History YMMV / OctoberDaye

* GrowingTheBeard: While the first novel, ''Rosemary and Rue'' was praised by critics for its WorldBuilding and interesting cast of characters, it also received complaints of having too much InfoDump, a weirdly slow pacing and Toby being a PinballProtagonist. The second book,'A Local Habitation', rather than building properly on the first, essentially serves as the literary equivalent of a BottleEpisode, trapping Toby and a couple characters in a single location away from most of the settings and elements introduced in book one, and also received criticism for Toby carrying the IdiotBall repeatedly. Later novels would improve on this and give the series, a faster pacing, a well-crafted MythArc and deeper emotional resonance that would turn it into one of the most acclaimed UrbanFantasy book series. This improvement was first felt in the third novel, ''An Artificial Night'' which truly explored Toby's psyche, began to set the seeds for some of the series' overarching plot, and had much deeper emotional stakes.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The more bigoted/traditionalist purebloods raise changeling children to be servants to their pureblooded relatives, in a similar way to how American slaveowners would frequently raise mixed-race children they created by raping enslaved Black women to be servants to their "owner's" legitimate
white children.

* EvilIsSexy: Several antagonists in the series are described as quite attractive with [[spoiler:[[AllGirlsWantBadBoys Devin]]]], [[FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon Oleander de Merelands]], [[SharpDressedMan Simon Torquill]], [[AxCrazy Rayseline Torquill]], [[FauxAffablyEvil Treasa Riordan]], The [[spoiler:false]] [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen of the Mists]] , [[TallDarkAndHandsome King Rhys]] and [[spoiler:[[BitchInSheepsClothing Evening Winterrose]]]] being particular standouts. As Toby herself once said gorgeous isn't uncommon for the fae and this is wholeheartedly expressed in its villains.

** ''Be the Serpent'': [[spoiler:Titania. Eira learnt everything at her mother's knee. Out of belief on her own superiority, she arranged for her sister Maeve's disappearence by breaking her Ride, after having set her descendant lines against everything she considered to be a blight on the face of Faerie (read: every fae with beastly atributes or a drop of mortal blood in their veins). As punishment, Oberon forced her to live a life of a thin-blooded changeling over and over again until she learnt her lesson. When she didn't? She slaughtered whatever family her masks had built for themselves before moving on to try again.]]

* HesJustHiding:
** ...Or not. The fae sometimes confuse death with a long nap. But that's justified given these are the people who put Rip Van Winkle to sleep, along with the fact that the purebloods are immortal.
** Elfshot, which puts purebloods to sleep for a hundred years if they're shot with it. Too bad it's usually fatal to anyone not a pureblood...which might be overlooked by some folks who shoot them.
** There are also poisons which kill fae, and those are often mixed into elfshot so sleep of 100 years turns into forever...or until the Night Haunts come.

* GrowingTheBeard: While the first novel, ''Rosemary and Rue'' was praised by critics for its WorldBuilding and interesting cast of characters, it also received complaints of having too much InfoDump, a weirdly slow pacing and Toby being a PinballProtagonist. The second book 'A Local Habitation' essentially serves as an the literary equivalent of a BottleEpisode, trapping Toby and a couple characters in a place away from most of the settings and elements introduced in book one, and received criticism for Toby carrying the IdiotBall repeatedly. Later novels would improve on this and give the series, a faster pacing, a well-crafted MythArc and deeper emotional resonance that would turn it into one of the most acclaimed UrbanFantasy book series. This improvement was first felt in the third novel, ''An Artificial Night'' which truly explored Toby's psyche, began to proper set up overarching plot points, and had much deeper stakes and emotional weight to it.

* GrowingTheBeard: While the first novel, ''Rosemary and Rue'' was praised by critics for its WorldBuilding and interesting cast of characters, it also received complaints of having too much InfoDump, a weirdly slow pacing and Toby being a PinballProtagonist. The second book 'A Local Habitation' essentially serves as an the literary equivalent of a [[BottleEpisode]], trapping Toby and a couple characters in a place away from most of the settings and elements introduced in book one, and received criticism for Toby carrying the [[IdiotBall] repeatedly. Later novels would improve on this and give the series, a faster pacing, a well-crafted [[MythArc]] and deeper emotional resonance that would turn it into one of the most acclaimed UrbanFantasy book series. This improvement was first felt in the third novel, ''An Artificial Night'' which truly explored Toby's psyche, began to proper set up overarching plot points, and had much deeper stakes and emotional weight to it.

* GrowingTheBeard: While the first novel, ''Rosemary and Rue'' was praised by critics for its WorldBuilding and interesting cast of characters, it also received complaints of having too much InfoDump, a weirdly slow pacing and Toby being a PinballProtagonist. The later novels would improve on this and give the series, a faster pacing, a well-crafted MythArc and deeper emotional resonance that would turn it into one of the most acclaimed UrbanFantasy book series. This improvement was first felt in the third novel, ''An Artificial Night'' which truly explored Toby's psyche and had much deeper stakes and emotional weight to it and was very well-received as a result.

** ''Late Eclipses'': The assassin [[MasterPoisoner Oleander de Merelands]] is wanted for [[HistoricalRapSheet countless deaths over multiple kingdoms]], including the murder of former good-hearted king Gilead. Seeking revenge on Amandine for a previous slight, Oleander nearly kills her infant daughter. Years later she conspires with her pawn, Rayeslene, to have Toby take the fall for her misdeeds, gleeful that she would be executed for it. Oleander has a friend of Toby killed to frame her for it and later poisons the entire court of cats, killing many, including infants, while hoping Toby would take the fall for her crimes. Boasting her killings will [[FameThroughInfamy make her famous]] even after her death, Oleander makes one final attempt on Toby's life before being stopped.

* UnfortunateImplications: Due to the author not wanting to make other cultures 'descended from' European fae (see Trivia page), we end up in a San Francisco apparently devoid of Chinese or Hispanic characters, and the impression that only people of British descent get to have magical abilities.

* FoeYay: According to Toby in book 1, she and [[spoiler: Tybalt]] have never gotten along when she was growing up, with her being a mere changeling, although [[spoiler: their current relationship hints at something else.]]
* GrowingTheBeard: While the first novel, ''Rosemary and Rue'' was praised by critics for its WorldBuilding and interesting cast of characters, it also received complaints of having too many {{InfoDump}}s, a weirdly slow pacing and Toby being a PinballProtagonist. The later novels would improve on this and give the series, a faster pacing, a well-crafted MythArc and deeper emotional resonance that would turn it into one of the most acclaimed UrbanFantasy book series. This improvement was first felt in the third novel, ''An Artificial Night'' which truly explored Toby's psyche and had much deeper stakes and emotional weight to it and was very well-received as a result.