Early Review – The Brightest Fell (October Daye, Book 11) by Seanan McGuire (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 368 pages
Publisher: DAW
Release Date: September 5, 2017
ISBN-13: 978-0756413316
Stand Alone or Series: 11th book in the October Daye series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 5/5 stars

“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.”

This is the eleventh book in the October Daye series by McGuire. Although I love all of McGuire’s series; this one remains my favorite. This was another great installment in the October Daye series. I just love this series so much.

There is a bonus novella at the end of this book that tells a story from April’s POV (April is the Dryad that lives in a computer network from earlier in the series). That was well done as well.

In this book Toby’s mother, Amandine, decides to enter Toby’s life in a big way. Suddenly instead of spending time planning her wedding to Tybalt, Toby finds herself forced into searching for her long lost sister, August. Toby struggles to track down August by both following her scent and the trail of a Babylon Candle. Along the journey Simon Torquill ends up as her unlikely ally.

I really enjoyed the journey Toby went on in this book; there’s a lot of adventure here and I enjoyed how so much of this story touches on Toby’s beginning and past. I was a bit disappointed that Tybalt wasn’t in the story more, but given all the events that happened in here I ended up not missing Tybalt as much as I thought I would.

This book delves into yet more mystery surrounding the First Born and the Luidaeg is in here quite a bit (I love her character). The ending felt a bit rushed, but tied up at a decent spot.

Overall I was a huge fan of this book and think that it did an excellent job of continuing the series. I really enjoyed some of the things we learn and adventures we have in this book. This whole series has been very well done and is still going strong. I would recommend this series to those who enjoy investigative urban fantasy, especially faerie based urban fantasy.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– New Release Reading Challenge
– Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge
– Paranormal Reading Challenge