Chimes At Midnight by Seanan McGuire...Lacking

				Chimes at Midnight (October Daye) by Seanan McGuire Edition: Mass Market Paperback Price: $7.19
No Growth and Lacking Excitement, December 21, 2013   Series: October Daye (Book 7) Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages Publisher: DAW (September 3, 2013) Language: English "Book Description Things are starting to look up for October "Toby" Daye. She's training her squire, doing her job, and has finally allowed herself to grow closer to the local King of Cats. It seems like her life may finally be settling down...at least until dead changelings start appearing in the alleys of San Francisco, killed by an overdose of goblin fruit. Toby's efforts to take the problem to the Queen of the Mists are met with harsh reprisals, leaving her under sentence of exile from her home and everyone she loves. Now Toby must find a way to reverse the Queens decree, get the goblin fruit off the streets--and, oh, yes, save her own life, since more than a few of her problems have once again followed her home. And then there's the question of the Queen herself, who seems increasingly unlikely to have a valid claim to the throne.... To find the answers, October and her friends will have to travel from the legendary Library of Stars into the hidden depths of the Kingdom of the Mists--and they'll have to do it fast, because time is running out. In faerie, some fates are worse than death. October Daye is about to find out what they are." This review is from: Chimes at Midnight (October Daye) (Mass Market Paperback) This is supposed to be the book that bumps this series up to a new level of understanding and excitement. It should have shown how October has grown, matured and become better at everything. It did not. If anything I am now worried that October is going to become a Mary Sue type of character. However, don’t get me wrong. I still really like this series and most of the characters and will keep reading the series. I just won’t expect too much in the way of character growth. What we have here in this book is October and friends still fighting the same villain (The Queen of the Mists) and although things do move along in this book, we never really see a conclusion. The crew is always fighting secondary villains to get to the main one and it is getting a little tiresome. Why? Because I am worried that Ms McGuire is going to be one of those authors that drags things out to a frustrating point by fighting the same thing in every book but in a different way. Very few authors can do this with grace, and even less of them know when to end a series. Ms McGuire is a very talented author that has created an interesting world. Some of the secondary characters are truly fascinating. Some are just useless as far as furthering the plot line. However, her plots have become predictable. Toby is asked to help someone, she blunders around, is nearly killed, requests the help of The Luideag and of course is told that The Luideag cannot help but of course, there is a lot of hinting involved. Tybalt always comes to the rescue (is he even doing his King activities anymore?) and eventually October seems to blunder her way into saving the day. -------------------------> Spoiler Alert<------------------ br=""> What happens with Quentin and his parent I could have predicted. I still liked the idea of who his parents are, but it was predictable if you had been paying attention. The main plot of Treassa (sp) not really being the Queen of the Mists was an interesting one that I didn’t see coming, but it was handled somewhat boringly. To have her escape at the end of the novel just seems a little trite and a way to keep the series going. If the author had wrapped this up a little more cleanly, she could have just come up with some new villains to keep the series going. -------------------->End Spoilers<------------------ br=""> The romance between October and Tybalt is bland. There was more excitement between Toby and Conner (and sex too) than with Tybalt. I really had expected and looked forward to ever so much more than what we got in this novel. PS ---- Could we cool it on the coffee addiction? It is getting a little nerve wracking to read about coffee on what seems like every page. It was funny and endearing the first few books but is now just grating to me!