One Salt Sea, is the fifth book in Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series and quite possibly my favorite in the series so far. In case you’re new to this blog and have no idea what I’m talking about, you should read my review of the first book in the series, Rosemary and Rue on my blog.

No seriously…

Otherwise this review will completely ruin the book for you. You've been warned...

In book five, October “Toby” Daye and the gang are back and this time there’s mermaids. This book picks up a month after Late Eclipses (book four in the series).

The night haunts have come and gone for Oleander de Merelands, Toby is the Countess of Goldengreen (Evening Winterose’s leaderless knowe) and takes on crime fighting accomplice Quentin as a squire. She’s even dating ex, Connor O’Dell, again. Everything is looking bright in October’s future. Unfortunately October must have the worst luck ever because it’s also during this time frame that everything pretty much goes to hell.

Someone kidnaps Dean and Peter, the sons of Dianda and Patrick Lorden--the regents of the Undersea Duchy of Saltmist--and the sea is blaming the land Fae for their disappearance. The Luideag asks Toby to track down the missing children to avoid an impending war between the land and the sea. Toby is essentially racing against the clock to find the missing children and to prove that the Queen of the Mists has nothing to do with their disappearance so that faerie can avoid an all out war.

To make matters even worse, the kidnapper starts getting personal and Toby has to make some tough decisions about her family that could be life changing.

The one thing, or one of many things, that I love about McGuire’s novels is that she writes wit and she does it while making it seem as easy as brushing your teeth or changing your socks.

October, who only recently learned that she isn’t Daoine Sidhe, is still trying to figure out just what exactly she is capable of. I also got a kick out of seeing her in a position of royalty even if she doesn’t quite fit the “part” according to fae standards.

Without completely spoiling the entire book; McGuire focuses more on the secondary characters in this novel. Connor even won a few redeeming points for me in this one. Normally I just brush off his character for Tybalt, on account of he always sort of struck me as kind of dull, but McGuire really makes you feel bad for the guy in this book. Even more so in later chapters.

And we finally get to meet the much talked about Cliff and Gillian, October’s ex-husband and her teenage daughter, who she lost contact with 16 years ago. The Luideag also plays a huge part in this novel and given that she is one of my favorite secondary characters, next to Tybalt of course, I was glad to see that the fifth book has a lot more backstory on her as well.

I'll also say that I was incredibly fascinated with Saltmist. I know that's its been casually mentioned in other books in the series, but so far the other four novels have focused mainly on the land Fae. Comparing McGuire's descriptions of Saltmist and its differing customs to those of the land duchies, really gives you a sense of just how complex and endless her faerie universe really is.

So all I can really say is read the books. These faeries are nothing like Tinkerbell, who by the way is actually a pixie.

Yeah, I know I’m a nerd.

Full review on my blog: http://readinglist-m.blogspot.com/201...