The Edge

About The Edge

The Edge is a narrow, forgotten strip of land that runs between two worlds: the Broken, where magic is a fairy tale and people shop at Wal-Mart, and the Weird, where blueblood aristocrats rule and a person's power can decide their fate. Only people born in the Edge -- Edgers -- can cross freely between the two; everyone else is stuck on one side or the other. Each of the four books follows a different Edge family pulled into danger that starts small and turns out to reach all the way into the Weird's aristocratic power struggles: On the Edge follows Rose Drayton, whose unusual power draws the attention of a Weird nobleman just as something monstrous starts crossing into her world; Bayou Moon sends changeling soldier William into Edge swampland controlled by the fiercely protective Cerise Mar, whose missing parents turn out to be tangled in cross-border espionage; Fate's Edge pairs reformed con artist Audrey Callahan with operative Kaldar Mar on a heist that spirals into something much more lethal than either bargained for; and Steel's Edge follows healer Charlotte de Ney and swordsman Richard Mar as they take on a trafficking network operating across the Edge's blurred borders.

Written by the husband-and-wife team of Ilona and Andrew Gordon under the joint pen name Ilona Andrews, The Edge predates their better-known Kate Daniels and Innkeeper Chronicles series and shares their trademark blend of family loyalty, banter, and escalating stakes, with each book centered on a different couple from the same extended web of Edge families. The series was completed at four books, though two of its characters -- George and Jack -- continue their story later in the Innkeeper Chronicles, beginning with Sweep in Peace.

How to read this series

Read in publication order: On the Edge, Bayou Moon, Fate's Edge, Steel's Edge. Each book is a mostly self-contained romance centered on a different couple, but recurring families (especially the Mars) and a slowly expanding picture of the Edge and the Weird build across all four, so publication order is the intended path. No prior reading of Kate Daniels or the Innkeeper Chronicles is required, though two Edge-raised siblings, George and Jack, go on to appear in the Innkeeper Chronicles starting with its second book, Sweep in Peace.