I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
Fate's Edge
by
Ilona Andrews
It is part of the The Edge #3 series and is a paranormal fantasy, romantic suspense in Paperback edition that was published by Penguin on November 29, 2011 and has 372 pages.
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Other books in this series include [books_series]
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Must Love Hellhounds, Dark and Stormy Knights, Angels of Darkness, Hexed, Hex Appeal, An Apple for the Creature, "Magic Gifts", Gunmetal Magic, Innkeeper Chronicles, Steel's Edge, Magic Bites, Magic Burns, Magic Strikes, Magic Bleeds, Magic Slays, Magic Rises, Magic Bleeds, Burn For Me, Night Shift, Magic Shifts, Magic Binds, White Hot, Wildfire, Iron and Magic, Magic Triumphs, "Gerard Demille and Helen Meet", "Diamond Fire", "Sweep with Me", Clean Sweep, Sweep in Peace, "A Mere Formality", Blood Heir, "The King of Fire", Sapphire Flames, "A Misunderstanding", Emerald Blaze, "The Cool Aunt", One Fell Sweep, Sweep of the Blade, "Silent Blade", Fated Blades, On the Edge, Bayou Moon, "George and Jack in School", Sweep of the Heart , Magic Tides, Small Magics, "The Wilson Building", "Conlan’s Birthday Text", "Dabwaha", "Don't Fight with Fate", “A Bit More of Roman”, “Getting Distracted”, "Sgt Munoz Had to Go", Ruby Fever, "Regina", Magic Tides, "The King of Fire", Magic Claims, "Sandra", "No Heroes", "Purpose", "A Mere Formality", "I Will Explain Everything", "Sanctuary", "Kind Regards"
Third in the Edge paranormal-romance series involving a magickal dimension that exists alongside an alternate Earth called the Broken.
My Take
There are three “worlds” in the Edge series: the Weird where most things and people are powered by magic, the Broken where there is no magic, and the Edge, no-man’s land between the Weird and the Broken where there are no rules.
I rather like that the family simply keeps growing as we interface with the major characters from On the Edge, 1, and Bayou Moon, 2, and new ones are added with this story.
I really don’t feel sorry for Audrey at all; she should have simply backed away. I did enjoy Helena’s negotiations with Alex; it just concluded too fast.
Audrey and Kaldar are two-of-a-kind, and it’s fascinating to read the interaction between these two; they spark off each other and continually blow each other away, driving up their individual levels of respect. They’re both grifters and can twist and turn any situation on its head. If you’ve ever wanted to see inside a grifter’s operation…read this, for they get into more of these situations in these few days than most people do in several lifetimes. And the evolution of their romance is like nothing you have ever read before and an absolute hoot to follow.
Oh man, this is too much fun. I just finished reading it, and I already want to read it again!
The Story
Woo-hoo!!! Yes! Audrey has gotten herself a job. A real, ordinary job. She’s legit! Damn, a job where she’ll pay taxes and get a regular paycheck…!
Until she gets home and finds her dad has shown up needing her help on a chancy job. It’s for her poor brother. The same one who sold her for drugs. Audrey makes a bargain with her father, and with his taking her up on it, she only needs to do this one last job. But it’s a job that puts Kaldar Mar and the Hand on her trail.
On a parallel plot line, Jack is suffering from emotional overload and keeps getting into trouble. Bad trouble. This last incident Declan told Jack that changes would have to be made. Jack knows what that means, Hawk’s, and he can’t. He just can’t do it. He needs William’s help, and now Cerise and William are taking off on a mission. He just can’t face Declan alone without William backing him up. William understands.
And so sets the collision course of Jack-George smashing into Kaldar-Audrey and creating the most unlikely team of Mirror agents as they infiltrate a corrupt tent-revival preacher’s domain, a self-obsessed addict, a “mob” boss, and the persistent Hand agents dogging their trail.
The Characters
Audrey Callahan has escaped her oblivious family and just wants to be left alone to work for Dominic and his private investigation agency. She wants an ordinary, normal life. Well, yeah, she will still use her gift for locks. Ling the Merciless is the raccoon she rescued when he was a baby; a very useful accomplice in crime. Gnome is a man who runs a general store of sorts in the Edge with a bit of fencing on the side. Seamus Callahan is Audrey’s dad, biologically. He’s only ever seen her as a tool to prop up his addict son, Alex. Neither Callahan has any commonsense.
Kaldar Mar is an Edger, like Audrey. A thief, smuggler, pickpocket, gambler, a scam artist, a liar, and he doesn’t hesitate at murder. He works for the Mirror in exchange for his family’s safety. And revenge. He has an interesting gift with coins. One of his cousins is Cerise Sandine who is married to William Wolf (see Bayou Moon). Gaston is almost up to junior agent status for the Mirror.
Declan, Lord Camarine and the Marshal of the Southern Provinces, and Rose met up in On the Edge, and now they live in the Dukedom of Louisiana with her two brothers, Jack, a lynx shapeshifter who needs to tame the Wild, and George, a necromancer.
Lady Nancy Virai is the head of the Mirror, a secret policing agency for Adrianglia. Erwin is one of Lady Virai’s flash sharpshooters.
The Hand is the Dukedom of Louisiana’s counterpart. Only the Hand has no qualms, no morals in how it achieves its aims, and its agents are magically augmented — the Industrial Light and Magic people would enjoy this! Helena d’Amry is a Hound of the Golden Throne, a more elite department of the Hand; the wrecked and paralyzed Spider is her uncle. Lady d’Amry is even more cruelly ruthless than her team: Sebastian is her second-in-command, Karmarsh wants to be her second-in-command, Mura is a slayer shadow on loan, Soma and Killian are enhanced hunters, a lessarge-class operative, a boddus, Emily and Sobat are trackers, Cotier is a scout, and Jasmine.
Morell de Braose is a robber baron/slaver. Magadalene Moonflower, Clive Keener, and Kaleb Green are rivals. Ed Yonker is a tent-revival preacher they need to hamstring as part of the quid pro quo.
The Cover and Title
The cover is soft greens with a red-haired Audrey holding one big dagger in the middle of the woods with a gorgeously dreamy Mar in the upper right corner.
I’m interpreting the title as referring to both Audrey and Mar’s fates that result from Fate’s Edge that could impact those living in the Edge due to Audrey’s actions.
