Tabs’ review of Edge of Control (Edge Series, Book 3) by Megan Crane
Post-Apocalyptic Romance published by Swerve 05 Jul 16
What happens when you take an alpha-hole heroine who is angry at pretty much the entire damn world and an alpha-hole hero who doesn’t believe he’s worthy of love and then toss them into a clandestine mission where they have to sex each other up to maintain their cover? Pure, unadulterated awesomesauce. That’s what happens.
Eiryn and Riordan are both members of their raider clan’s warrior brotherhood. Eiryn has made her place as the King’s fierce bodyguard, but she’s floundering. Riordan is a lethal tracker, but he doesn’t allow himself to be anything else. When a team is needed to travel to the mainland on a long reconnaissance mission, Riordan volunteers, since he has the necessary skills and doesn’t have any family ties to keep him at home. Eiryn also volunteers because she’s on the edge of burning everything down and she desperately needs some time and space to get her shit together. Keeping close quarters with Riordan isn’t ideal, given that they have a rather volatile personal history, but she’ll do what she has to.
I love warrior heroines, but I have an extra special place in my heart for alpha-hole heroines. Eiryn is most definitely one. It’s frickin glorious. She’s a bad-ass viking warrior. She’s also a straight-up asshole sometimes. She’s stubborn and quick to anger. She can hold a mother-effing grudge. She enjoys stabbing dudes. She does not enjoy dealing with bullshit like feelings and emotions.
“She could dropkick anything. She greatly enjoyed it, in fact. But she was fucking useless when it came to all these heavy and twisted feelings.”
Eiryn is brimming with so much rage at the beginning of this book that she can’t see straight. Some of it is right at the surface. She has a complicated history with her half-brothers, one of whom is their clan’s King, Wulf. New information has recently come to light and she feels intensely betrayed by Wulf and intensely angry. She also has other things boiling just under the surface. She’s a member of the brotherhood, but she’s female, so she doesn’t have the freedom the men take for granted. She and the two other female warriors have to be so careful and tread so lightly to keep their place, and they all find it incredibly exhausting and frustrating. She’s also still really damn angry with Roirdan for cruelly breaking her young heart years ago. Rage. She’s got it in spades.
I’ve enjoyed this whole series to date, but this is easily my favorite. It’s so satisfying to watch Eiryn work out her myriad issues. She needs to learn to let things go, embrace the things she really wants, and be the best her she can be. Riordan also needs desperately to let some of his past go as well, so that he can be his best self and work things out with Eiryn. They’re such a good team that their relationship worked great for me. It was immensely fun watching them work seamlessly together on their mission. Boy, do I love me an alpha-alpha pair. I’m totally on board for more in the series, and it looks like King Wulf is going to be the next one to fall. My body is ready!
Grade: A
Summary:
This brotherhood of raider warriors is alpha, dominant, unforgiving…and they keep what they take.
Riordan is a ruthless warrior whose foes tremble before him in his drowned and ruined world. The last thing he wants to do is go undercover as a weakling to spy on his clan’s enemies. Much less with Eiryn— a fierce warrior in her own right and the only woman Riordan’s never been able to forget. He knows that a single touch will throw them straight back into that same old uncontrollable fire. But this time, he might just let them burn.
Eiryn has been betrayed too many times. An escape into a dangerous mission where she can pretend to be the soft, biddable female she’s not seems like the perfect solution. She’s sure she can control the fiery passion that simmers between her and Riordan, the man she’s spent years pretending to hate. After all, the unquenchable lust that flares between them now is all for show… isn’t it?
Other books in this series:
