I am a huge fan of Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels books, and after reading a brief plot summary of ON THE EDGE, the first installment of a new series, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. The pitch is: two universes exist side by side, mirror images of one another. Magic thrives in The Weird, and it is non-existent The Broken. The border between these two worlds is called The Edge. Edgers are not magical enough to thrive in the Weird, but they are cut off from the technology and bureaucracy of the Broken. It's hard for them to build a life on either side of the boundary they inhabit.

Rose Drayton was born with more magic than any other Edger for the past hundred years, at least. At first she thought her power would be her golden ticket, winning her status among the other Edgers. She was wrong. Her power attracted bottom-feeders and swindlers, people anxious to turn her into a broodmare and breed magical children, or sell her to the highest bidder. Rose grew up fast, learned to defend herself and trust nobody. She took a job as a cleaning lady in the Broken, a minimum-wage, cash-under-the-table job with no security, because that's all she could get without a social security number, an address, or a proper education. She takes care of her two young siblings - Jack, a changeling, and Georgie, a necromancer - and tries to stay out of trouble.

Trouble finds her in the form of Declan, a dangerously handsome blueblood from the Weird. He's too strong to kill or dodge, but he offers her a bargain: she can set him three challenges, and if he succeeds in all three, she will let him have her. Rose is suspicious of his motives, especially since he's not the only new arrival in her neck of the woods. Strange, evil hounds are prowling through the Wood, nearly indestructible creatures that steal magic from their victims as they kill.

For the most part, ON THE EDGE is great. Rose Drayton is very different from Kate Daniels but just as appealing. She's a badass, but because of her siblings she's nurturing and not afraid of her softer side. The hounds kickstart the central conflict of the novel, a heart-in-your-throat adventure that builds up to an ingenious and very frightening final showdown.

The only thing that didn't entirely work for me was the romance. This is weird but - it's too adult and mature. I'm so used to reading paranormals where the romantic aspect is a challenge, another source of delicious conflict that keeps me turning pages. In ON THE EDGE, everybody's so clear and honest and direct with their feelings. If this were real life, I would applaud their behavior. In the book, I felt a little cheated. A good example early on in the novel comes when William, a handsome and sort of mysterious guy, keeps trying to ask Rose out on a date. Rose says no, gently, but William is persistent. So Rose decides what this guy's place in her life is going to be, she thinks about it long enough to make sure she's come to the right conclusion, and she delivers her verdict. She's not playing games; she means it. I was reading and thinking, "But...wait...what about the love triangle? I was expecting a love triangle!"

It was nice to have my expectations thwarted, and I really did like all the characters in the book better because they behaved in ways I could respect. On the other hand, I ended up thinking that the novel didn't pack the same punch as a book that threw a few more curveballs would. A lot of the challenges that Rose faces are financial - deciding whether to buy a comic book for her brothers, or refill her gas tank so that she can get to work the next day - and while these details bring life on The Edge to life, they aren't really thrilling.

These criticisms are pretty faint, as they are meant to be - I remain a huge fan of Ilona Andrews, and I'll be buying the next book in the series the day it comes out, too.