never ceases to amaze me!

The plot is unpredictable, and there’s never a dull moment for Toby & co. as they race to avert one crisis after another. I’ve grown so fond of these characters, especially the Luidaeg. In this book, we get to learn more about her past and see a more caring side of her, which only makes me love her more. Toby also gets more layers of character development as she struggles to deal with her new abilities and self-identity. But what’s even more interesting is Toby’s interactions with Cliff and Gillian, who we meet for the first time in this book. This area of Toby’s life is painful and complicated and messy, but I was pleased to finally get answers to many of the nagging questions that I’ve had since book one.

As for the romantic subplot, Toby is still caught between two love interests (Tybalt still has my vote), but it’s clear that this conflict isn’t going to drag on forever. One way or another, the romantic angle is going to be taking a new direction in subsequent books. Regardless of what happens, I’m extremely grateful for this - the which-guy-should-I-choose subplot can become stale very quickly.

My one disappointment is that two of the story’s major conflicts come to a close much faster than I expected them to. I wanted Toby to be the one to make certain decisions, but it ended up being other people who did the choosing for her, resulting in an abrupt resolution to a couple of Toby’s problems. This isn’t really a criticism. Toby had to let these people take control of their own lives, and their actions make sense in a satisfying, realistic way. But, in both cases, I had hoped for something more. I’m trying really hard not spoil anything here, so I’ll just say that if it weren’t for the incredibly painful aftermath of these resolutions, I might have felt like McGuire took the easy way out.

All in all, One Salt Sea is just as dark, depressing, and emotionally intense as its predecessors. I loved it. With great plots, characters, and worldbuilding, the Toby Daye books have climbed the ranks to become one of my favorite urban fantasy series. I am already awaiting the next installment with much anticipation.

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Every time I read a new October Daye book I am shocked by how much I love them and remember back to when I read the first book in the series "Rosemary and Rue". I didn't care for that book at all. I thought it dragged on and was very confusing. I don't even know why I bought the second book "A

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Local Habitation" at all. But I did and I loved it. I have adored each book since. "One Salt Sea" may well be my new favorite.

I will keep this review short and sweet because I went into it without having any idea what it was about and I loved each little revelation. Generally, Toby is given the task of finding the kidnapped sons of the Dutchess of the Undersea Duchy of Saltmist. Not only is this important because Toby wants the innocent children to be safe but also a war between the land and sea can be prevented only by finding the boys. I was super pleased to find out there was a lot of page time for one of my favorite characters, King of the Cats, Tybalt. But actually I love most of this cast of characters...Toby, Tybalt, Raj, Quentin, the Luidaeg and Sylvester. Even May was better this time around. And it looks like two of my least favorite characters may be out of the picture for awhile!

This story was just about perfect. The journey Toby goes on to find the boys was action packed and unique in every way. I love how Toby can be funny, caring, tough and still be very emotionally fragile. She is the epitome of a fantastic Urban Fantasy heroine. When plots take big twists and turns in this series, they are believable. Its not like they come out of nowhere as can happen so often in similar stories.

If you have never read this series I strongly suggest you pick it up right now. It has to be one of the best executed available right now. "One Salt Sea" doesn't disappoint in any way and is probably my personal favorite of the bunch...but then again I've always loved "Little Mermaid" too.

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This is the fifth book in the October Daye series. I pretty much adore this series and this book just sealed the deal for me. The world-building, the plot, the characters...all of it was just spot on. If you are a fan of this series you will absolutely love this book.

Toby (October) is taking a

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little break and trying to get her life together. She is the Countess of Goldengreen now and has subjects to manage there, Quentin is officially her squire, and her and Connor have started dating...not to mention the fact that having her blood tipped more to the fairy side has changed how things work for her. Then Toby is called in on a case, a case that has the two realms of fairy (land and sea) on the brink of war. Someone has stolen the two sons of the Saltmist Queen and King. If they aren't found Seamist will declare war on the Land. Toby has three days to solve the case, but someone is determined to stop her from making any progress.

While previous books have been almost too fast-paced this book is perfectly paced. I had trouble putting it down, but never felt rushed through the story. All of the gaps that I felt were missing in Late Eclipses were filled here. We learn about how Toby is managing Goldengreen. We also get to see a ton more of both Connor and Tybalt and there is a lot of resolution about Toby's relationships with those two.

