Curl up with a good book Sunday: Iron and Magic
Still high off the amazing Kate Daniels finale from last week’s post, I bring you Iron and Magic, a spin-off series from that world. With a hero who I hated in the Kate books. So how’d that work out?
Synopsis:
No day is ordinary in a world where Technology and Magic compete for supremacy…But no matter which force is winning, in the apocalypse, a sword will always work.
Hugh d’Ambray, Preceptor of the Iron Dogs, Warlord of the Builder of Towers, served only one man. Now his immortal, nearly omnipotent master has cast him aside. Hugh is a shadow of the warrior he was, but when he learns that the Iron Dogs, soldiers who would follow him anywhere, are being hunted down and murdered, he must make a choice: to fade away or to be the leader he was born to be. Hugh knows he must carve a new place for himself and his people, but they have no money, no shelter, and no food, and the necromancers are coming. Fast.
Elara Harper is a creature who should not exist. Her enemies call her Abomination; her people call her White Lady. Tasked with their protection, she’s trapped between the magical heavyweights about to collide and plunge the state of Kentucky into a war that humans have no power to stop. Desperate to shield her people and their simple way of life, she would accept help from the devil himself—and Hugh d’Ambray might qualify.
Hugh needs a base, Elara needs soldiers. Both are infamous for betraying their allies, so how can they create a believable alliance to meet the challenge of their enemies?
As the prophet says: “It is better to marry than to burn.”
Hugh and Elara may do both.
Why I Loved It:
Much as I loathed Hugh in the Kate books and had to force myself to read this, expecting to barely tolerate it, I fell deeply in love. Possibly it was because we get to see Hugh without the influence of Roland, struggling to carry on when he is no longer literally bathed in a god’s love, but mostly, I suspect, it’s because Andrews created the perfect foil for him in Elara.
She is more powerful than him, highly intelligent, and shares the same qualities of devout loyalty to her people and fears over her monstrous nature. Fate has made these two reluctant allies and it’s everyone for themselves.
The chemistry and banter is off-the-charts phenomenal and the world-building, is, as always with any Ilona Andrews’ book, imaginative and evocative. I have been converted to all things Hugh, which was no easy feat. But if anyone could have done it, it’s this incredible author.
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