Rosemary and Rue Read-Along Week No.2
This Read-Along of Rosemary and Rue was arranged by Lisa at Over the Effing Rainbow. This book has been sitting on my TBR pile forever, and I figured now was a good time to read it along with other people! I enjoyed the last Read-Along I participated in which was for Full Fathom Five. The questions will be posted on Saturday, but I’ll be posting my responses on Sunday. If you’re interested in joining this Read-Along, visit the SF/F Read-Along group for more information and to join the discussion.
And oh, yes, there will be blood… er… spoilers…
Week 1: Saturday 9th January, Chapters 1-6, hosted by Over the Effing Rainbow
Week 2: Saturday 16th January, Chapters 7-14, hosted by Lynn at Lynn’s Books
Week 3: Saturday 23rd January, Chapters 15-20, hosted by Anya at On Starships and Dragonwings
Week 4: Saturday 30th January, Chapters 21-End, hosted by Over the Effing Rainbow
1. We finally get to meet Devin and Sylvester. They’ve both played important roles in Toby’s life. What were your initial impressions of both of them and the worlds in which they live. What were your first thoughts about them?
Initially, I thought I was going to hate Devin, and while I certainly don’t like him, he doesn’t seem as bad as I was thinking he’d be. This may because I haven’t had the chance to see all of him, and Toby’s feelings about him suggest a mixture of cruelty and care. His world is dirty, but even in its dirtiness it’s a safe haven for so many changelings who are scorned. Sometimes, that’s more important, to have a place to belong, than the conditions. I’m interested to see how this arrangement works out for them because they obviously still have lingering feelings for one another. I loved Sylvester and Luna, and that will probably be my downfall because the ones I love for the “good” people they are almost always the one who turn out to be the ones involved in the conspiracy. I am sincerely hoping not in this case because I think Sylvester is such a wonderful father figure character, and I loved the whole idea that just because she thought she “failed” him, he didn’t feel that way at all. He worried about her well-being as much as his family’s, worried she died, all those years. Sylvester’s domain is all just a pretty cage it seems and really emphasizes the imbalance between the magical creatures in a world where they really aren’t relevant anymore. They hold on to traditions because losing tradition, at least for purebloods, seem to be the only thing helping them to keep it together.
2. I’m totally intrigued by the Hope Chest – do you have any ideas about what exactly it is and what might be the significance of it being found?
It seems like such a Pandora’s Box just as Toby stated. I have no idea what to even begin to think that chest might hold until I read more. The book presented many ideas about what could be in there. And maybe like Pandora’s box it really does hold all those those things, but it could also holds the things that could be their downfall. And maybe there’s nothing to it at all, but it holds some sway over Toby. Maybe it’s actually specific to her.
3. Tybalt – I was curious as to Toby’s reasoning to trust him with the Hope Chest – what do you think?
I have a lot of thoughts about this. I thought that was very weak (and stupid) reasoning to have Tybalt hold the chest even on the idea that he wouldn’t break a magic promise and he hated her enough and her kind not to want her to have it and that his honor might survive betraying a friend, but not betraying her because she’d never forgive him. Like I said, it was REALLY stupid. But I also feel like those aren’t her true intentions for having him to hold the box, and I don’t feel like he follows her around because it’s some great game to surprise her. I think there are feelings there for both of them that they might not be aware of or they’re denying. I don’t feel like he would’ve have denied her regardless of what she told him, and I don’t think she would’ve asked anyone else regardless of if she had someone else she could trust with the chest. I think they’re playing an elaborate game of the heart with one another and they’re either just denying it or they don’t realize they’ve started this intimate song and dance.
4. We experience the reaction of other members of the fae to the murder of Evening and Toby telling them about the Queen’s reactions – did their reactions give you any clues at all??
Not really. I keep wanting to say the Queen might be involved, but that would be too obvious. I might agree that she’s going mad, though, and/or she’s hiding something. I’m not sure how emotional purebloods are supposed to get about these kinds of things but the only real reaction seem to come from Luna and Sylvester. With everyone else, they seemed a little bothered because she was a pureblood and the best of them, it seems, but it still felt too much like:
5. What were your thoughts on Raysel and Luna?
I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM. I want to feel sorry for Raysel and Toby keeps saying she, along with her mother, had to have gone through something horrible. It’s hard to sympathize with Raysel’s bitterness without having at least a little more than, “It was a really bad time.” There are plenty of books that don’t have to go into details, but know just how to play that well enough for you to sympathize and understand the anger, an example would be Alex’s Bledsoe’s female protagonist who was a prisoner of war in The Hum and the Shiver. We’re never told the full extent of her capture, but we can really feel her hurt and anger, though. We get the idea. As for Luna, I loved her and you can definitely see the calm pain in her. Her glass garden was such a fascinating aspect, and I think Connor and Toby’s discussion about it really summed up what I was thinking when I read about it.
6. That ending, did we just end up back in the first post? – what is going on? Speculation?? Lets just talk about it please.
