Ilona Andrews - Steel's Edge

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...

Comment: This is the last book in the Edge series by the authors. They did say that this is the last of this arc and maybe one day they'll get back to this world and write more about a different arc, which would be amazing, specially if that means we could have the stories of the youngest generation, like George, Jack and Sophie...it would be different but still in the same setting. I really hope they do this, because it would be such a shame to lose such a great world.

This is the story of Richard and Charlotte.

Richard is in a mission to stop slavery because of what happened to his niece Sophie. For years he has infiltrated and destroyed the most in the slavery business until he realizes who are the key people in the business, the five heads that control and demand the slavery to go on. He now has the target he wanted but it's not a matter of just killing those people, it's about ending their power and credible facade.He just needs the means to do that.

Charlotte is a blue blood and she's The Healer, the most powerful healer in her generation. She just finds out she's barren and her husband wants an annulment. So she gives it to him and feels because she can't stand the shame. She goes to the Edge because it's a place where people don't care about who you are. She befriends Eleanore, Rose's grandmother, and starts a simple life there. Until the day slavers arrive and destroy the peace she had. She decides to get revenge and joins forces with Richard to stop the slavery business and in the way...she finds true love.

Like always with this authors' writing, I loved this book. The story was solid and interesting, full of adventure and strong scenes. One of my favorites was when Charlotte used her magic to destroy a ship's crew with a disease and they simply flew into the wind, like a flower you blow on. It was quite strong visually and I think it was one of the best in the book. There were many more, the whole book is filled with good scenes, perfect to memorize and wonderfully inserted in the storyline.

Charlotte is a woman scorned because she can have children. I felt for her and wanted things to change, to be better and although she still couldn't have biological children by the end of the book, she did manage to find happiness and it was great.

Richard didn't seem that interesting in previous books but in this one we get to see his drive, his ambition and desire to end the slavery because he regrets what happened to his niece. Plus, he's a good guy, of course he wouldn't just wait for things..he wants to make them happen.

I liked the romance between them...considering both their past experiences I think it was a bit too quiet, but they had interesting dialogs between them. Their relationship did get to a point where words aren't needed all the time. I find very interesting how a couple could seem such in sync like that.

The secondary characters were an important part in the book, specially the kids, I really hope the writers can present their books one day...once gain, wonderful scenes with them.

One or two subjects have been dealt with too. George, Jack and Rose's missing father shows up and goes away again in an interesting turnabout. Spider, from last book shows up too, quite perky I must say, but I still think this wasn't the end of him...

In the end, Charlotte and Richard find happiness, they uncover the real villain and because of them a new beginning could arise. I loved how Charlotte saved the day and found the will and the love to become better and stronger than her own fate.And even better was the perfect way Richard said she was his and he would care for her no matter what. So romantic....so perfect.

This series is great, it has everything to work out and to be an amazing read. I hope everyone who doesn't know it, at least tries it.