Title: One Salt Sea
Author: Seanan McGuire
Publisher: DAW
My favorite faerie changeling, October Daye, is back in this 5th installment by Seanan McGuire. If you haven’t read the previous four books in the series, you may want to skip this review. While there are no spoilers for this particular book, since it is the latest installment, it’s bound to have spoilers for past books. I highly suggest starting with Rosemary and Rue, the first book.
When we last left October at the end of Late Eclipses, she had inherited her own Knowe, saw the end of the evil Oleander at the hands of the crazy Rayseline, and finally hooked up with her beloved Connor, the Selkie forced to marry Rayseline long ago as part of a political move. Her strange relationship with Tybalt remained, well, strange, despite my fervent wish to see her ditch the Selkie and hook up with the sexy King of Cats. Oh, and her legendary mom who she never really sees anymore stepped in to prevent October’s death, altering the balance of her blood and making her more Fae than human.
At the beginning of One Salt Sea, October is relaxing into her role of as the Countess of Goldengreen and experiencing a rather peaceful time with her boyfriend, Connor. But of course in October’s world, nothing stays calm forever. When the Luideag calls in a favor, October definitely can’t ignore it, especially since it means rescuing the two kidnapped children of the undersea kingdom. If October fails, not only will two innocent young boys lose their life, but war will break out between the land and the sea, and the land doesn’t have a single chance of winning. To make a bad situation even worse, the kidnapping because far more personal than October ever expected it could become.
As always, Seanan McGuire has masterfully created a Fae world, filled with all the usual strange rules, like never saying “thank you” unless you want to be indebted to someone, and never threatening thugs with bodily harm lest you be perceived as honorableness. Toby’s relationship with Connor plays a large role in this book, although she still has all that attraction to Tybalt. Things get complicated because Connor technically belongs to the sea, while Toby belongs to the land, so you’re left wondering throughout the book if that will come between them. I’m not giving anything away though. We learn a little more about the Luideag, but much of her character still remains a bit of a mystery. The story moves quickly and never stagnates or becomes boring. I loved it as much as the previous books in the series and anxiously await the next one.
