SUNNY: BOOK REVIEW - "Steel's Edge" by Ilona Andrews

CHARACTERS:
Richard Mar
Charlotte de Ney

SUMMARY from Goodreads:
The Edge lies between worlds, on the border between the Broken, where people 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…

Charlotte de Ney is as noble as they come, a blueblood straight out of the Weird. But even though she possesses rare magical healing abilities, her life has brought her nothing but pain. After her marriage crumbles, she flees to the Edge to build a new home for herself. Until Richard Mar is brought to her for treatment, and Charlotte’s life is turned upside down once again.

Richard is a swordsman without peer, future head of his large and rambunctious Edger clan—and he’s on a clandestine quest to wipe out slavers trafficking humans in the Weird. So when his presence leads his very dangerous enemies to Charlotte, she vows to help Richard destroy them. The slavers’ operation, however, goes deeper than Richard knows, and even working together, Charlotte and Richard may not survive.

REVIEW:
You know that feeling of euphoria you feel after you have read a great book?  Be prepared for a double shot of it with Steel's Edge.  Steel's Edge is book 4 in The Edge series by the wife and husband team known as the author, Ilona Andrews.

I've liked The Edge series from the start.   Still, being a huge Kate Daniels fan, The Edge series was always "the other" books by the author.  Not any more, this book rivals any of Ilona Andrews other writings and may very well be my favorite.

Why do I love this book?
*The story is compelling.  Richard is on the hunt to bring down an illegal slave trade.  He has been working to develop connections, gather intelligence and dismantle the system.  The system reaches to the highest levels in the aristocracy.  He is aided in his quest by Charlotte, who as the Greatest Healer of her time, also has dark secrets.  For every yin there is a yang.  Charlotte has the power to heal but she can also employ that power to kill and bring plague.   

*For the things that you would expect from this author - Ilona Andrews is a powerhouse at world-building. Her world is imaginative from the Edge to the Weird to the Broken and then Cauldron.  Her descriptions are vivid.  The way she describes the life in and about the slave trade is chilling. 

*The characters are mature.  Both Richard and Charlotte are older than the characters from previous books.  They are more experienced in life.  Both have been married and experienced love before.  They come to their union with more understanding and also more baggage. (And there intimate scene are very hot)

Charlotte is a striking  heroine with an indomitable spirit.  In an exchange with an enemy who challenges her standing: 

"Don't try to belittle me; your hopeless outclassed.  I see shortcomings in your every single aspect, from your lack of taste to your rotten morality.  You've involved yourself in the basest of crimes.  You facilitated murder, rape, and the torture of children.  Your conduct is unbecoming a peer of realm."  Oh, snap!  

She is confident in who she is and is determined to a fault.  And I love her spirit!

Richard is my kind of hero: steadfast, honorable, skilled, caring and determined.  I love the way he is in awe of her.  When he experiences the power of her magic: 

"...he stood in the epicenter of her silent storm, a feeling of otherworldly awe claimed him, as if he became part of a mystical event that could be explained, only experienced....He had encountered something greater than the limits of his ordinary life, and he was both alarmed and drawn to it." 

* Illona Andrews brings back some of the most memorable supporting characters - Jack, Sophie, George, and Eleonore.  It feels like a homecoming with Sophie and the boys in the mix.  

*You got a to love a book that gives a nod to one of the best movies of all time, Princess Bride -  "I do not thing that word means what you think it was means."

IN A NUTSHELL: 
This is nearly a perfect book.  I say nearly even though I couldn't find anything I didn't like about it, but surely there must be, right?