Title: The Brightest Fell
Author: Seanan McGuire
Type: Fiction
Genre: Adult, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal
Publisher: DAW
(Penguin Random House)
Published: September 5, 2017

A physical copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Note: This book is part of a series, so there may be spoilers for a previous book/books in the synopsis below.

Things are slow, and October “Toby” Daye couldn’t be happier about that. The elf-shot cure has been approved, Arden Windermere is settling into her position as Queen in the Mists, and Toby doesn’t have anything demanding her attention except for wedding planning and spending time with her family.

Maybe she should have realized that it was too good to last.

When Toby’s mother, Amandine, appears on her doorstep with a demand for help, refusing her seems like the right thing to do…until Amandine starts taking hostages, and everything changes. Now Toby doesn’t have a choice about whether or not she does as her mother asks. Not with Jazz and Tybalt’s lives hanging in the balance. But who could possibly help her find a pureblood she’s never met, one who’s been missing for over a hundred years?

Enter Simon Torquill, elf-shot enemy turned awakened, uneasy ally. Together, the two of them must try to solve one of the greatest mysteries in the Mists: what happened to Amandine’s oldest daughter, August, who disappeared in 1906.

This is one missing person case Toby can’t afford to get wrong.

(Please note that this is book 11 of the October Daye series and that if you haven’t read my spoiler-free reviews for books 1-10 you can do so here, here, and here.) My journey with October Daye has been a long one (I started reading the series in January of 2018), but I’m thankful for it and I’m kind of sad to be all caught up now (review for book 12 coming soon)! Back to The Brightest Fell though…One of the first things I noticed was that this book took more of a darker turn. And looking back, I realize that the title and the cover should have given that away if I had been paying closer attention.

October was faced with one of the more tougher challenges since I met her in book 1, which was one of the reasons why I was mostly on the edge of my seat while reading The Brightest Fell. Because October’s mother was involved in the plot, we also got to learn a little more about October’s ancestry, which is always great! In true Seanan McGuire fashion, she did answer some questions…But those answers then lead to me ask yet more questions! Haha. This book, like all the other October Daye books, was a joy to read and I highly recommend it along with the series as a whole!

Seanan McGuire is a native Californian, which has resulted in her being exceedingly laid-back about venomous wildlife, and terrified of weather. When not writing urban fantasy (as herself) and science fiction thrillers (as Mira Grant), she likes to watch way too many horror movies, wander around in swamps, record albums of original music, and harass her cats. Seanan is the author of the October Daye, InCryptid, and Indexing series of urban fantasies; the Newsflesh trilogy; the Parasitology duology; and the “Velveteen vs.” superhero shorts. Her cats, Lilly, Alice, and Thomas, are plotting world domination even as we speak, but are easily distracted by feathers on sticks, so mankind is probably safe. For now. Seanan’s favorite things include the X-Men, folklore, and the Black Death. No, seriously. She writes all biographies in the third person, because it’s easier that way.

THANK YOU FOR READING MY REVIEW! HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK? WHAT DID YOU THINK? AND IF YOU HAVEN’T READ IT YET, DO YOU WANT TO, OR NOT? HOW COME? LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS IN THE COMMENTS!

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