It’s hard to be a hero. There’s always something needing October “Toby” Daye’s attention, and her own desires tend to fall by the wayside in favor of solving the Kingdom’s problems. That includes the desire to marry her long-time suitor and current fiancé, Tybalt, San Francisco’s King of Cats. She doesn’t mean to keep delaying the wedding, it just sort of…happens. And that’s why her closest friends have taken the choice out of her hands, ambushing her with a court wedding at the High Court in Toronto. Once the High King gets involved, there’s not much even Toby can do to delay things…

…except for getting involved in stopping a plot to overthrow the High Throne itself, destabilizing the Westlands entirely, and keeping her from getting married through nothing more than the sheer volume of chaos it would cause. Can Toby save the Westlands and make it to her own wedding on time? Or is she going to have to choose one over the other?

Every time.  Every time Seanan McGuire writes an October Daye book, I fall in love with the series a little bit more and the characters hold me enthralled as I devour the words on the page. Even the smallest of details keep me wrapped in the novel until I finish at a breathless pace. Seanan has the unique ability to make you care about every word but that might just be the words she chooses and the way she conveys the story because every novel she writes makes you fall in love with her characters and the world. 

This novel is no exception. The plot manages to mingle intrigue, murder, a plot against the High Throne all while Toby tries to ger married. And the bonus is that the intrigue is carried out by the person I least suspected. There is way more to love about this book than I can even begin to articulate but suffice to say, the characters are dynamic, the plot riveting, the relationships complex, and the ending one of the finest I’ve read in a long time but I’m secretly a terrible romantic. 

If you love the October Daye series, you won’t be able to wait to get your hands on this novel. You will love it and want to read it multiple times. If you haven’t read the series, I highly recommend you read it but start with book one because the ending to the book won’t have the same impact without the buildup in the series that Seanan McGuire has been doing. But I will tell you, it is worth reading every book and every word for the glorious story this is. 

Rating: 5 out of 5 dresses