Rose Drayton has more responsibility than any twenty-something should.  She lives in the Edge, which is a world between the Broken (unmagical world or normals) and the Weird (land of blueblood aristocrats)  Changelings and necromancers are not an oddity here but in fact the norm.  Rose can easily travel (ok it is painful but can be done) into the Broken to work and shop.  Though living in the Broken is out as she is caring for her two younger brothers, and does not want to give up her magical heritage.  The problem is that if you live in the Edge you don’t have the necessary identification for the Broken plane and therefore all you can do is work minimum wage jobs to just survive.

Rose had dreamed that her parent’s history (town husband stealer and no good dreamer) would not always haunt her.  She thought if she practiced her magic than she could build a better life for herself and her brothers.  But, things didn’t turn out quite how she had planned.  Now she is stuck in the drudgery that is her life.  When yet another blueblood (Declan) approaches and is determined to have her and her power she agrees to let him have her only if he can complete three tasks.  She sets out to make it impossible for him to succeed.  But, soon this is the least of her problems as a mysterious evil force is attaching the Edge and she will need all the help she can get in keeping those she lives safe.  Can she and Declan work together and rally the Edge inhabitants to save their world?

The writing team that makes up Ilona Andrews has a new series and a new fan.  I picked On the Edge up in an airport and am glad I did.  While I felt the start of the story was initially confusing to me, it soon became clearer and pulled me in.  I do have to say that I am not sure I like being an inhabitant of the “Broken” but I have been called worse before (Muggle for example).  I could easily see how the different planes of existence could co-exist and how they might interact.  I am also intrigued by an urban fantasy story that has a HFN well on its way to a HEA ending.  I found On the Edge a gripping and imaginative start to a new series and think you too should pick it up.