Steel’s Edge by Ilona Andrews – a Review

Steel’s Edge by Ilona Andrews is the 4th book in their Edge series. For those of you who may not know, Ilona Andrews is the husband & wife team of Ilona and Gordon Andrews.  I am a big fan of Andrews’ Kate Daniels series, and when they started the Edge series, I continued with them.  I have not been disappointed, and this is a wonderful series.  I know that this book supposedly ends the series, which does disappoint me, but more on that at the end. 

Steel’s Edge continues with the premise of the world of the Edge, Weird, and Broken.  Richard Mar is our hero in this book, as we know him from earlier books, being the brother of Kaldar & Cerise’s cousin.  Richard is on a quest to put a stop to slavery, and find out who are the masterminds behind it, and when we meet Richard, he is being hunted by the slavers and is gravely injured. 

Charlotte de Ney is our heroine, and we meet her at the start.  She is a top healer, who is married to Elvei, and though she can heal almost anything, Charlotte cannot heal herself.  She confirms her worst suspicion, that she is barren and cannot have any children.  To her dismay, her husband annuls their marriage, as he proves he did not love her, only wanted children by someone with her title.  Charlotte accidentally loses her cool, and harms Elvei briefly when she discovers the truth of his betrayal.  Charlotte knows she can never lose control of her healing powers, as the dark side of healing is seductive and difficult to control. As her adopted mother would say, losing control will make her an Abomination, with the power to push diseases, such as leprosy, plague on unsuspecting people, a dangerous and destructive power.  She then runs away, in fear of allowing the dark side of healing to come forth, and goes to the Edge, where her powers are weakened.

Charlotte finds herself not accepted in the Edge, until she meets Eleonore Drayton, the grandmother of Rose, George and Jack, whom started it all in the first book, On the Edge. Three years later, Charlotte is now an important part of the Edge, and Eleonore has become her closest friend & ally.  It is here that Charlotte meets Richard, who as we noted earlier is gravely injured.  Charlotte manages to start his healing process, but then when Charlotte goes for supplies, the slavers come upon the Drayton house and they want Richard, who is called The Hunter.  When Charlotte returns, Eleonore is dead, as well as a young girl who was visiting, and Richard was taken by the slavers.  Charlotte finds out about these slavers, and how they terrorize young children, sell them to slavery in the Weird, or just torture and kill them.  Something in Charlotte snaps, and she leaves the Edge to try and find the slavers, and enact revenge on losing her dear friend.

As she enters the Weird, Charlotte feels all of her powers return fully. She finds the camp, sees Richard in a cage locked up. As the slavers look at her, and rejoice on their good luck at seeing a pretty woman come to them, Charlotte pulls her dark side of healing into her and slowly sends out a disease (one of many she stores) to the unsuspecting slavers. One by one they start coughing, bleeding, and start dying.  Richard watches from the cage, amazed at what he sees.  When it is over, and all the slavers lie dead, Richard convinces Charlotte to let him out of the cage and to trust him.  He tries to convince her to go back to the Edge, but Charlotte refuses to listen to him, and is determined to help destroy all the slavers, and the masterminds behind it.  Together they go on a journey that will reveal so many horrors that will emotionally affect Charlotte, as well as the reader.  But it also brings Richard and Charlotte together. 

This is a very nice romance that develops, especially during their difficult travels and adventure.  Charlotte becomes a strong woman, who will stand up to evil, but it is Richard who will become her savior. Richard, who thought he would never find a woman that would understand him, and in Charlotte’s case, not look down at him as an original Edger, as she is more royalty.

One of the best things about the book, besides Richard and Charlotte, was seeing George and Jack again.  I have loved them from the first book, and though they are still teenagers, they are both awesome.  Sophie (formerly Lark in earlier book) has also turned into a wonderful strong character.  The three of them work with Richard and Charlotte to reveal the mastermind, and bring him down. 

It was a an exciting story from start to finish, with a nice romance, lots of adventure, evil villains, favorites appearing from earlier books, but it is also a very emotional ride with all the horrors they will face along the way.  The ending was an emotional turmoil, as Richard must rise up to find a way to save his love, who risked everything to save those she loved.

Ilona Andrews has done a wonderful job in creating this fabulous series, and Steel’s Edge was a great read.  Especially after reading this book, I am not a happy camper that the series ends.  There is so much more they can do to continue the series, especially with great characters still to come like, George, Jack and Sophie; as well as major characters from the earlier books to help.  I have read though that even with the end of the Edge series, Andrews is considering another possible arc with the three names I mentioned.  Let’s hope.

Reviewed by Barb