Review: On the Edge by Ilona Andrews

On the Edge by Ilona Andrews
(The Edge, #1)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Format: paperback
Read: 5/18/2012
In Six Words: Another winning series by Ilona Andrews.

Links

Ilona Andrews — Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook
Amazon — Paperback | Kindle
Add it to Goodreads

Book Order

1. On the Edge
2. Bayou Moon
3. Fate’s Edge

Synopsis

Rose Drayton lives on the Edge, between the world of the Broken (where people drive cars, shop at Wal-Mart, and magic is a fairy tale) and the Weird (where blueblood aristocrats rule, changelings roam, and the strength of your magic can change your destiny). Only Edgers like Rose can easily travel from one world to the next, but they never truly belong in either.

Rose thought if she practiced her magic, she could build a better life for herself. But things didn’t turn out how she planned, and now she works a minimum wage, off the books job in the Broken just to survive. Then Declan Camarine, a blueblood noble straight out of the deepest part of the Weird, comes into her life, determined to have her (and her power).

But when a terrible danger invades the Edge from the Weird, a flood of creatures hungry for magic, Declan and Rose must work together to destroy them—or they’ll devour the Edge and everyone in it.
-from Goodreads

Why I Started Reading This Book and Final Verdict

After Kelly and I read and devoured the Kate Daniels series (lion’s loins FTW!), I was feeling a bit woeful, and decided to try on this series to see if it cheered me up any.  Oh, and it did!  Upon finishing On the Edge, I immediately went and ordered the next two books in the series.  And though I was a  bit disappointed to discover each book has a different couple (what?  I really liked Rose and Declan), I am very intrigued by the world that Ilona Andrews has constructed, and looking forward to diving back in.

My Thoughts

Declan is naughty.  I just reread the last few pages of this book before I started by review, and that’s what I thought upon finishing.  It has little bearing on this review, though.  Well, unless you like your heroes a little naughty, then it means everything!  Okay.  Right.  Moving on.

I had very few expectations going into On the Edge, other than it was an Ilona Andrews book.  And other than being written by Ilona Andrews and there being some kind of magic, there doesn’t appear to be many similarities.  Well, except that the book is awesome.  But, that’s not really where I was going with that.  The point here is that the Kate Daniels and Edge series are very very different from each other.  And I liked that.  I didn’t even realize that this series was a PNR until I had finished this book and went in search of the synopsis for the next book and realized there was a different couple.  I mean, yes, On the Edge is most definitely a PNR.  DEFINITELY.  I just was on my own little planet and wanted more of Rose and Declan, I think.

Though there is still a lot left to learn about this world, I felt that the differences between the Broken, the Edge, and the Weird were pretty well covered.  I am eager to learn more about the various types of magic and paranormal creatures there are.  I found the Edge to be haunting: this place where people don’t belong in either the Broken or the Weird, where there is no justice or assistance — just people barely scraping by and surviving to the best of their abilities.  I felt for Rose, and I admired her determination to take care of her brothers and her home.  Declan was a very enigmatic character who was difficult to figure at first, but I slowly came to love him, too.  And did I mention he’s naughty?  Wickedly so.

I read On the Edge in a single day, so you know it was something that held my interest easily.  Some of the Weird information overloaded my brain (as most title heavy worlds do), so I generally just give up on trying to understand it, and just go with it on the assumption that I’ll figure it out later.  That kind of thing never really bothers me.  The romance between Rose and Declan was fun, like a dance, and first appearances are deceiving (which is all I will say, since anything else would be akin to spoiling something).  Overall, On the Edge was a very fun and satisfying book, one that I wouldn’t mind rereading in the future.

You Might Enjoy This Book If…

If you’re a PNR fan and an Ilona Andrews fan, On the Edge is a must read.