Bayou Moon

The Edge, Book 2

By: Ilona Andrews

Narrated by: Renée Raudman

Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

Cerise Mar and her unruly clan are cash poor but land rich, claiming a large swathe of the Mire, the Edge swamplands between the state of Louisiana and the Weird. When her parents vanish, her clan's long-time rivals are suspects number one.

But all is not as it seems. Two nations of the Weird are waging a cold war fought by feint and espionage, and their conflict is about to spill over into the Edge - and Cerise's life. William, a changeling soldier who left behind the politics of the Weird, has been forced back into service to track down a rival nation's spymaster.

When William's and Cerise's missions lead them to cross paths, sparks fly - but they'll have to work together if they want to succeed…and survive.

Spend some more time on The Edge.

©2010 Ilona Andrews (P)2010 Tantor

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Nominee - Judges' Award for Best Paranormal Audiobook, 2011

More exciting than The Edge!

I loved the first book in this series, The Edge. This one is very similar in the whole begrudging love plot, but the villains are more interesting and the action is a bit more exciting. I really enjoyed it, even if it was a little bit predictable. The narration could've been better.

Book 2

Liam’s story is exciting, adventurous, heart wrenching and warming, and hot! Adventure cravers will like this story a lot! Great world and character building along with an awesome storyline and plot! Ms. Raudman did a fantastic job narrating as always!

Emotion, Adventure, and Facile Characterization

Bayou Moon continues the partnership of Ilona Andrews and Renee Raudman in showing how the right narrator improves the story. The book is great on its own -- strong leads and secondary characters, action, and intelligent world-building - but Ms. Raudman brings out the subtle humor that is hard to hear when "listening" to the voices as you read.

fantastic as always<br />

i love ilona andrews. i love reading her books, getting lost in her world and falling in love with her characters. rene spins a great tale, good pacing and her voice is soft, sweet and an easy listen.

Another epic listen by this fantastic duo (trio?)!

This book picks-up right where ON THE EDGE left off, except this time the focus shifts to William who just so happens to be a wolf changeling—my favourite kind! We also get to meet Cerise Mar, a heroine who’s on the same level as Kate Daniels from Ilona Andrews’ other series, and I immediately adored her. I enjoyed this installment slightly more than the first, and I think that’s because I was a little more familiar with THE EDGE universe this time around. I didn’t have to pay as much attention to the world-building, although the Mire is an extremely weird place with its own set of magical rules, so there were still tons of new tidbits to take in. BAYOU MOON is another unmissable listen by this fabulous writer / narrator duo!

I’ve loved pretty much every protagonist that Andrews has thrown my way, and Cerise was no different. She’s even more backwoods than Rose from book 1 which was great because I really enjoyed that aspect of the first installment. Mar lives in an enchanted swamp where cats are green, fish have legs, and mud burns; after growing up in that kind of environment you can’t help but be a little off. I liked how badass Cerise is! There’s this one scene where she and William are in a bit of a pickle, and she’s like don’t interfere, I’ll take all of these baddies on myself, and does. Mar is as far from damsel in distress as you can get, and makes the sexy changeling work for it. A LOT.

The Mire is an awesomely bizarre place, and I thoroughly enjoyed discovering all of its quirks. It was doubly entertaining navigating this odd swamp through William’s eyes because he’s constantly baffled by the absurdity of it all which leads to countless comical WTF moments. There’s this little side thread about an eel that pops up throughout the story that’s laugh-out-loud hilarious. I seriously loved it! The weirdness of the locale also comes through nicely in the main plot with the feuding families, Spider and his minions, and the magic behind Cerise’s uncle’s infamous “box”. Rose, Declen, and the kids make cameo appearances in this novel, and there are several references to them throughout this tale which I appreciated, because I wasn’t quite ready to say good-bye to these amazing characters after only one installment.

I can always count on Renée Raudman to deliver a top notch audiobook with her superb narration skills, and knack for upping the ante on an already action packed tale. Originally, I used to think of her as “Kate Daniels”, but after listening to her for this series as well, for me she’s now become synonymous with Ilona Andrews’ writing. Her transitions between POVs and chapters are smooth, and she always seems to perfectly capture the emotions of any given scene. Raudman is definitely one of my auto-buy narrators.

BAYOU MOON is another epic listen by this fantastic duo (trio?), and I can’t wait to start FATE’S EDGE!

Best book of the series!

I really enjoyed book1 but the chemistry between Cherise and William in book 2 was even better than Rose and Declan in book 1. It may have had to do with William being a wolf changeling and all the complications that come with it but the entire storyline was even more interesting in this book than the first, which was also very good.

Another Great Book from Ilona Andrews

When I read a book, I hope for interesting and well-developed characters, a good plot, witty, realistic dialogue, and romance. Bayou Moon has all of these. The world and the way magic works are interesting without taking over the entire story. The descriptions are enough to take you there but don't go on too long. The plot is a bit predictable at times, especially since I have read all of Ilona Andrews' other books. I recognized some of her patterns from before but she writes them well enough that I'm happy to read more. The romance had the appropriate levels of tension and interest without becoming ridiculous.

My favorite aspect of Andrews' work is her characters. That is no less true for this book. I've found that, in many books, one of the characters, usually the heroine, desperately needs help and the hero is the only one who can provide it. She starts off asking for help and remains lesser for the duration of the novel. William and Cerise are both tough, capable, and smart and the author does a nice job of having them remain equals while giving them both moments in which to shine. They each need something from the other and they have complementary skill sets. They both also have issues which, over all, they are proactive about resolving.

The narrator Renee Raudman only adds to the experience of reading this book. Some of her accents aren't to my liking but that is a very minor point against her. She reads like I think. When the characters have humorous or frustrated thoughts or dialogue, Raudman's voice communicates not only the words but the mood of the character. There is a brain behind the voice and, because she uses tone and inflection so well, she brings the characters to life in a way that simply reading the print copy never could.

I eagerly await the third book in this series. If you enjoy Bayou Moon, you will likely love the Kate Daniels series which is also by Andrews.

Poor Narration. Again.

Why do members of the same family who grew up together have different accents? Some speak with no accent, some have a Cajun accent, some have a French accent and some have an Irish accent. You can always tell when they are speaking French by the Irish accent the narrator uses.

And still the men have un-masculine voices. The villain is unimpressive and unintimidating.

origin story

I read the Inn keeper series & George, Jack,Gaston & Lark are in it. I had read a review mentioning The Edge & finally got around to reading it. Fell in love with Rose & Declan & I couldn't wait to read more about William. That's why for me this is an origin story for the fabulous 4. William is so adorable talking about flirting the way the magazines say to. He's like someone on the autism spectrum and you can't help but hope the girl likes him too. in my fantasy world William & Declan create a replacement for Hawks and more shifters have wonderful lives.

At some point...

I loved these books when I read them in paper, and I e
Loved “reading” them again all these years later. All 4 books are clever and have strong female characters (which I care about). Romance or not they are great fantasy. My only comment would be these...and it may pertain to the genre, so I don’t want to single these books out...but I think if you removed the over explanation (what the Edge is, what Flash is, What a Blueblood is...) the books would be about 1/3 lighter.

That said! It’s not oppressive, the stories are to complex and interesting to feel like you are being treated as if you are an idiot.

I like these books enough to keep them and listen again. Even if Perfect William (or George) has to explain changelings, edge rats or The Hand a couple of extra times. 🤟🏻