Full of Briars by Seanan McGuire

New York Times-bestselling October Daye series • Hugo Award-winning author Seanan McGuire • "Top of my urban-paranormal series list!" —Felicia Day Meet Quentin Sollys. Squire. Hockey fan. Canadian. And Crown Prince to the entire continent of North America, known as “the Westlands” to the fae, currently ruled by his parents, High King Aethlin and High Queen Maida. Not that most people know that, since he’s a blind foster squired to a changeling—not exactly something that screams “hidden royalty.” But with a new Queen on the throne in the Mists, his parents have finally come to town to see how he’s doing…and to take him home with them. That’s going to be a problem, since Quentin doesn’t particularly want to leave, and his knight, Sir October Daye, doesn’t particularly want to let him go. Set after Chimes at Midnight and before The Winter Long, it’s finally time to meet the parents in our first-ever story narrated by Quentin himself.

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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I'm pretty torn about this one, to tell you the truth. Toby's squire, Quentin, is our narrator this time out – and it's worth reading just to see Toby, May, and Tybalt from his perspective. His parents have come to make everything official with the new Queen of the Mists – and while they're around, they might as well check in on him and maybe bring him home.

There's no action, no violence, Toby doesn't come close to dying – it was so weird. There was a lot of talking – which was fun. Toby was Toby, being irreverent and nigh-disrespectful to Quentin's parents, as she argued for them to leave him where he is. Tybalt was more Tybalt-y than usual, making sure that Quentin's folks knew how little he cared about their status. Quentin's growth as a character, as a person – his maturation, thanks to age and his service to Toby – is what's on display here.

It was fun to read, and I wouldn't discourage anyone from it – but I'm not sure it added a lot to my understanding of Toby or anyone else (including the central character). This is the first non-full length story I've read in this universe, and it doesn't really make me think about trying another one. Still, it was entertaining enough – and had one killer line (and a few that were really good) – so I might.