OMG. It feels like we did. I don’t even know. I was like WHAT. It was ironic that she ended up back at the exact same place she started the story. I need Tybalt to come save her, though. Wasn’t that part of his promise somewhat? I almost kept going, but I have to read another book for a book club, but I will definitely be reading the next chapters after that! Also, when she said Redcap, the first thing that came to mind was the villains from my now defuct favorite MMO, City of Heroes:
#TeamTybalt. I could be totally wrong about where this is going, and she may end up with her fiance, but right now I’m all about Tybalt and Toby getting together (and hopefully, she’ll have a relationship with her daughter). At the same time, it’d be cool if they didn’t because that’s what you’d EXPECT is for them to get together. Really disliking one another, but still working together on a mutual hate-trust would be such a cool angle. However, I just really want them together because I am a sap. Last post I mentioned I didn’t know how I felt about his voice the narrator was doing, but yeah, he does sound like a snobby ass cat. If my cat were a human, she’d probably talk just like that. Randomly, I also love how they can just make fancy clothes out of glamour. I need that power ASAP! In fact, I really enjoy the magic, at least in the changeling’s perspective where using too much magic can be detrimental.
“Most purebloods are obsessed with light, immortal moths chasing mortal flames.”
“Purebloods respond to change slowly, if at all. Flexibility and adaptation were changeling traits. If he still had them, he was doing just fine.”
“They knew a woman as human as they were, and I was willing to bet none of them ever looked for anything deeper. They’d never needed to, because in their world, you put Faerie away when you turned off the nursery lights. There’s no place for us in the human world these days, and still we can’t let go.”
“He wouldn’t be teasing me if he wasn’t interested in what I was doing there, and as long as he stayed interested, he’d listen. Cats are like that.”
“Lacey jumped onto the bed, strolling up to butt her head against my chin. At least someone was having a good day. Of course, the cats would have a good time in nuclear winter, as long as somebody was left to feed them.”
Connor gestured to my bloody fingers, saying, “The roses are too sharp for most people. They want to pick flowers for their lovers and write bad poetry comparing the two—‘my love is like a red, red rose,’ and all that mess.” He leaned back on his hands. “Who wants to compare their lover to a flower that’s so sharp it cuts everything it touches?”
“A flower that blooms no matter what the weather or season is like and can actually defend itself when it needs to? I don’t see the problem.” I shrugged. “If someone wanted to call me a glass rose, I wouldn’t complain.”
“No, I guess not,” he said.
Rosemary and Rue Read-Along Week No.1
The BiblioSanctum 
I can see that Tybalt is one of the most discussed characters in this read-along…
((insert manic giggle))
And indeed the complicated game (or dance? or both) that Toby and Tybalt are playing is one of the most fascinating facets of this book – and the following ones.
Following this read-along is almost as much fun as it was reading the book! 🙂
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I can imagine. It is so much fun seeing others react to things you’ve already experienced in the book. I feel the same way when people are reading books or watching things that I’ve already read/watched.
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‘a pretty cage it seems and really emphasizes the imbalance between the magical creatures in a world where they really aren’t relevant anymore.’ – That. It’s just so sad and actually spot on!
Tybalt – yep yep yep. We need more Tybalt.
Part of me was thinking the Hope Chests maybe increase a changelings powers but now I wonder if there’s also something dangerous about them because there always seems to be some sort of pay off with fae magic!
I think Toby is in denial about Tybalt!
Lynn 😀
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It really is sad because they’re not revered how humans used to revere them. They really are just tales for children, at least in America. I LOL’d at the Tinkerbell comment and how much the magic work hated her. And it could be more Toby who is in denial about it than Tybalt because why in the world would she think a man would go out of his way to find her? It’s like watching two kids in love on the playground in 2nd grade.
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Oops I missed this! Haha, I would absolutely LOVE that power to change your clothes. Wouldn’t that be so convenient?! And fabulous!
I’m definitely with you on the Tybalt front – that they don’t yet realise that their elaborate song and dance has become something more than taunting one another – and if anything, I think this tension should be upped! I think at this stage Toby believes her own reasoning even if it is fundamentally flawed!
I think the trouble with Devin is that he’s a toxic character. He might think he cares for Toby – he might ACTUALLY care for Toby – but he won’t ever do her any emotional good (even if he does come to the rescue now and again). That’s not to say he doesn’t have a place in society – There’s a lot to be said for giving people a home who are cast out by other members of society. I don’t trust him though. Not one bit!
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LOL! You are fine. I post these for fun and comments are just the icing to make the cake better! I appreciate anyone reading and commenting. You are absolutely right about Devin. After reading more about him and their relationship, I do think he cares, but he’s not good for her. They’re not good for each other, and they likely never will be. You definitely have to keep someone like that a very great distance. Deal with them when you have to, but never get too personal and never linger with them longer than you have to.
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Definitely, that kind of relationship isn’t good for anyone!!
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I hadn’t thought of the Hope Chest being specific to Toby but that would make a hell of a difference in the plot going forward! And what would that say about Evening? Hmmm… deep thoughts.
I bet fancy clothes made out of magic are way more comfortable that real fancy clothes.
And my snobby ass cats still love me… really. I think anyways. It’s hard to tell.
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After the doppelganger thing, it’s probably not specific to her, but it would’ve been cool if it had been.
I think my cat loves me. She follows me around a lot, but usually she wants something. LOL.
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