Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

This is a Buddy Read for Ashes of Honor by Seanan McGuire starting June 5, 2023.


Happy Reading!

This is when I plan to go back and do all the prequels short stories with Tybalt, Luideag, etc ... It's alot

Shorts after Ashes of Honor

--Rat Catcher-- Available from http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fic...





I have a suggested schedule of all the shorts I was gonna post. It breaks them up a bit

I'll wait and see fhen

Megaspoiler talk with Emily: I read the first few chapters, and (view spoiler)[ I always forget how early Officer Thornton appears in the story, as an unnamed police officer... (view spoiler)[at first, when I heard this chapter, I thought he interrogated Toby when she got out of the Koi pond, then it's revealed it was more like book 4, when Oleander was causing problems...

If it HAD been book 1, that would mean, (view spoiler)[all my candidates for Oberon, Titania, and Maeve appeared in the first book, I think... sadly, that isn't true... 2 out of 3 ain't bad, tho :D (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

Timelord Iain wrote: "Megaspoiler talk with Emily:..."

Megaspoiler reply (view spoiler)[ i thought that at first too.. but maybe McGuire still had him in mind at the beginning xD You think Maeve is (view spoiler)[ Marsha right? I hope we get Maeve reveal soon after Oberon and Titanias reveal so close together. (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)] Im super pumped for the double feature this year. Have we scheduled that BR yet?

I'm not sure if we scheduled this year's releases for BR... for the monthly BR, I assume we'll do a double feature like we're doing for Dresden, but that still won't be until next April/May, I think...

I'll probably read them when the audio comes out this year, too...

Megaspoiler talk: (view spoiler)[I expect Maeve to be revealed in the next couple books, but probably not the Titania books, but I could be wrong... maybe Maeve will be needed to suppress Titania... (hide spoiler)]

I will likely be reading them on the release day :D

Tonari no Emily wrote: "I will likely be reading them on the release day :D"

I wait for the audiobook... and 50-90% of the time, Mary Robinette Kowal is too busy being an author to record on time... hopefully this time she's on time... I think the extra book has a male narrator... would be sad if it released before the Toby book...

Then again, maybe I just made that up... hard to confirm right now... they're not up for pre-order...

So... if y'all read the new releases on release day, will you still join us newbies when we get 'round to them? ^^

oh for sure! :D

Nirkatze wrote: "So... if y'all read the new releases on release day, will you still join us newbies when we get 'round to them? ^^"

I'll re-read, I'm sure...

I never really came back and talked one I finished the story...

The title of this one always sounds a bit sad to me, after the previous book, but the romantic angle is quickly hashed out...

The Goblin Fruit angle feels like a sudden addition, that should have kinda existed more from the beginning, given the childhood/Home, but I guess that's swept under the rug as "Darrin forbade it"...

I've always loved the premise of this one, (view spoiler)[like idiot savants that are really good at something, the idea of the checks and balances being backward in the rare changeling just made so much sense...

Also gives a chance for some wild portaling around, and to make Etienne a bit more human, and expand Toby's menagerie of kids (friends for Quentin & Raj & the Lorden boys) (hide spoiler)]

Tonari no Emily wrote: "oh for sure! :D"

Yay!!

Looking forward to reading y'all's spoilers... running about a week or more late on everything...

I am up to Ch. 13... (view spoiler)[ The Goblin Fruit, that changeling drug, has to be involved somehow, right? Or why would they even bring it up in the beginning...

Etienne has been a bad boy! But Bridgette, his human lady, is nothing like what I thought he would go for. He is such a stick in the mud, I thought he would go for a more timid, quiet lady, but she is a firecracker!!! I hate it that she didn't tell him they had a child together. Even if in the beginning she thought she could handle it, when she found out the kid was half Fey, she should have contacted him... This is unfair to him and to the kid... And boy is she powerful! Raj had better be OK! And I am worried about her taking one of Tibault's lives away! I doubt he has an unlimited supply of lives...

I wonder why that cop has been following Toby...

That animal on top of her car was adorable!

I love, love love! The Sea witch! (hide spoiler)]

Choko wrote: "I am up to Ch. 13..."

The Goblin Fruit thing is a Toby Pet Project... it'll play out more in the NEXT book...

Choko wrote: "I am up to Ch. 13..."

(view spoiler)[Tybalt's extra lives, as a cat king, becomes a major plot point in the next bunch of novels... he uses up alot of them, working with Toby... that's all I'll say...

