This was very different from the Kate Daniels series. Different in a good way. I love Ilona Andrews’ imaginative world building. The Edge is a world sandwiched between our world known as The Broken because no magic works and The Weird a place where the blueblood magical aristocrats live. The Weird is like a parallel universe to our world. The people that inhabit The Edge are an eccentric collection of characters with some magical powers. The Edge is not the safest place to live and in this story there are some sightings of strange creatures that eat people for their magic. Rose Drayton is struggling to support her two young brothers. She works “under the table” at a cleaning company in The Broken. She scrimps and saves every penny to make ends meet so that her young brothers can have the food and the things they need. I really liked the cast of characters. It takes a special talent to write such believable characters. It’s refreshing to see a strong female character. Rose is intelligent, brave, and a little too fearless. She is extremely protective of her brothers. Despite all of these characteristics, I loved watching her melt when Declan came into the picture.Declan was a fun character, a little reminiscent of Curran. His interactions with Rose reminded me of the ongoing sparring that we saw in the other series, although not quite so adversarial. I found Declan a touch too perfect, too strong, too handsome. But who’s complaining? Declan was truly intrigued by Rose and managed to find a way to rent a room in her house, thereby getting to know her better. Once Rose finally trusted Declan, I loved how they worked as a team in their battle against the creatures. I loved the children Georgie and Jack. Georgie was able to raise the dead and Jack could shift into a lynx. One of my favorite scenes was written from Jack’s perspective as he ran through the woods as a lynx.While this book doesn’t feel like a romance, it does have that requisite happy ending. One of the best lines in this book and probably in any book I’ve read lately is: “Go brush your teeth, comb your hair, put on dry clothes, and get the guns. We’re going to Wal-Mart.”Off to find a copy of Bayou Moon. Maybe I'll go to Wal-Mart.