The characters are fantastic. Even side characters are incredibly interesting. Tybalt is amazing and continues to be one of my favorites; as the King of Cats he does such a good job helping Toby while balancing all of his other responsibilities...and he is incredibly fun. Toby has grown so much, when you think back to the downtroden changeling she was in Rosemary and Rue it is hard to believe that she has grown into such a beuatiful, wonderful, and powerful lead.

The best part was getting introduced to a whole new fairy world with the introduction of Saltmist. Toby gets to travel and meet fairy creatures that she has never seen and is introduced to a beautiful and haunting world. It was fascinating and really expanded the world built in this series. The sea witch is present a lot in this book as well and we get to learn more both about her and the history of fairy through her involvement.

Once again I love how mythology, fairy tale, and nursery rhymes are mixed together to create a rich and wonderful world. I should mention the Night Haunts are back in this book too, I love the mystery behind those Night Haunts!

Overall the best book in the series. This is a series where each book keeps getting better and better. I love this series. There is mystery, intrigue, romance, action, wonder, excellent characters, a fast-paced plot and all of it is perfectly balanced. McGuire (who also writes the Newsflesh Trilogy as Mira Grant) is an excellent writer and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next. The sixth book will be titled, Ashes of Honor, and is planned for a Septemer 2012 release. If you love urban fantasy and faerie check this series out. If you love a good mystery with some magic thrown in check this series out. Heck just read this series, the first book is a bit rough, but the rest of the series has been awesome!

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The kidnapping of two noble children from Undersea threatens to start a war between the sea and land fae. October has two days to find the missing kids and avert the war.

The best of the series so far.

The more of this series that I read the better I like it, as I read each book they get harder to put down. It's hard to review this book without giving away spoilers. One Salt Sea is the fifth installment in the Toby Daye series and this book rocked! Toby has 3 days to find the kidnapped children

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of the Undersea Duchy, to prevent a war between land and sea. There is so much action packed into this book and the world building Seanan McGuire does is amazing especially with the intro of another fey Kingdom.

There is a lot of action in this book and some really heart wrenching moments for Toby. The usual cast of characters are there to support her and with each book you get a little more back story. Raysel features prominently and you get to see just how broken she really is. Tybalt is also with Toby throughout most of this book and I'm a huge Tybalt fan and I am really hoping that relationship develops in future books. All in all this was a book I couldn't put down and I read it pretty much in a single setting. This has become on of my favorite series along with Cassie Palmer, Harry Dresden and Rachel Morgan and I gotta say it's gonna be a really long year waiting for the next one.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 5/5 Couldn't put it down!

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Again - I forget, between times, just how good a writer Seanan McGuire is. More plots and twists, and again Toby has to save the day - from a war between the land and the sea, this time. More stolen children, too, and again Toby gets hit close to home. Her position as Countess of Goldengreen

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becomes both a burden and a great help, here, and she learns a lot of secrets - things she didn't know she wanted to know, and things she knew she didn't want to know. Her assumption about Rayseline and the rocks is wrong, though, if one was collected that long ago. And there are some more permanent losses, including one that...well, it hurt her like hell but all I could think was that it greatly simplified matters. I've been reading slowly - reading for a little and then moving on to something else - through several books recently, but these two - Late Eclipses and this one - I started and couldn't put down, not even long enough to wipe my eyes and blow my nose, until I was done with them. Magnificent. And there are hints of the next story - one year away (in Toby's time, not real-world), Raysel, probably some more loose ends. Apparently two more books scheduled - yay!

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Overall, I like the writing -- it's inventive and alternates skillfully between comedy and tragedy. Unfortunately for me, much of this story involves my least favorite character in the series, Connor. The storyline involving this character is resolved in a satisfactory way, but I have never and

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still don't understand the pull he has over Toby. However, plot-stuff involving the Undersea, the Luidaeg and characters I do like is unveiled in a way that has made me very excited to continue the series.

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I think this was one of my favorite October Daye books (not my favorite, as that's the most recent, aka Ashes of Honor). In One Salt Sea, Toby must find a way to stop a war between the fae in the sea and the ones on the land. She also has the Queen of Fairy after her (of course she does, she's

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Toby) and the regular cast of characters is back. I still love Tybalt best, but also Raj and Toby's squire, Quentin. But there are a bunch of other characters who I also dearly love. The plot is good and the mystery keeps you guessing. The ending is harsh, but I was spoiled so I was able to get through it. And waiting for me (eventually) was Ashes of Honor.

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ONE SALT SEA is the fifth October Daye novel, and Toby has come a long way since this series started. Back in ROSEMARY AND RUE, Toby was a literal fish out of water. She was barely making ends meet, downtrodden and forced to do the bidding of those more powerful than herself, and a total loner.