I dunno if Bridgette is Etienne's "normal type", or what he went for because of his home/work life with Sylvester while Luna/Raysel were lost...

The Luideag is the best... I loved discovering her messy house is a facade :D (hide spoiler)]

Finished up previous book earlier than I thought so I'm jumping in and yay! I get to read at the same time as Choko! I have a goal now--to get to ch. 13 and read that spoiler tag...

It's your first time too, right Choko?

I keep meaning to do a deeper dive into the Shakespeare quotes at the start of each book, after reading them, to see if there's more connection than the simple line.

Into Chapter Three--(view spoiler)[Wow, was not expecting Toby's healing to get that fast. She's learning to manipulate her magic too...

Glad her ragtag crew has new digs. Nice for everyone to have their own door. I'm surprised that Raj hasn't demanded Squire status too.... yet?

"A cat may look at a king"--I knew I'd heard that before, but I thought it was a line from some play or another. Apparently it's just a regular English proverb, having to do with how even the lowliest people have rights... I always just thought it was a comment on how cats don't care about status. LOL

Looks like we're getting Etienne's backstory. Wheeee

A missing kid, and a prologuey scene with lost children selling drugs. Not a good connection.... (hide spoiler)]

I read McGuire's most recent Patreon email--about her history with My Little Ponies, and I keep thinking about it while reading. It sounds like she had a really tough childhood... And like Toby notes in Chapter 4, (view spoiler)[she keeps getting cases related to children--and has had both successes and major failures when it comes to protecting them. I wonder how many of those stories started as successful or failed dreams of escape for the author? If her descriptions of the drug-addled candela teen are born from watching people she knew be devoured on the inside from drugs? Her books do have a gritty sense of reality to them...

I'm glad to see the Changeling's Choice expanded and challenged in this book... seems like that's a Crusade-worthy-cause for the series. (hide spoiler)]

I hate The Changeling's Choice! It seems excessively cruel no matter what the kid chooses...

I don't know anything about McGuire's past... I need to find out more...

Luideag's house!!! Hahaha! I should learn how to do illusions:) My house is always clean, but a total mess, so the Luideag and I have exactly the opposite problem:)

I am about 75% in and it's good to see April again! I don't know anything about the new Chinese character, but I hope she is one of the good guys. You just never know with this series...

The girl must be so scared, out of control and not knowing what the hell is going on... My heart goes out to her...

McGuire was groomed / molested as a kid, I think... I think there's a Foreword in Lost in the Moment and Found that indicates the plot of the story hit really close to home... and the plot of that book involves a kid whose dad dies at Target at age 8, and a creeper boyfriend moves in and starts grooming the kid and messing with her head, before she runs away and finds her portal world...

Her My Little Pony essay talks about people stealing her things in order to pawn them (maybe for drugs), and essentially being kicked out of the house to fend for herself at 16--though her options were to stay with her mother and move to a bad neighborhood with bad schools, or try to find a way to stay at her good school with college track classes... apparently My Little Pony were too cheap to be pawnable, and practically indestructible, so they were the best toys...

This is horrible!!! What is wrong with us people?!?!?! Ghhhrrr!!!!

On the plus side, when she had to leave her house to stay in school, several of her friends took up the slack and she finished off her school years staying with friends...

I just found it really interesting--and inspiring--how she took the pain of her childhood and turned it into stories... so other people who have had experiences like this can read her books and feel seen...

I'm still left with tons of questions...

I know she likes to travel alot, and does alot of her writing all over the world, and while visiting Disney Parks...

And that she spent twenty years living with a friend/roommate and her mother... and she moved from California to Oregon a few years ago, with her mother... that was the financial inspiration for starting a Patreon Page, initially...

The story on that was pretty clear that it was just a friend, and not a romantic relationship that ended... but they'd lived together so long they may as well have been married, when it came to appliances and furnishing that were now needed...

The Wayward Children series has alot of messages about children and childhood, and how mature children may be seen as a good thing by schoolteachers and the like, but isn't necessarily a good sign regarding home life...

Through Chapter 10 now... (view spoiler)[I'm tickled that the Luideag has a 1998 Honda Civic. My first car was a 1999 Honda Accord, which isn't quite the same but close enough that it made me smile. And that Quentin has an "emergency $20."

I'm also excited that this book is advancing storylines for Toby's blood gift, Changeling's Choice, and also the closed realms. I'm kinda wondering if maybe Oberon is jaunting around in disguise, like another Oberon in another book series we just read, but it's just one of many theories swirling around in my head. These books are good for theories.

