Read for the Once Upon a Time IV Challenge.
Eddi McCandry is a musician in Minneapolis, playing in band with her boyfriend, Stuart. Neither the band or the relationship are going anywhere, and she breaks off her connection to both after a particularly bad night. Against her friend Carla’s (the band’s drummer) advice, she walks home, in an effort to decompress, and is nearly mugged by what turns out to be an evil faery.
It turns out, Eddi has been selected by the Seelie Court to serve as their mortal representative in a war with the Unseelie Court. Before she knows it, she’s acquired a full time, live in, bodyguard (a phouka), and in an effort to find a job that she can bring him to, forms a new band with her friend Carla, and several other people who may be more than they appear.
This is a fun book. The details of the setting in Minneapolis are lovingly drawn (and I suspect, very authentic). The two faery courts are interestingly portrayed, with the two queens being very well brought into the 20th century, yet still retaining their fey-otherness. On a side note, the book was published in 1987, and the author lovingly describes Eddi’s wardrobe at times, which brought me back to the world of bad 80s music videos, in the very best nostalgic way.
The faery war isn’t actually a huge feature in the story. It looms in the background, and effects the lives of Eddi and her friends, but only one large battle is featured, and I confess I wouldn’t have minded a little more faery-warfare. However, the life of Eddi’s band is well-portrayed, and is an interesting enough story on its own to make up for the lack of fey-warfare.