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This first book in a new series by husband & wife team Ilona Andrews. It features 22 year old Rose, magically gifted and living in The Edge. The Edge is a small strip of land stretching between the Broken (the non-magical world we live in) and the Weird (chock full of magical beings and run by a hierarchy of nobles in a very feudal setting). Edge dwellers generally have a little magic, but are looked down on by the aristocratic Weird citizens. She lives a tough life, working a low-paid job in the Broken and trying to support her two little brothers Georgie and Jack. Because Rose is an unusually powerful magic-wielder, she also has to fight off kidnappers who want to sell her to the blue-bloods and Edge-dwellers who want her for breeding stock.

One day a blueblood warrior named Declan Camarine shows up wanting to take her back to the Weird as his woman. She pops him with her cross-bow and gives him a big HELLS-NO, and the game is on. Evil creatures are stalking the Edge and its citizens, and it’s up to Rose in an uneasy partnership with Declan to stop the killings.

One thing I love is when an author builds a world that grips me with its depth, multiple dimensions, and realism tinted with a reality brush. This world is fabulous, and I wish it had been set in an epic fantasy framework because I really wanted more slice-of-life from the Edge and Weird dimensions. I could just imagine what it would be like living there, and my mind spun off little fantasy stories set in that world. Big plus points here, and I hope the next book continues to build on it.

Another thing that hits my hot button is strong female characters. Rose is young, but her life has been hard. Seems like parenting in the Edge is an iffy proposition, and she’s had to deal with a crazy mother who was the local sleep-around and a runaway dad from early on. Realistic characters also do it – this world is people with the same loonies, abusers, and deadbeats as our own world. It definitely is not one where everyone makes nice to one another. In fact, you have to be careful even with your friends, because they all work off an “every man/woman for him/herself” framework. Rose is cynical enough to know how to play the game, but not so jaded that she doesn’t still have hopes and dreams of a normal life. But bad things can happen to good people in this world, so this isn’t a mindlessly cheerful outlook.

Rose and Declan are hot together, even when they’re not together. A good tale. The picture of Declan on the cover is a horrible one! From the description, he looks nothing like that and thank goodness! The little brothers, Georgie and Jack, steal the show. Georgie is a young necromancer, whose love of life makes him revive all kinds of sad dead critters at the expense of draining his own life away. Jack is a shapeshifter who is more comfortable in his cat (lynx) form than his human one. The way Rose loves and cares for these special little boys, and their love for her, brought me to tears several times!

I’m looking forward to the next book. This one is pretty self-contained, so it seems the next one will need to focus on another character. I’m hoping William, Declan’s tortured and gorgeous shape-shifting friend and army-mate, gets a book because we sure were teased enough!