As for who might be trying to get hands on Chelsea... well, what other crazy Daoine Sidhe do we know who go about kidnapping children? I can only name one so far... well, two if we count recent Raysel, but she's in jail right now. Uncle Simon though... and we still don't know why he kidnapped Raysel & Luna... and I'm still getting the sense that Amandine is behind a bunch of this somehow, and what type of Fae was Winterrose?

Also thinking about Foundryside, when the plan was to force things to get so bad that God would come back to fix it. Could there be a faction stirring things up in the belief it would force Oberon's return?

Also keep thinking about Changeling's Choice--is there any reason they can't tell the kids that hey, if you choose this parent you'll never get to see the other again, but if you choose this parent you die? I mean, seriously. Why is it done the way it is? Just because it has "always been done this way"? I hope we get more solid reasons behind this. It's a stupid thing regardless, but still... want history! (hide spoiler)]

I agree! Those Choice traditions don't make sense. And who makes the rules anyway? Why can't they be changed?!

Nirkatze wrote: "Through Chapter 10 now..."

(view spoiler)[I'm not sure the Changeling's Choice stuff has always been this way... at one time, the Hope Chests weren't all lost, and you could rebalance the blood without a Toby...

Things have just deteriorated with the Kings & Queens gone... and infighting among the kids & humans, with the parents away...

So things have been this way for a long time... (hide spoiler)]

I think I can start saying a bit more (mostly speculation, but you need a few more details to avoid spoilers) after book 8...

I don't have the mental energy to make very meaningful comments the past few weeks, but I love y'alls comments! Keep the speculation coming, this series really is a good one for theories :)
Re changeling's choice (view spoiler)[ I think many things in faerie are set up to be intentionally cruel to the changelings. So I'm sure some pure blood relish in that fact. And maybe others just think its nicer that way... I'm not sure why some haven't just up and changed it, but the pure bloods don't do change well.
And yeah like Iain said, the choice wasn't so brutal in the past because the hope chests could just rebalance the blood. I think faerie needed a living hope chest and thus Amandine and her line were born, but Amandine is a selfish butt and isn't really doing what she's supposed to do. I still wanna know what the "liar" thing is about... what was the event or series of events that led to that moniker.... (hide spoiler)]

Tonari no Emily wrote: "I don't have the mental energy to make very meaningful comments the past few weeks, but I love y'alls comments! Keep the speculation coming, this series really is a good one for theories :)
Re chan..."

(view spoiler)[I blame alot of the cruelty of the Fae on the #8 baddie, and her influence on the Daoine Sidhe, who rule most kingdoms, and trickle down bad practices to everyone...

I think the Roane were the first ones to call Amandine a Liar in the books, when we got those prophecies in the 5th book?... still lacking context... (hide spoiler)]

Timelord Iain wrote: "Tonari no Emily wrote: "I don't have the mental energy to make very meaningful comments the past few weeks, but I love y'alls comments! Keep the speculation coming, this series really is a good one..."

Here's the quote from book 5, chapter 26--I just did an ebook search for keywords (view spoiler)["Amandine the"

“Countess of Goldengreen, the land that falls to rise and falls again, daughter of Amandine the liar, mother of Gillian with the eyes half-open but so soon to close, she who’ll stand by the burning tree with a brand bare in her hand and a song upon her lips, yes, yes, we know you,” she said, waving a hand. “Trust her, my Pat. She believes her words, and if she lies, she doesn’t know it.”

Though y'all have been calling her Amandine the Liar since like, book one, LOL. (hide spoiler)]

I really like your analysis, @Emily--the cruelty does seem very on point with that tradition, (view spoiler)[right up there with not caring to regulate Goblinwhatsit drug from the first chapter. Still expecting that to come around again. (hide spoiler)]

I'm up to Chapter 12 now, and (view spoiler)[am appreciating both Luideag for being older than the rules and April for being so unique that she thinks the rules are stupid... at one point, did anyone even care about the balance in blood, except for the whole super-powerful changelings could potentially break the world bit? Or the unbalanced and crazy--which Fae don't really seem to be caring about. But should. But it seems like once upon a time, the Changeling's Choice wouldn't have been about what it is now--about hiding Fae from people... maybe it was more about controlling the Changelings who are like Chelsea. But then that was probably also before the realms were closed.... and I like what Iain said too, about the Hope Chests...

