Excellent series.  Finished second on my Hugo ballot.  Will be watching out for this series and more from the author.

This is a great series, both novels and shorts. I love McGuire's view of Fairy and Fairyland - very far from sweet and sentimental.  The heroine, October, is spirited and individual (and pretty violent - but not needlessly so).and the gradually developing romantic relationship is great fun. I don't want to be more specific and give any spoilers - read the first book and get hooked..

"October Daye." It sounds kinda silly doesn't it . Thats what I thought too. But this Omnibus of the first 10 (!) books series hooked me from the first few pages.  October ("Toby" to her friends) is funny, feisty, stubborn and sometimes just plain lucky.  She feels real. The worldbuilding is awesome and I find myself wanting to know more about the Divided Courts of the Fae.  Sometimes to such an extent that the plot gets in the way.  Sometimes I want more backstory and less quest solving and crimefighting.  But that is a luxury problem. The series is just plain great, and speaking as a non-fan of "urban fantasy" this is an eye opener.

This is an omnibus of the first ten novels of the "October Daye" series, made available to members of the 2017 World Science Fiction Convention for consideration for the "Best Series" Hugo Award.  As such, it's not available to the general public for purchase.  The generosity of the author and publisher in making this compendium available should certainly be acknowledged!

A review is linked below; I've summed up my impressions of the series as "exciting, entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable" - it's certainly a worthy contender in this new Hugo category.

Review of Rosemary and Rue only:
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Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire is the first book in the rather long (ten books and counting, not to mention a large pile of short fiction) October Daye series. I picked it up because the series has been shortlisted for the inaugural Best Series Hugo Award, and because I've been wanting to read more of McGuire's back catalogue.

October "Toby" Daye, a changeling who is half human and half fae, has been an outsider from birth. After getting burned by both sides of her heritage, Toby has denied the Faerie world, retreating to a "normal" life. Unfortunately for her, the Faerie world has other ideas...

The murder of Countess Evening Winterrose pulls Toby back into the fae world. Unable to resist Evening's dying curse, which binds her to investigate, Toby must resume her former position as knight errant and renew old alliances. As she steps back into fae society, dealing with a cast of characters not entirely good or evil, she realizes that more than her own life will be forfeited if she cannot find Evening's killer.

In many ways, this is a pretty standard kind of urban fantasy book; set in modern times, with a slightly but not too magical heroine who is (was) a private investigator and has to solve a supernatural murder. That doesn't mean it's a bad read and many of the details made this quite an enjoyable read for me. For one thing, there wasn't much of a romantic plot line, always a plus. (I still remember an urban fantasy I read where the hero apparently smelled of pine air-freshener and I am still not over the grossness.) It deals sensibly with themes of abuse and incorporates lots of different mythologies in the worldbuilding. I can see how there would be a lot of fodder for many more books in the series.

I also found it interesting that Toby isn't actually very young. It seems to me that these sorts of heroines often are, but although Toby looks relatively young, because of her half-faerie blood, she is past what would be middle-age for a human. That gives mer more scope in life experiences and allows her to take a more mature retrospective view of her past, and choices she made that other kids may now be making. She speaks frankly about negative aspects of her past, which I thought was good (introspection, etc) but which might also come off as heavy handed. I'm a little undecided, but I think it's ultimately better not to be too subtle about some of the issues involved.

Rosemary and Rue was a complete story but, of course, leaves the story open for Toby to have a lot more adventures because there will always be more problems in Faerie that need solving. I am keen to read more of the series but I expect I will end up spacing them out a bit due to too-many-books-too-little-time syndrome. (I have also been told by a couple of people that they really pick up from around book three, so hmm.)

4 / 5 stars

First published: 2009, DAW Books
Series: October Daye book 1 of ? (11 comes out later this year)
Format read: omnibus ePub
Source: Hugo voter packet

What can I say? She's got my Number 1 ranking for Best Series on the ballot. I hope your generously offering the Omnibus and short stories convinces everyone else, too!

I pretty much love anything from Seanan McGuire, she writes interesting and well developed characters. I'm looking forward to voting for this series for the Hugo series award.

Very generous to share this with hugo voters! I haven't read the series but have always wanted to and now I have no reason not to.