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Now? She's a Countess with a knowe, a bevy of powerful friends who run her errands, serve as her backup, perform specialized tasks, answer her phone...sometimes they're just her entourage.

I kind of got hung up on this, as I was reading. So many elements of this world are static. I mean, come on, we're still fighting Rayseline? The evil Queen is still on the throne, pitching fits? It took four books to kill Oleander?

And all the other characters are pretty static too. Sylvester is eternally supportive and noble, why was nobody worried that he'd try to save Rayseline from punishment for having broken Oberon's Law? They just handed her right over, sure that no emotion would interfere with his sense of duty, Danny the cab driver always wants to help, Connor is a wet blanket drenched in sentiment, the Luidaeg is friendly/scary in equal measure.

And the essence of Toby's character hasn't changed. From the beginning, she favored grand gestures, grandstanding, throwing herself atop pyres. She's the sort of person who'd give you the shirt off her back...as long as she can make a speech about it. But before she had the ego of the persecuted, and now she has the ego of the validated. Now her sense of righteousness is fed by a support system and status; and Toby takes really well to being the center of attention.

I found myself thinking: this series is definitely about oddball characters finding a place, building a community, coming into their own. That's the basic, multi-book arc, that's seems to be the point of this huge cast of characters that McGuire has constructed. The scenes in Goldengreen really drove this home to me; it's a fairy knowe owned by the bogarts and the pixies where the castoffs can congregate and feel at home, a sort of fae Neverland.

Awesome right? Except the way that Toby is increasingly positioned as the First Among Equals. She's the focal point around which everyone revolves; the person for whom they'll drop what they're doing because her causes are Noble and Important.

Anyhow. In ONE SALT SEA war is brewing between the land-based Kingdom of the Mists and the Undersea. Toby's called in to avert war by...saving a couple of kidnapped children. I think McGuire leans way too heavily on children in peril to create urgency in her plotting, but that's what we're stuck with. Iinvestigating is done, injuries are acquired, witty banter is plentiful. You know, the usual.

The October Daye books always irritate me but they're never disappointing. I know I can pick up an October Daye book and expect a certain level of quality. I never forget the characters, I'm always engaged. The worldbuilding is fascinating, and if Tybalt shows up I'm more or less a happy camper (he does).

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The sea faye keep mainly to themselves, but when two children of the Duchy of SeaMist are kidnapped everything points to war... and the sea faye aren't soft. Fourteen years as a fish didn't do much to endear Toby to water - she's now a big fan of showers - but getting to the bottom of the case may

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mean re-donning fins, because people are going to die if Toby can't track down the responsible party.

Love the idea that a troll can speak to rocks. As always, being Toby's friend/relative/ally is not an easy task. Can't wait to see what trouble awaits her next.

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I am very impressed with the way McGuire mixes the complexities of developing relationships so seamlessly with the peril and action of October Daye's world. Toby has the familiar, established passion of Connor, a long, lost love who she can have at last, and the piquant possibilities of Tybalt, a

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familiar face that has taken new and lovely depths in the last few books. From the haunted halls of Toby's knowe to the magical geometry of an undersea kingdom, I was fascinated by the consistently complex and well-drawn world that McGuire has created. While the culmination of all of this action didn't hold any big surprises (and had a few contradictory moments), the last chapter of the book was a beautifully written, bittersweet hug of a moment between the reader and Toby. Every visit to Toby's world is a gift, a glimpse of magic, written in a way that speaks to a human heart, and grief, written with tenderness and a very human touch of resilience and hope, made the ending of this book especially sweet.

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Loved it. I love how we get to see new aspects of Faery with each of the Toby Daye books. The Sea Fae are particularly strange and interesting.

Total adrenaline rush again: read the book in about a day.

Can't believe I have to wait a year for the next one1

This is a very solid book that was entertaining, tightly plotted, and continued developing the world and overarching plotlines previously set up. I loved the look into the Undersea, liked the progression in Gillian's storyline and the themes of mothers and daughters, was amused to death at

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Luidaeg's little revelation and loved her big revelation, and generally found it solid and entertaining.

I did, however, have a moment of extreme irritation. I have absolutely no objections in general to killing off characters when I feel it works. I was extremely irritated by Connor's death because it felt cheap. I would have liked some sort of hint that elf-shot could kill a pureblood by them bleeding out. As it was, it felt like a really cheap method to get him out of Tybault's way so Toby could have hot sex with the King of Cats.

