"Bayou Moon (The Edge #2)" by Ilona Andrews

This review is of a book that is the 2nd in the The Edge series. There are minor spoilers for those of you who haven't read On the Edge. My review for the first book in the series, On The Edge, is here.

You meet one of the characters from this book, William in On the Edge, but Cerise and the majority of the characters are new. Still, I recommend starting with On the Edge because 1) it's shorter, 2) I liked it slightly better, 3) series are less confuzzling when you don't read them out of order. William is an odd sort of shifter-man: he was raised in an orphanage/military school in the Weird, and for reasons revealed in On the Edge, doesn't exactly fit into that world anymore, if he even did in the first place.

My favorite thing about this book is all the characters that are brought into the series: Cerise's family, the Mars, are rife with every sort of misfit you can imagine. Being a resident of the island of misfit toys myself, I found it amusing to follow their antics (and battles, and unusual forms of revenge). If you find yourself in the Mire area of the Edge, I'd steer clear of them, as beyond their tendency to lock their "guests" up for the night, they also make deadly things that may seem innocuous, but definitely aren't.

The Plot (As Seen on Goodreads):
'The Edge lies between worlds, on the border between the Broken, where people shop at Walmart and magic is a fairytale–and the Weird, where blueblood aristocrats rule, changelings roam, and the strength of your magic can change your destiny…
'Cerise Mar and her unruly clan are cash poor but land rich, claiming a large swathe of the Mire, the Edge swamplands between the state of Louisiana and the Weird. When her parents vanish, her clan’s long-time rivals are suspect number one.
'But all is not as it seems. Two nations of the Weird are waging a cold war fought by feint and espionage, and their conflict is about to spill over into the Edge—and Cerise’s life . William, a changeling soldier who left behind the politics of the Weird, has been forced back into service to track down a rival nation’s spymaster.
'When William’s and Cerise’s missions lead them to cross paths, sparks fly—but they’ll have to work together if they want to succeed…and survive.'

While I did enjoy William and Cerise's partnership, there was a slightly spoiler-ish issue with plotting that puzzled me. They had a love/hate thing going on, and on the day before a "big battle" that they were anticipating, they decided to fight each other to see which one of them was the better fighter. It would have been fine if they were sparring, but for two supposedly rational minded human beings to cut each other up the day before their "big battle" that they weren't sure they would win...

Yeah, that puzzled me.

There are many more positives with this book, not limited to Cerise being a magically bladed badass, but they were overshadowed by that odd plot piece. Kaldar Mar (conman lawyer extraordinaire) is introduced in this book, and I had worried he may not end up being featured in the series again, but guess who has his own book? The villains in this book become a key part of the series, giving it a slightly steampunk-ish vibe (I've only ever seen monsters like this in steampunk and/or horror books).

Bayou Moon is an excellent sequel that had an issue with plotting that made it falter a bit. Regardless of its failing(s), it adds to the Edge series by advancing the plot and introducing some of my favorite characters... and having a Princess Bride reference (page 53). If you've read On the Edge, I definitely recommend continuing the series- Bayou Moon is a key to many of the plot points in the series, which is likely why it's the longest of all the books.

Rating: 4 of 5 Stars for an urban fantasy sequel with some minor issues.

Content: Ages 18+ for sexual content, macabre violence, and gruesome abominations.

Page Count: 462 pages in my paperback edition