So I really liked the book. Toby and Tybalt finally manage to get married and the whole wedding plotline is wonderful

Her dress sounds AMAZING

(The hilarity of the wedding party's colors being designed to not show blood)

(which was ABSOLUTELY the right decision)

That having been said, I'd be fine if this were the last Toby book and the rest of the universe was like... "and the adventure continues" territory

Seanan is contracted through book 17, so I know that won't be the ending, but I'd be content, personally.

So here's the thing; I need to reread the series. It doesn't get really good until book...three? maybe? But I feel like the older books were tighter and more closely edited.

In my memory I still see The Winter Long as wonderful as a culmination of all these different threads

After that, though, the books have been getting...thinner?

Using When Sorrows Come as an example: It feels like the non-wedding parts were being used to move the meta plot along but written with less...heart? Attention? I don't know. There's something warm and deep and real in the wedding-adjacent parts of the book that isn't there in the political intrigue part.

And then at the end the political intrigue part just gets hacked off suddenly

I'm partially concerned because with how powerful Toby is becoming, it feels like raising the stakes is going to get harder and harder.

idk man and I know Quentin was playing nice with his parents so they'd leave him with toby before but his outburst at his father seems...well, it seems like it would have happened before this.

I suppose my problem with later Toby books is that they feel like they're a lot of setup but the denouements just are...usually lackluster, I guess?

Like whoooooo we found oberon

now obviously there are good in and out of universe reasons for him to stay quiet and out of things

but it FEELS like a small thing now...well and it felt like a small thing then, in comparison to Simon's recovery

SO

NEW PLOTLINES/MYSTERIES THAT HAVE CROPPED UP AND/OR OLD ONES THAT HAVE BEEN MENTIONED AGAIN:

Eira. Eira was hip deep in the plot that started this book which is FASCINATING but also confusing!

There's an implication as well that she may have deliberately encouraged more iron in the water right by NYC to poison the sea fae, which would track with her.

Toby thinks several times about wanting to be there when Eira has her reckoning.

- Toby and Oberon

Toby does not approve of Oberon's sitting back while his children are shitty to each other.

On the one hand, yeah okay

I see her point

On the other hand, I feel like he may rightly fear the results of only ONE of the rulers of faerie coming back

- dopplegangers

the dopplegangers sided with Oak and Ash because he offered them fair citizenship (which he doubtlessly didn't mean, but no one else even treated them like people, because they lack a firstborn)

I assume that in the course of things Toby will get involved in THIS as well.

I also assume that having the night haunts show up was to remind us of their continual banishment from regular fae society as well

- Kingdom of Oak and Ash (NYC)

The Kingdom of Oak and Ash is reputedly full of changelings whose blood is too weak for the iron to bother them, and that sort of thing

I suspect though I may be wrong that this might tie into the shapeshifters thing

It DEFINITELY sounds like a place to hide something you don't want the authorities to find

so I'm looking forward to see what gets picked up next time