I like Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels books enough that I decided to get this book right away. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy On the Edge as much as I enjoy the Kate books. On the Edge was enjoyable, but for me it just didn't have the same oomph as the Kate books. I'm giving the book an 8 of 10, so I'm not saying it's a bad book, I'm just saying it wasn't a home run for me, and the Kate books are knocked-out-of-the-park home runs for me.
Rose is an interesting character, in an interesting world (well, in two interesting worlds and one normal world, actually), and she has an interesting family.
The plot is creative, and fairly well done. Though quite predictable in more places than it should have been.
The world building is brilliant.
But our hero? I'm not so sure about him. Maybe it's because I value honesty too much? I mean, really.. having a habit of misleading someone to the wrong conclusion and then not correcting them? That seems like a serious character flaw to me.
The pacing was off a bit in a few places, and the dialogue felt strained at times when it shouldn't have. And parts of it felt... formulaic? Like there are things that should happen in the book, so the action (and people placement, kind of like chess pieces on the board) were carefully crafted to make sure each of these things happened.
And the ending? I don't want to tell why it bothered me and give spoilers, but... seriously? Has someone been watching too much Disney?
Okay, with all of that said - there were good parts. I don't want to totally heckle the book. I loved the relationship between Rose and her brothers, and I loved learning about the boys' abilities and how Rose has helped them as best she can. I really enjoyed learning some of what Rose can do, and how she made it to the place she is now.
I don't know if I'll get the next book in this series, though. The Ilona Andrews website says the untitled sequel will be released in September of 2010, so I've got a while to make up my mind.
Book Rating, On the Edge: 8 of 10
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Book two is better than the first IMHO.
ReplyDeleteIt's out in paperback. Hope you consider and enjoy!