This is going to be really short because I'm still reeling in awe of how good this book was. Without getting spoilery, we learn a LOT about Toby and her Mom, there is the requisite, but always satisfying Hero's quest, we get to a crossroads in the romance department and as always we get Seanan McGuire's elegant prose.

If you've never read UF (Urban Fantasy), this series is a perfect introduction--it doesn't get better. ( )

Originally read this in 2014, but I just finished rereading it the other day, so I'm totally counting it for this year. Not high art, but very satisfying. ( )

If all of the fae are some flavor of "crazy", then it's not really crazy, is it? Especially when they can shake off "crazy" when the plot is needful? I mean, Amandine doesn't strike me as someone who is one banana short of a bunch, she's just playing a game where no one else knows the rules, or even what game is being played. But that's true of basically everyone above Toby's pay grade. Amandine, the Queen of the Mists, the Luidaeg, Rayseline, even Sylvester. Rayseline is maybe the only one I would actually call mad, but it's more like her moral compass points to BAD. So maybe let's stop using crazy as shorthand for "I don't understand"?

I enjoyed the story a lot but I would really like to see Toby not require rescue by all and sundry because she rushes headlong into danger. You have to read these with an absolute belief that Toby is the only one who can help, otherwise they make no freaking sense at all. (Why do people keep asking her for help when it always seems to end with her half-dead? There must be other people with, I dunno, weapons training and no death wish who could help out.) ( )

book 4, in which we flirt with a cat ( )

This series just gets better and better. Can’t wait to read the next one. ( )