Review: Rosemary and Rue

With my book budget slowly tightening, I've drifted away from trying out new authors.  I mean, I don't want to blow limited resources on a book I end up hating.  A few weeks ago, I was screwing around on Amazon - buying a couple of books I really needed - when I came up against the eternal question: "Spend money on shipping or buy one more book to meet the $25 min?"

Of course, I ordered one more.  Heh, I didn't say it was a hard question to answer.  My potential buy list had one small book on it - by an author I'd never heard of, but whose premise looked tasty - which was just enough to get me into the 'free shipping' category: Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire.

So, I figured "what the hell?"

Boy am I glad I took the chance. 

From Amazon's Product Description (because I'm feeling too lazy to write a summary):

"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."

Needless to say, I inhaled the book yesterday - to the exclusion of everything else.  I loved McGuire's writing style, which is IMO similar to Jim Butcher's in his Dresden Files series.  I totally fell for Toby Daye.  She's a tough bitch who's struggling against some major crap that's been unloaded on her, but instead of whining, she just puts her head down and gets the job done.  She's gutsy and gritty, and even though she occasionally makes some unwise choices, she still manages to get the badguy and save the day. 

Worth every penny.  The only problem now is: The second book in the series just hit stores and my budget is dry for the rest of this month.  Ack.  Maybe I can tweak a little and order this puppy.  I need to read about Toby some more.

::Irritating but legally necessary disclaimer: I am not affiliated in any way with Seanan McGuire.  I purchased this book and I am not receiving any compensation for recommending that others do the same.  (Although, if Ms. McGuire should want to send me free copies of the second and third books, I won't refuse them.)  I do not give positive reviews unless the book is worth buying - even if someone sent me a copy for free, offered to mow my lawn, bribed me with jewels or told me they'd introduce me to their agent.  (Not that I'd refuse those options either.)  I simply enjoyed this book, and I hope you do too.  Because hey, if she sells lots, the publisher will contract more books in this series and I can keep reading to my heart's content.  Yay.::