Title: Silver and Lead
Series: October Daye, #19
Author: Seanan McGuire
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication date: September 30, 2025
Print length: 400 pages
Genre: Urban fantasy
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Seanan McGuire’s New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-nominated October Daye series continues as Toby Daye is thrust once again into danger… and this time she has more than ever to protect.

Something is rotten in Faerie. In the aftermath of Titania’s reality-warping enchantment, things are returning to what passes for normal in the Kingdom in the Mists―until it’s discovered that the royal vaults have been looted, and several powerful magical artifacts are missing. None are things that can be safely left unsecured, and some have the potential to do almost as much damage as Titania did, and having them in the wrong hands could prove just as disastrous

At least the theft means that Sir October “Toby” Daye, Knight errant and Hero of the Realm, finally has an excuse to get out of the house. Sure, she’s eight and a half months pregnant, but that doesn’t mean she can’t take care of herself. But with the sea witch offering to stand godmother to Toby’s child, maybe there are greater dangers ahead for Toby and her family than it appears….

Old enemies will resurface, new enemies will disguise themselves as friends, and Queen Windermere must try to keep her Hero on the case without getting herself gutted by the increasingly irritated local King of Cats. Sometimes, what’s been lost can be the most dangerous threat of all.

What can you say about a series that’s now 19 books long… and going strong? Quite a lot actually… but the short version is: The October Daye series remains sharp, exciting, and as immersive as ever — and it’s never too late to jump in! (But start at the beginning, of course.)

In 2023, author Seanan McGuire published TWO new volumes in the series (Sleep No More and The Innocent Sleep), focusing on the same set of cataclysmic events, but told first through the POV of our usual narrator, Toby (October) herself, and then through the POV of Toby’s husband, Tybalt. Both were excellent… and I suppose it’s understandable that we had a two-year wait for another book in the series. (Understandable — hey, get some rest, Seanan McGuire! — but painful as a reader to have to wait to see what happens next!!).

But now, Toby is back! The ripple effects of the disasters from the previous books are still being felt by our beloved characters, in all sorts of distressing ways. Quick recap: Toby is a changeling (part fae, part human), a knight and hero of the realm, and both daughter and niece of First Borns, the most powerful fae other than the big three (Oberon, Titania, and Maeve) themselves. When Titania reemerged into the world and decided to recraft it as she wished, Toby and all those around her were trapped in an illusion that transformed their lives and relationships. Now that Titania’s illusions have been broken, they’re all still recovering from what that experience did to them.

Further complicating Toby’s life, as the book opens, is the fact that she’s in her final month of pregnancy, and her already traumatized family won’t let her do anything — not even get off the couch to grab her own snacks. For a woman who lives her life carrying out dangerous quests, being coddled and confined is beyond frustrating, and while she knows her family is acting from a place of love, she still can’t stand it.

“I’ve got another few weeks of this, you know,” I said. “You don’t want to use up all your fretting on me before the baby even gets here.”

“I promise, I have more fretting in me than you can imagine,” he said.

The action in Silver and Lead kicks off when Toby is summoned to Queen Arden’s court to give testimony against one of the more evil people in the series, the false Queen. Once there, Arden tells Toby that many dangerous artifacts were looted from the royal treasury while Titania’s illusions were in place, and while she’d love to wait until after Toby has the baby to send her back into action, these items could be disastrous in the wrong hands. There’s no time to lose in getting them back. Before Toby can commit one way or the other to this new quest, she discovers that the false Queen is actually someone enchanted to appear to be the false Queen, and that the actual false Queen herself is nowhere to be found.

From here, Toby sets out to gather evidence… cautiously. She won’t endanger herself or the baby; she’s just going to do a bit of detective work on behalf of the realm. Of course, nothing goes according to plan, and she and her household end up in mortal peril, facing unexpected adversaries with truly evil intentions.

The action in Silver and Lead escalates dramatically, and the sense of menace and danger go higher and higher with each chapter. I was on the edge of my seat and practically screaming by the time I got past the first third or so of the book and simply could not put it down. I was terrified for the characters, enthralled by each new development, and scared to death that this was finally something that Toby couldn’t get out of. (Well, I assumed she’d get out of it, as the series isn’t over… but it’s all definitely very tense and frightening!)

At the same time, Silver and Lead is actually very funny at times!

“Look. My hormones are all over the place. Yesterday I burnt a piece of toast and I started crying because what if I’d hurt the bread’s feelings.

Having Toby — eight and a half months pregnant — waddling off on a quest, needing to pee every few minutes, complaining about her aching knees, and in general suffering all the indignities and physical impacts of a late pregnancy is just so incredibly entertaining. This is a woman who’s practically indestructible, and yet people have to help her up the stairs. Good stuff.

The ending of Silver and Lead is quite satisfying, but leaves the door open for yet more drama — because in the world of October Daye, no one gets to just sit and be happy for very long. This book’s main plot is tied up well, but the final pages let us know that bad things — potentially, very bad things — are just around the corner.

As always, I’m left dying to see what’s next… and dreading a year of waiting for the next book.

Silver and Lead is an excellent edition to a can’t-miss fantasy series. I’ll give the same push I give every time I talk about these books: Go pick up a copy of Rosemary and Rue. I’m betting that once you get a taste of October’s world, you won’t want to stop.

As is the custom throughout this series, Silver and Lead includes a novella at the end. This one, Seas and Shores, focuses on Simon, Toby’s father figure — a man with whom Toby has one of the most complicated relationships in the series. The novella is narrated by Simon, and takes place at the same time as the events of Silver and Lead, as Simon heads back to his new home in the Undersea. Seas and Shores is a relatively quiet story, and it’s quite lovely. Simon is a man who’s been through a lot of trauma, and this novella shows the next stage in his attempts to build a good life for himself and those he loves. After the extreme dangers in Silver and Lead, it’s nice to finish on a sweet, happy note.

Purchase links: Amazon – Audible – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.