Author: Seanan McGuire
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: October Daye # 10
Mass Market Paperback, 420 Pages
Publication: September 6, 2016 by Daw
Source: I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for a honest review.
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Politics have never been October “Toby” Daye’s strong suit. When she traveled to the Kingdom of Silences to prevent them from going to war with her home, the Kingdom of the Mists, she wasn’t expecting to return with a cure for elf-shot and a whole new set of political headaches.
Now the events she unwittingly set in motion could change the balance of modern Faerie forever, and she has been ordered to appear before a historic convocation of monarchs, hosted by Queen Windermere in the Mists and overseen by the High King and Queen themselves.
Naturally, things have barely gotten underway when the first dead body shows up. As the only changeling in attendance, Toby is already the target of suspicion and hostility. Now she needs to find a killer before they can strike again—and with the doors locked to keep the guilty from escaping, no one is safe.
As danger draws ever closer to her allies and the people she loves best, Toby will have to race against time to prevent the total political destabilization of the West Coast and to get the convocation back on track…and if she fails, the cure for elf-shot may be buried forever, along with the victims she was too slow to save.
Because there are worse fates than sleeping for a hundred years.
Having read the last book, A Red-Rose Chain fairly recently and not enjoying it as much as I hoped I was worried that I was going to encounter the same issues in Once Broken Faith. Thankfully I did not! Once Broken Faith was a much better improvement since the last two books and got me excited again; and reminded me why I loved this series in the first place. In the last book, Walter discovered the cure for Elf-Shot while in The Kingdom of Silences and now in Once Broken Faith all the Kings and Queens as well as the High King and Queen of the Westland are congregating in Queen Arden’s knowe to discuss whether Elf-Shot should be distributed. But of course a conclave of notabilities is the perfect place to wreck havoc and a King is murdered. And Toby, Hero of the Realm is once again tasked with finding the killer.
We all know the World of Faerie is vast, with many locations yet to be discovered. McGuire however expanded much more in Once Broken Faith as Knowes and their Kings and Queens make a first time appearance and others from little demesnes; there were approximately five or six new kingdoms introduced. There were certainly a lot of new characters and it got overwhelming in the beginning but by the middle of the book I was able to discerned who was who and from which Kingdom they hailed. Old familiar characters also had plenty of page time such as The Luidaeg, Tybalt, Quentin and Walter (who I’m starting to really adore!). While I loved seeing new and old characters I was especially happy to learn more about King Aethlin and Queen Maida, Quentin’s parents. Who would’ve thought that Maida used to be just like Toby? And for people with the most powers, they were nothing like their pureblood peers which was refreshing. Aethlin and Maida were understanding, kind and as down-to-earth as it gets when it comes to aristocracy. I hope we’ll get to see their home soon, perhaps during the wedding!
I’ve been with this series since the beginning and things you can always expect with each installment is danger, blood (a lot of it) and Toby an inch from death or actually dying. Each book is a compact whodunit mystery which is expected because let’s not forget she was a private investigator before she became a hero of the realms. I really enjoyed Once Broken Faith it made me laugh and cry throughout the entire book and I felt invested and engrossed in the plot unlike previous book. It was everything you’d get from reading this series overall and despite the last book…the book/series in generally have been getting better and better over time.
However I have two issues in regards to the series (which I stated in the last review). The first is the redundancy of recapping the same things over and over. Whether it was Toby stating information or McGuire summarizing…the same thing kept getting rehashed three or four times. For example whenever Sylvester made an appearance, Toby would whine how she wasn’t ready to forgive Sylvester for lying to her about Simon and how hurt she was. Yes, we get it and didn’t needed to be reminded when it was mentioned a couple pages before. It was pretty annoying. My second issue was literally around the 75% mark of the book Toby was dying or about to die. Something life-threatening would occur and Toby would lose consciousness only to wake up in the next chapter after being saved. This HAPPENED EXACTLY in the previous book. In A Red-Rose Chain, Toby gets Elf-Shot, scene said she blacks out/looses consciousness only to be saved by Walter. In Once Broken Faith, Toby gets pulled out of the tower window, falls and looses consciousness only to be saved by Jin. I am sure if I went back to all the previous book and checked around the 75% mark I would find the same modus operandi. I mean com’on, this is getting ridiculously old, predictable and tiresome. McGuire should change things up a bit instead of following the same exact format over and over.
With that said, I would give the book overall 4 stars because I still enjoyed it and the ending 2 stars because of the unoriginal almost-deaths and too convenient ending...for once I'd actually prefer a cliffhanger ending than this.
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