I love this. The Mar family reminds me so much of my husband's family from West Virginia, ha! I really like how tough Cerise is and William is great too. 

I have had this series on my tbr for some time. I kept putting it off. For some reason I had it in my head that I didn't care for the Andrews' writing. I was mistaken. Funny, suspenseful, and set in an interesting, magic filled world. Not a lot of sexy times, which a year or so ago I would have considered a drawback, but now I prefer. 

Note: While this is Book 2 in the series, it works just fine as a stand alone story.

In this dark comedy, Maggie is a lonely vampire. She contemplates suicide but decides to try to make some company for herself first. Kreel and Charlie work at a cemetery, which is the perfect place to meet suicidal, lonely vampires apparently.

Charlie drinks on the job, which makes him an easy target when Maggie attacks. Alas, his head is dented in so he provides much of the humor for the rest of the story. Kreel is dead set against being a demon blood sucker forever so he has a huge argument with Maggie, which isn’t what she was expecting. Toss in some voodoo and family ties and there’s plenty of fodder for humor.

This story was quite a bit different from Book 1, Blood Moon. There’s dark humor every where (which I liked) but no sex of any kind (which was fine). The pacing is still swift as there’s plenty of ground to cover and characters to introduce in this short story. Over all, I liked this book better than Book 1. I felt the characters were a little better formed, I liked all the humor, and I didn’t have to put my suspension of disbelief in overdrive over some sudden hormonal romantic hookup. The ending does have a solid tie into the first book but you don’t have to have read it to enjoy this story.

I received a free copy of this audiobook.

The Narration: Ashley Huyge was great with the accents but didn’t do spooky at all. Instead she sounds chipper the entire way through, like a flight attendant. This worked for the humor but not for the lonesome suicidal part of Maggie’s personality.

Cerise is trying to protect her large, poor family clinging to existence the Mire. This section of the Edge has long been used as a dumping ground for the Weird Kingdom of Louisiana – and is now used as another stage in the brewing cold war between Louisiana and its neighbour  

Which is where William comes in, dragged back into fighting for Adrianglia‘s secret service, The Mirror. He thought he was free of them – but the offer for revenge and to protect children like himself is too much to pass up.

How many times have I said that I love the world building of this series? In fact how many times have I said I love every bit of world building Ilona Andrews has ever done ever? This author (or authors since I understand it’s a husband/wife author team) is the supreme master of world building. I love it.

Particularly what I love about this – beyond the magic system, the world (with both the magical world of the Weird and the Broken and the Edge straddling the pair, eking out an existence between the two, helpless to be part of either and often suffering from the manipulations of their dominant neighbours), the creatures, etc is the way this contrasts with the last book in the series. It would be easy to just say “the Edge” has the same culture – or even to have the Weird just be our world with magic added. But we have different countries in the Weird with different technology, different cultures, different principles and specialties. But it’s the Edge that really shines here – because we have the same theme of low resources, extreme poverty and very localised society governed by ad hoc courts, local militias and constant feuding. It’s the same basis to both societies – but the larger Edge near Louisiana and the very different ways that The Weird Louisiana treats the Edge here – the Mire (a place to dump exiles) as well as the extremely dangerous swamp creates a very different cultural sense. The same rough land with similar themes but with a definitely different culture.

This also has Cerise sharply contrast with Rose. Because her family has powerful magic and numbers and connections she has many advantages that Rose does not. But all those connections and magic means she has less options – being mired in the feuds means she cannot isolate herself from that greater society, her family’s magic makes it much harder for her to cross the boundary. It’s interesting that we can take, ostensibly, two women in very similar situations (young but with high responsibility, beset by powerful outside forces, helped) and still have very different pressures in their lives. It’s the same story told very differently.

And told very well – lots of action, excellent pacing, excellent conflict and awesome female protagonist who isn’t perfect, is sometimes overwhelmed but is still very strong, determined, intelligent and ready to step up way above her comfort zone because she has to – all with a very strong confidence in her skill and prowess.

I like her a lot. And she stands in a family with other intelligent, brave and capable women as well – whether her scientist aunt or her, frankly terrifying, grandmother (I have a soft spot for little old ladies who terrify everyone around them. Especially an old woman willing to chew out an evil necromancer for not saying hi to his granny).

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What a fantastic book! I absolutely adored the characters, especially Cerise's nutty family! seeing them from William's POV was hilarious. And Cerise and William themselves were wonderful characters, it was an exciting experience reading from their POV.
I enjoyed this book even more than the 3rd one (I read the series out of order) William and Cerise always intrigued me in the 3rd book and i had hopped to get to know them better, Bayou Moon was greater than anything I could have expected!!

The Mire made this book, thinking of people living in the squalor and mud, hiding in the weeds and swamps while picking each other off with guns, swords, knifes and their own special brand of magic was awesome, then turn around and add a wolf and a whole band of magically-mutated weirdo's and you have a hilarious, action packed adventure.
The back story was well provided over a slow period of time, giving us just enough tidbits to know where the characters stand in relation to each other but keeping enough secret to shock and surprise us when certain things when revealed.

Overall I'm very impressed with the book, the only reason I rated Bayou Moon 4 stars instead of 5 was because some lines from here have been repeated (or similar enough) in IA other series, Kate Daniels. I probably wouldn't have noticed but I have only just finished binge re-reading the series. Also Cerise is vaguely similar to Kate while William also has similar traits to Curran

 which slightly bothered me while reading. I know, I know written by the same person, but there two different characters, I don't like them reminding me so much of one another. Either way fan-fucking-tastic book. Glad I finally read it.
I'll definitely be re-reading this book again

P.S. Terrible cover, I had to hide it while reading in public, didn't want people to think i was reading sappy romance :P

Bayou Moon opens two years after the conclusion of the previous book, On the Edge, where we find William living a solitary life in the Edge. He is soon recruited by the Mirror, a spy network for the country of Adrianglia in the Weird, and finds himself off to the Mire in the Edge. Cerise Mar lives in the Edge in the swamps called the Mire. The Mars are in a family feud with the Sheeriles, and her parents have been kidnapped by evil agents of the Hand. Lucky for Cerise, she crosses paths with William, and they team up to stop the Hand.

The second book started as a bit of a shocker to me. I thought that the Edge series was an urban fantasy series that would follow Rose and Declan through four books. But it’s not… It’s more of a UF romance, with a different couple featured in each book. After my initial disappointment, I learned to love both William and Cerise.

Overall, I enjoyed Bayou Moon. Once again, the storytelling is phenomenal, with an engrossing plot filled with some twists and turns. It is, however, a long book, and I felt that it would have benefitted from some editing. The ending dragged on a bit too long and started to frustrate me. Additionally, the authors left open some doors that I would have preferred closed. I guess I’ll have to wait to see if they are resolved in future titles. I did enjoy the reintroduction of the main characters from the first title. I hope that the next two books will continue to involve some of these familiar players.

Renée Raudman’s performance is utterly amazing. She captures every moment perfectly - reconstructing emotions that allow a listener to experience what the character feels. She also introduces appropriate sighs, breaths, and more to express the attitudes and physical exhaustion (for example) of the characters. 

In the end, another wonderful addition to the Edge series.

My Rating: B 

Narration: A