Review: “Bayou Moon,” Ilona Andrews

Pros: Fantastic characters & plot
Cons: …
Rating: 5 out of 5

William is a changeling, able to shift form into a wolf, governed by its needs and moods. He’s been offered a chance at revenge: revenge against a man, Spider, who slaughtered changeling children. All he has to do is find out what Spider is searching for and get to it first. That search will take him deep into the Mire, the domain of the Mar family. There he’ll meet Cerise, head of the family and a deadly opponent who would do anything to protect her people. Her family holds the key to Spider’s searches, and keeping them alive will take all of William’s wiles.

Bayou Moon is book two of the Edge series by Ilona Andrews. Unfortunately I haven’t read book one (I certainly want to now!), but I found I didn’t need to in order to appreciate and understand Bayou Moon. It stands remarkably well on its own.

William and Cerise are my favorite parts of this book. Each one has plenty of depth and their interplay is delightful. In particular, Cerise is a marvelous strong female lead. She has guts and determination; she’s fierce yet proudly human and flawed. Family interactions also take center stage, and they have plenty of delicious complexity to them. Nothing is simple or cut-and-dried. Everything has layers; everyone has motivations. Andrews is also extremely good at depicting not-entirely-human characters, with their own quirks and habits.

Combat in Bayou Moon is heart-stoppingly magnificent, tense, and utterly cinematic. I can easily picture the battles in my mind’s eye. The magics are heady and dark, an almost organic blend of styles and traditions that suits its milieu. My only problem with this book is that now I have to catch up on the rest of the series–it’s too good to miss!