A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire

October "Toby" Daye is a changeling, the daughter of Amandine of the fae and a mortal man. Like her mother, she is gifted in blood magic, able to read what has happened to a person through a mere taste of blood. Toby is the only changeling who has earned knighthood, and she re-earns that position every day, undertaking assignments for her liege, Sylvester, the Duke of the Shadowed Hills.

Now Sylvester has asked her to go to the County of Tamed Lightning—otherwise known as Fremont, CA—to make sure that all is well with his niece, Countess January O'Leary, whom he has not been able to contact. It seems like a simple enough assignment—but when dealing with the realm of Faerie nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

Toby soon discovers that someone has begun murdering people close to January, whose domain is a buffer between Sylvester's realm and a scheming rival duchy. If Toby can't find the killer soon, she may well become the next victim.

The thing that bothers me most about this book is the sheer idiocy of everyone, most especially Toby. The other thing I realized that bothered me most about book 1 and book 2 is the fact that I just don't have much respect for her.

She spends the entire book running around clueless, talking to people and doing nothing, while saying (over and over and OVER again), “I'm doing my best.” Really, Toby? REALLY?

Why the hell is everyone in her life falling all over themselves to fawn over her? I can't believe Sylvester or the Luidaeg or Tybalt could be THAT stupid. October Daye is an unpleasant, “I think I'm baddass (but actually I'm not)” asshole who does detestable things. Like kissing a married guy, for one. Being dumb, for another. Being absolutely obnoxious (for no reason) and running her mouth – and yes, yes, I know that it's a “feature” of urban fantasy to have a shit-talking “sassy” heroine who doesn't know when to STFU, but it gets extremely annoying. They're never as badass as they try to come off, and not funny either. I suppose I could kind of forgive this series seeing as it's older, but damn.

If it weren't for everyone saying that the series gets “so much better” (my skepticism rises), then I would be done with this one.

I liked the world and the characters, but the “mystery” was really lacking for me here.
There were some characters I wished I could have seen more of, but what can you do. Here side kick (sorry don't remember how to spell his name) was an enjoyable character.
The major mysteries of the book were pretty annoying though. Maybe I just read too many mysteries, but I figured it out pretty quick. After that it was like when you watch a horror movie and you tell at the screen, “don't go on the house! How do you not know he is the murderer!”.