I didn't even care that much about Connor! I preferred Tybault before this! I didn't dislike Connor in the least, but my only response to him was a big fat meh. But...I suppose what it comes down to is I'm not a huge fan of killing off characters when it makes characters' lives easier, and I feel that all deaths should feel earned. This felt like neither.

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This one an unexpected and delightful addition to Octobers tale. The awkwardness that accompanied some of the current progression in specific characters became solidified. Some in a finality that was sad bit also in a way that created more depth to a tale that in many ways was just another UF novel

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lost in the Frey.

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I absolutely love October Day! This tale was fantastic! Not as intricate as some of the earlier books, but heart wrenching and spell binding all the same!

I enjoyed this book more than the previous one in the series. For one thing, I did a little digging around and discovered that there are three volumes beyond this one, already titled and scheduled for release. That made me very happy, because it meant that this series is planned, with running

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themes; a beginning, middle and end; and won't simply drag on with one thing following the next.

"One Salt Sea" takes us to a new part of the fairy realm, namely the sea. We have been given some hints about this kingdom - the protagonist's love interest is a Selkie - but not in detail. Toby doesn't know anything about this part of fairy, which allows McGuire to give us a lot of information without resorting to "as you know Bob." We find out more about the Luishaig, the Sea Witch, as well, which is very satisfying.

Trying to avoid spoilers, I will say that the ending was something of a set up, but of a very believable kind, not of the deus ex author kind. Now that I know there is a definite ending, I will be reading the rest of the series with interest.

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Got an ARC of this and man was it good.

One Salt Sea
4 Stars

When the Duchess of Satlmist's sons are abducted and she accuses the Queen of the Mists of the crime, October "Toby" Daye has her hands full trying to prevent a war between the land and the sea. As Toby follows the clues, she soon realizes that they lead in a disturbing direction

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and the culprit is someone not averse to striking closer to home than Toby expects.

This series is gaining in momentum and there are some significant developments in this installment that will obviously take Toby into new and unexplored directions.

McGuire's world building is fantastic. It is not easy to imagine the undersea, which is a world so different from ours, but she manages to convey all of the nuances including a variety of creatures and even the floating hair. It is also becoming clear that the Fae are an exceedingly prejudiced species and their discriminatory policies may just be their downfall.

The love triangle between Toby, Tybalt and Connor thankfully comes to an end. I'm not a fan of this trope and this one has the added irritation of being weak and unbelievable as Connor cannot even come close to truly competing with Tybalt. It is as if his character is simply there to provide another obstacle to Toby and Tybalt realizing their feelings and being together. Totally unnecessary.

The villain of the piece is not wholly unexpected, but there are some compelling twists and turns. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

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Damnit. I didn't want to cry tonight.

It's literally impossible to let go of these books: the story and the characters are crafted so well that I can't find the strength to take a break and read something else: once I finished this one I started on the next in line, despite the awareness that after I finish that too, I will have to

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wait with the rest of the world for the seventh and last book in the series.

For someone who looked at Urban Fantasy with some misgivings, I have certainly fallen hard for the genre... Or maybe it's just the author's fault for creating such interesting and believable characters – even those who belong more to the realm of the impossible than to the day-to-day world.

Private investigator (and fae changeling) October Daye grows with each book, her personality and personal history gaining more facets with every turn of the page, and with her grows the haphazard "family" she managed to gather around her: not a small accomplishment for someone who, at the start of book 1, was totally alone in the world and looked at with suspicion by both communities, human and fae.

October's best quality is her imperfection: she's flawed, and carries several chips on her shoulder, which makes for a gritty disposition. Yet she's also a loyal friend, ready to risk life and limb for those she cares about, and that's how her "family" forms around her – through loyalty and affection that often come to the fore in the most satisfyingly gripping way.

The unique – and well realized – blend of drama and humor is one of the reasons I like McGuire's books so much: the drama never slides into melodrama, and the humor is often dry or belongs to the gallows kind. In other words, the ingredients are right and perfectly balanced.

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I think this series is getting better as it goes along. Maybe that's because I've come to know and love the characters better. I really love who Toby has grown to be, and her loyal pack of friends.

These books keep getting better and better. Like Toby, I don't feel like I understand what is going on most of the time. Everyone is so dang cryptic. But the characters are growing, they're interesting and complex, and I cannot help but care about them, whether I like them or not. Warning: Bring

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Kleenex for this book. It can be a rough ride. (I know. Like the last one wasn't.)

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