That one Hope Chest is still floating around right? It got turned over to the Queen? (hide spoiler)]

More Chapter 12--(view spoiler)[I'm feeling kinda like I wish for something and it comes. I was wishing that Raj would get official squire treatment. Well, now so is Toby! Assuming they get Raj back healthy and whatever was up with his father doesn't mess things up.

And what WAS up with his father? It seemed like more than the simple "my son is gone so I will blame everyone who could be useful" thing. Very similar reaction to Bridget though. Definitely more in that Court of Cats to be plumbed.

And I do really like the implications of future King of whatever and King of Cats being friends. Toby just needs to collect a few more worldwide fosters and she'll have world peace.

And then I was thinking--wouldn't it be nice to have some more police involvement? Like, Dresden has Murph, where's Toby's Murphy? And now she's getting followed by the police. Good or bad, it should be fun.

Basically, I think that McGuire is playing my expectations very well so far, seeding my wishes and then teasing me. I'm sure it's because she is planning on causing pain. I have ice cream ready.

Also really enjoying Quentin's banter. Yes, what is Magic Math Thing, and how have I not heard of this before?
(hide spoiler)]

Nirkatze wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "Tonari no Emily wrote: "I don't have the mental energy to make very meaningful comments the past few weeks, but I love y'alls comments! Keep the speculation coming, this serie..."

(view spoiler)[Amandine the Liar just rolls off the tongue... it's that or Amandine the Bitch, in my head :D

That Hope Chest is rolling around, locked up... it'll see the light of day again later on, I think... altho Toby's a walking Hope Chest, so it barely matters...

I think the Hope Chests and Toby are as much about the mixed bloods as they are about the changeling... that was the spirit of my question to McGuire a decade ago...

Faerie's kinda been falling apart without the Hope Chests or Dochas Sidhe, since mixing Faerie bloodlines leads to alot of mental instability... without the Hope Chests, the choices became more symbolic rather than literal... and people just kinda had to deal...

This'll come up later in the series, but in Faerie, when a parents divorce, the children choose a parent to claim, kinda similar to the Changeling's Choice... (hide spoiler)]

Nice being able to talk about some of that stuff more openly now! Nifty note about (view spoiler)[Divorce... I was thinking something like that must've been the case...

Whatever caused the hope chests to go missing in the first place, anyway? Or were they made by the Parents, who are now missing? (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 13 Making a guess... (view spoiler)[so, this book 8 baddie y'all keep mentioning... (view spoiler)[Duchess Riordan (hide spoiler)]? Timing seems good to finally get what-the-heck is up with her and Dreamer's Glass... (hide spoiler)]

Random note meant to mention this earlier--but Quentin (view spoiler)[being all Canadian and the bit with the 1950s folk band just makes me smile. I'm sure it was mentioned before but I didn't really remember him being Canadian... I like how it's getting brought up in funny ways now. (hide spoiler)]

Oh, and another thing--(view spoiler)[Toby states that she's the "first of the new race"--did she not catch the previous conversations where folks who knew her mother mentioned Amandine and her line? She's got siblings out there... though I suppose Toby could still be technically correct, if Amandine cut off all her previous Fae relationships and they chose he father's line over the mother's... still wouldn't make Toby the "first" but maybe the "only current." I'm still rooting for Sylvester to be her big bro. Or something. (hide spoiler)]

And yay! Now I can open those Chapter 13 Spoiler Tags! re: @Iain & Choko--(view spoiler)[I totally agree w/you Choko, that Bridget did something unforgiveable not telling Etienne about Chelsea. I like how Toby described it--saying she deprived Etienne of his choice to be a father just as she was concerned Faerie would deprive her of being a mother. I can understand her being afraid--but I hate it when characters make choices out of fear without talking to people first...

Love the Afanc! I think they should name him Alfie. Alfie the Afanc has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? And now I want an Alfie plushie too.

Discovering the Luideag's real digs was a treat. I was kind of wondering if that was the case, since it got so much emphasis in the previous books, and it seemed like a very Luideag thing to do--all grumble on the outside and squishy on the inside.

Really interesting learning about January's wife--I'm glad they explained WHY we didn't know about her--and also meeting Riordan. And LOL WoW reference! Why didn't he ask her the all important question: Alliance or Horde? (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 18, dammit Raj (view spoiler)[Why did you have to show up at the end of a chapter like that? I was going to take a break there!!

