Review: Fate's Edge - Ilona Andrews

Audrey Callahan left behind her life in the Edge, and she's determined to stay on the straight and narrow. But when her brother gets into hot water, the former thief takes on one last heist and finds herself matching wits with a jack of all trades... 

Kaldar Mar-a gambler, lawyer, thief, and spy-expects his latest assignment tracking down a stolen item to be a piece of cake, until Audrey shows up. But when the item falls into the hands of a lethal criminal, Kaldar realizes that in order to finish the job, he's going to need Audrey's help.

Series: The Edge #3, Genre: Rural urban fantasy romance, Pages: 372, Published: 2011 by ACE, Source: My own

My thoughts:

Did I ever like book 2 or 3 as much as book 1? Well..no, but they were still good. There was just something about book 1, it was so new and fresh. I also must confess that I do not remember Kaldar from book 2..was he there? I did remember his cousin Gaston, the frog guy, but not Kaldar. Sorry Kaldar.

Anyway in this book Kaldar, who I could not remember is working for the Mirror in the Weird. While in The Broken Audrey Callahan tries to go legit. Not easy with a family like hers. Their roads will cross, and after some fighting they will fall in love (what else would you expect).All while running around in the Broken and in the Edge. Ok first if you are new to this. The Broken is where we non magic peeps live. The Weird is the alternate earth that instead of going all technology went the way of magic and is pretty old school. The Edge are those areas in between where people with magic live. They are mostly trash, cast out off The Weird, looked down upon. Some goes to the Broken but most stay as they have too much magic to make it out alive. I know the Weird people are such asses, but still I like their world of magic and castles. And do not mess with the Edgers, cos they will cut you down, and then steal your shoes. The world is really cool.

I did not always feel the passion brewing, I can't say why. It was more that it had to happen.

What I did like was that George and Jack were in it, the kids from book 1. Kids in books are not always that a good idea, but here it works well and I hope they will grow up and have stories of their own one day. Necromancer George and changeling Jack. They made it more fun somehow cos Audrey was pretty serious and Kaldar focused.

I wonder what book 4 is about.....Kaldar's brother? Oh, another one I forgot about? Sheesh, I fear those brothers are forgettable.

Conclusion:

I enjoyed it. I still wish it was as awesome as book 1, but hey you can't have it all.

Review: Bayou Moon - Ilona Andrews

The Edge, book 2

Genre: Rural Urban Fantasy
Pages: 447
Published: September 2010

Cerise Mar and her clan are cash poor but land rich, claiming a large swathe of the Mire, the Edge swamplands. When her parents vanish, her clan's long-time rivals are suspect. But all is not as it seems. 

Two nations of the Weird are waging a cold war fought by feint and espionage, and their conflict is about to spill over into the Edge-and Cerise's life.

Plot:
Cerise Mar live in the Mire where the Weird dumps exiles. They are poor, and others call them rats since there are so many of them. Her parents vanish and her clan goes out to war against their rivals, but something else is hiding in the Mire. And in to her life comes William, who is on the hunt.


My thoughts:
Oh I adored William in this one. I kept thinking of the guy Wolf in The 10th kingdom mini series, because he was just insane, and William the Wolf was insane too, he just managed to keep it inside. But we got to hear his thoughts and see the glimmer in his eyes, and I fell hard.

This is then the second Edge novel and this time we meet people from the Mire, weird swamp dwelling crazies the bunch of them. Cerise is one kick-ass woman who uses old magic to maker her sword powerful, and she needs to man to take care of her. William wants someone in his life but he knows that no sane woman would be with a changeling and it does break me to see him think like that. But he is such a good guy, protective, and not so good in social situations. That just makes me wanna hug him. Together they are just perfect, but they will have to work for it.

The action is constant. William is hunting a man named Spider who is a real freak. The two states in the Weird is on the verge of war, and something in the Mire can turn things around. It just depends on who gets it first. So we have William clashing with the Spider, the Hand, his band hunting the Mars, The Mars feuding with their rivals. Bodies piling up and magic going wild. Because there is strange forgotten magic in the Mire.

This weird world, the edge, located between our world The Broken, and the magic world the Weird is the best thing about this series. It is well done, and there is always something strange going on. Great world building and great history.

When I left the world I did wonder, who will be in book 3? In book 1 I saw William clearly for the next one, but here, I just do not know.

Recommendation and final thoughts:
You can just jump into this one or go back to book 1, it does not matter, but of course in book 1 you get to meet William too, and that one is really good. This is a book I do recommend to all. It's fun to read, there is action, there is romance, and there is some cool magic going on, and I always like an interesting world.

Reason for reading:
Book 1 was awesome

Cover thoughts:
She is cool, but him floating around, nah not so much. I would take him out.