ONCE BROKEN FAITH open thread!

Truly, this book was amazing!

I was thoroughly engrossed for the entire novel and would have finished sooner if I didn't have to eat, sleep, and most frustratingly of all work. >:(

Any who, Raj's crush on Chelsea is adorable! But I wonder what happened to Helen.

I love the family that Toby has made for herself. Each character is unique and important in their own right. I love that this book gave us a peek at characters that we haven't seen in a while. I was surprised about Jessica not being capable of being in the same room as Toby. not only was that news to us, but incredibly sad, and might explain why we haven't heard from the Browns in a while.

Tybalt calling the house "Home" nearly killed me. (Though him nearly being killed almost made me throw my book at the wall.)

I know it wasn't mean to be funny, but when Toby thought "This is gonna suck" just before hitting the ground I did laugh a bit.

I wonder when the Selkies' time will officially be up, and whether that is when the Luidaeg is going to call in Toby's debt that she acquired in this book (for the flame to save Tybalt).

And she racking them up as she goes isn't she? She now owes the Luidaeg and the Night Haunts, and probably someone else that I'm forgetting.

And WTF did Eira mean when she said that Toby had set things in motion? Was it filling a Firstborn? Was it finding out that her Mother was Firstborn? Bringing the Sea Witch out of hiding? That whole goal post to goalpost thing had my internal wheels spinning.

Is it just me or is the timing of the Arden novella off? If we open on June 5, Toby had to wait a week before conclave began, and then the conclave lasted at least two days if not three so how is it the 10th when Arden is debating weather she should give Nolan the cure? Also, if she was 12 during the earthquake on 1906 and 14 and Nolan was shot in 1934/6, Arden would be in her early 40s when he was shot, not before she turned 30 as she said in the novella. But I still love new perspectives!

This is a fantastic series that I read at least twice a year and can't get enough of.

What a great installment! I can't wait for the The Brightest Fell. (Though what a friggen ominous title!...no good comes of such a title!)

I dunno, "Once Broken Faith" seemed pretty ominous to me as a title and look how that came out.

SERIOUSLY WHAT IS UP WITH THE SELKIES. I think what bothers me is that the Luidaeg doesn't seem the sort to be all, "Oh, the deadline was June 1, I'll just...wait around and give them some more time or whatever." More like she'd be at the door on the day at midnight or something, not just...stalling.

I was very surprised to see Cassandra Brown. I had forgotten who all of the Brown kids were except for Karen at this point since we haven't seen any of them in ages. Though it's nice to see that Arden may end up with a new friend/employee.

I think its more along the lines of "I'm the f****ing Sea Witch and you are the only people I can lie to."

She's either making them suffer cause she can or something else isn't ready yet. Either Toby or some other component that she needs.

And I loved that we got to catch up with characters that we hadn't heatd from in a while.

I've been wondering if the Luidaeg needs Toby's hope chest ability. Perhaps the Selkies have to be turned fully mortal again.

Maybe she can somehow makr them Roan again. That's why they were worried about kids who didn't get a skin. There would be no more skins to hand down.

RE: Toby's "This is gonna suck." I've actually had that thought while flying through the air! I used to jump horses regularly and was going over a fence I screwed up and long story short went flying off over his left shoulder. I swear time slowed down. I had time to go, "Shouldn't have done THAT. My coach is going to yell at me! Hm, I'm going to hit the ground, time to tuck and roll! Crap I never fall to the LEFT, I don't know how to roll this way! Welp, I'm going to hit point of my shoulder first. THIS IS GONNA SUCK!"

*splat*

Sure enough, point of shoulder impacted first and my collarbone snapped audibly. Oops.

Thank you thank you thank you for having her wear a Toronto Furies jersey!! Thank you for the nod to women's hockey! I can't even explain why it feels this way to see it in the book (they're not even the women's hockey team I cheer for), but it delighted me to the point that I had to stop reading and say thank you immediately.