I'm still wondering if Simon could be the person on the other end of the phone line with Riordan--but with Raj's dad showing up such an ass, it could've been him as well. Makes sense she'd hire another Cait Sidhe, and an ambitious one, to track down another teleporter--or to maybe do some groundwork on why she wants a teleporter. And it could also explain where the whole blood attack on the Cait Sidhe came from in the first place--if Toby is the only non-cat to show up there, then it had to've been an inside job, right? And Raj's dad is actively trying to undermine Tybalt... yeah, he makes more sense than Simon. Shucks. Really waiting for him to rear his ugly mug again.

I was very much "awwwwwww"-ing during Tybalt's whole confession. Been waiting for this a long time. And I just noticed Iain's comment at the very top--I was wondering when was best to try out the Tybalt shorts, and hoping it was here... (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 19 What? (view spoiler)["Chirurgeon" is totally still valid in Scrabble!!

And as a sidenote, I rather like the cadence of Tybalt's speech--it makes me think of how (again with the In Death comparisons) Roarke & Sommerset are voiced. And this is eye-reading, not listening--no idea how the audio does him. (hide spoiler)]

Regular Chapter 19 (view spoiler)[I like how this book is addressing the pain that suicidal people cause in their friends and family--Toby has been totally absorbed in herself, and not stopped to think what her actions do to those who care about her, and what they might be thinking (also self-centeredly) is causing her behavior. (hide spoiler)]

Nice try, Nirkatze... you won't get spoilers out of me that easy ;)

We're getting close to number 8 BR... and yea, this was when I figured it was OK to start the Tybalt short stories... there are dozens, at this point, I think...

Just some notes on your thoughts:

Raj totally needs the official squire title! And his friendship with Quinton is not only adorable, but you are right, might be good for the future relations of their respective peoples.

Hahaha! I should get some emergency "I am being emotionally damaged by my books" ice cream in the freezer too!!! Great idea:))) Good to know you are prepared, Nirkatze?:)

Yeah, I can see how the Hope Chest and a Toby would be best used to deal with the inevitable mental instability that comes with the mixing of the Fae lines...

I find Duchess Riordan very scary! She is not insane, just totally ruthless and ambitious. Kind of how I think of The Gile/ Big Red in the Lightbringer series... Scary but focused and you have to respect them as an opponent...

I love the Alfie suggestion, and I am in love with the Luideag!!!:))

Tybalt's confession!<3

Chirurgeon is a legit usable term, so it should be Scrabble eligible!

I was so happy when her friends confronted Toby on her disregard for her own life! It makes people who care about you really go through some very painful and anxiety riddled moments!

Iain, you are evil as always:))) Just the way we love you!

Finished! Really enjoyed this one! Really enjoying them all once the overarching story really kicked off.

Waaa! Thank you for all the response comments, Choko! That icecream got eaten very quickly....

(view spoiler)[Thinking that Riordan & her Knowe are now nicely wrapped up with a bow for now, so probably not #8 Villain... but now I'm wondering about the hints that one of the big mythological figures is hiding among us... Morgana, Morrigan, Mordred... one of the "M" names...

There's the hints Iain's been dropping about Winterrose...

So there's options. And we'll find out soon!!

I would be very surprised, though if we've seen the last of Riordan though--the lost realms is another knot to revisit. Especially because of the poor Officer! I can't believe they left him behind!!! No Murph for Toby... And the way he was describing following Toby... seemed like he was under a compulsion or something. He seemed very confused on his details... I feel like something else was going on there--and unconnected to Riordan/Samson. Who is trying to keep tabs on Toby? Scratch that... who isn't? Who would put a whammy on a police officer for information?

And then there was the thing with Bridget at the end, humans being able to live in Faerie and there being precedents. Details like that don't just get dropped randomly. Makes me think of stories like Tam Lin, Urashimatarou, and even Rip Van Winkle... I wonder what living in Faerie does to humans, and if any might still be around?

Also, on that thought, I've been thinking about the whole Faerie line thing. It seems ALL Faeries are descended from Oberon, Titania, or Maeve. So far, they've been described as "Titania's line (by way of Oberon)" or "Maeve's line (by way of Oberon)" and it is only Amandine who is NOT of Maeve or Titania but some unnamed woman. So. If those three are the ONLY first Faeries, and ALL Faery are descended from them, then Amandine's mother must have been human. Either that, or Oberon was doing something nastily incestuous with his children, and I reeeeeeaallly don't want things to go there. Or there are other beings not-fae and not-human which haven't been introduced yet. But considering that even Japanese and Chinese creatures with no connection to Irish mythology are being appropriated for Faerie, I'm leaning towards this theory. And if Toby's grandma was human, maybe she was one of those precedents to live in Faerie.