Just to clarify, the tearing sound that the victims heard was the Fairy Ring opening/closing? or some kind of after effect from being frozen and unfrozen?


Also,

If Tybalt was the intended target of the assault, why was it set up in Toby's room? At LEAST two other people could have triggered it, both of whom were sworn to the hosting Kingdom.

I gather anyone who got hit was the target--Toby would either be hit herself or someone emotionally close to her would be and theoretically she would be so messed up/incapacitated like that that she could not investigate any more.

Which totally never works in mystery books anyway :P

I love this series ... every installment is better than the last! And it feels like every re-read I do starting back at Book 1, I pick up things I missed.

So it's entirely possible I missed this. But: whatever happened to the King of Cats being able to die and get better?

I know it's happened before (most recently when Chelsea ported from the Fire Kingdom through the Court of Cats and turned our favorite feline into a crispy king) and I know there are limitations, like if he dies on the Shadow Road he doesn't come back (mentioned when Raj's father made that assassination attempt) but I don't recall it ever being said he'd used up all of his lives ... so why did he and Toby immediately think he was going to die, permanently?

Toby doesn't know how many lives he has left, and he hasn't told her. For all we know, Tybalt may be on #9.

Tybalt stated in Late Eclipses that Kings and Queens can come back from injuries that would kill one of their subjects or them before they became King or Queen but that the number was not 9, and that it would be worth more than his life to tell the real number.

Toby has said that she doesn't know the number or how many he had lost before they knew each other. While together, he has died at least 4 times, in LE, AoH, CaM, and OBF. Though we do not know if he was using a "life" when Toby saved him in CaM or OBF.

I read A Red-Rose Chain and Once Broken Faith back to back this past week, as I have been somewhat urban-fantasied out for the last couple of years, and greatly enjoyed them. The characters, both new(ish) and old remain very appealing and entertaining, yet, thankfully, there is more to the books than yet another throw-away adventure and continuing romance relationship trials. In particular, the fact that there is clearly an intriguing overarching plot, that is carefully established and hinted at throughout, running in the background - all according to Luidaeg's grand plan ;), is what positively distinguishes it from some UF series that caused my above-mentioned burn-out on the genre. And fleshing out of this interesting setting and it's mythology is very rewarding too, IMHO.

Having said that, I have some quibbles, namely:

Why was the issue of October giving up the rest of her humanity even on the table in OBF? As an effectively 3/4 or more fae-blooded changeling shouldn't she live and remain young for several centuries anyway? Shouldn't she have lived for more than 2 centuries even as a half-and-half?

Why are guards/knights/Sylvester always so useless when an altercation is at hand? Yes, yes, I know that Toby and her normal posse + an occasional mission-relevant specialist are the central characters and in most of this series' installments it makes perfect sense that they operate by themselves, but sometimes, like in OBF (also during final confrontations in One Salt Sea and Chimes at Midnight, etc.) the player party / NPC/ trash mob divide becomes a bit too blatantly obvious, IMHO, YMMV. Maybe I am OCD about this, but Toby, Madden and Quentin, of which only the former was armed, pursuing 3 dangerous, powerful criminals by themselves when there was a know-full of possible back-up available, seemed jarringly unbelievable to me. Toby could have still become separated or whatever and gone out of that window...

And seguing from that - shouldn't Quentin be more able to hold his own in a fight by now? I mean, he is about 18, taller than Toby, and presumably has been and is being tutored in combat and magic at Shadowed Hills?

Also - why, oh why are fae guards armed with medieval weaponry, which is not particularly suited to taking somebody down without killing them, if Oberon's law is such a serious consideration? Wouldn't blow-guns with darts coated in sleeping charms like the one used by Raysel/Dugan in OSS or something similar make much more sense?

Anyway, can't wait for The Brightest Fell and am hoping that maybe that "10 setting questions" thing that happened before ARRC could be repeated again in the future?