I can't think of any women in faery tales who ended up Under the Hill--(other than Janet in Tam Lin, but she was the savior, not the taken, and don't remember if she went in to get him out, or just waited for the Queen to ride)... I feel like I should do more research... my Irish Fairy Tale phase is long past...

I'm glad Chelsea chose faerie--and I liked that Toby EXPLAINED THE CHOICE, not just the WHAT--none of this "are you like Mommy or Daddy" but "do you feel that you are human or fae?"--but also the WHY!! The whole reason for Changeling's Choice in the first place... before perverted. Also, with all the talk of how it is the responsibility of the parent--makes me even more sure that Sylvester (and thus Simon) have a family connection to Toby. If not a big brother, maybe connected by marriage somehow--if Amandine had other children, then maybe she had other marriages and divorces, fae style? Stepbrother? Step-uncle? I can't see Amandine being married to Sylvester, but Simon? Yikes. Hope not. I like the brother theory more though... Toby could use a big brother... but I can also see her feeling betrayed at Sylvester never telling her... but Sylvester's parentage is still a big mystery...

One last SQUEEE for Toby & Tybalt. Really curious how his name went from Rand to Tybalt--when he said that "used to be his name"--was that the name he used when he met his wife? Was it the name he was born with? Hope it shows up in the shorts! (hide spoiler)]

Nirkatze wrote: "Finished! Really enjoyed this one! Really enjoying them all once the overarching story really kicked off.

Waaa! Thank you for all the response comments, Choko! That icecream got eaten very quickl..."

You're hitting close to alot of things, now... thanks to all the hints... I won't say which, tho...

But, re:Amandine: (view spoiler)[ one of the more common theories, that I was a big proponent of in the early books (so I feel safe to talk about, whether or not it's true), and that really took shape with this book I think, is the idea that Amandine's mother was Faerie itself...

In the way Toby can talk to knowes, and Faerie is dangerous because she WANTS inhabitants... reminds me of the embodiment of Underhill in the Mercy Thompson series...

Cait Sidhe take on new names when they become king, like English royalty or the Seanchan in Wheel of Time... Rand was Tybalt's pre-king name, when he was a cat who stalked the rafters of the Globe Theatre in the days of Shakespeare (another explanation for why he's named after a Shakespeare character, beyond how everything in this series is connected to the Midsummer Night's Dream mythos of Oberon & Titania & Maeve)...

Riordan will be back, like you said... I think in The Brightest Fell (hide spoiler)]

Nirkatze, I had all the same thoughts and feelings! I am particularly interested in the cop, who had him entranced, and when are we getting him back...

It hasn't even occurred to me that Faerie could be personalized like that Iain, but I think it's a great idea!!! Very creative thinking!

I sure am loving this series and our discussions:)))

Yes, very interesting theory about Faerie... (view spoiler)[I was thinking about humans still though--because back in the days when the hope chests were around, the first generations of faerie grandchildren would have had to largely have human parents--either that or people would be marrying siblings and half-siblings! I don't think even Greek Gods went that far--since every Faerie was also a child of Oberon, even if they claimed focus on their mothers. So they would have ALL been changelings, who then used hope-chests to make their "line" pure...

When and how did the hope chests disappear? Was it around the same time the Three pulled up shop? (hide spoiler)]

Just got to In Sea-Salt Tears... Everything about the selkies/Luideag is so tragic... Her storyline is my favorite in this series.

That one’s super tragic on all sides

Also went ahead and read Rat Catcher for the first time (view spoiler)[ and wow I didn't know it was about why faerie left Londinium and Tybalt becoming King all in one... And we see September being friendly with Tybalt which we got hints of in the series. (hide spoiler)]
McGuire writes pretty strong shorties!

Tonari no Emily wrote: "Also went ahead and read Rat Catcher for the first time [spoilers removed]
McGuire writes pretty strong shorties!"

McGuires writes short stories with purpose... we know Butcher writes Dresden shorts to deadline, and usually with little idea, but McGuire is on record saying she writes most short stories for herself, to lock in and reinforce backstory that will help guide her use of the characters in the main series...

until chapter 12
(view spoiler)[ I don't have many things to say. The highlight has been to discovered the Luideag has a spotless place and she only puts an illusion to visitors. It was hilarious

I also liked that Toby plans to make it somewhat official that raj is her squire (hide spoiler)]