Series: Iron Covenant, book 1
Author: Ilona Andrews
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Nancy Yost Literary Agency, Inc.
Date: June 26, 2018
Length: x pages
I own this book, Ilona Andrews is an auto buy for me
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.
Description from Goodreads
Back in 2015, Ilona and Gordon (i.e. Ilona Andrews) thought they had a great April Fools Day joke, turn Hugh d'Ambray (a villain) into the hero of a super stereotypical romance novel. They believed that their regular blog readers would realize it was a joke. Some did and some didn't, but the general consensus was that this book needed to be a real thing. Three years later they announced Iron and Magic. I remember reading the original post. I thought it would be impossible to make me like Hugh, but if anyone could do it, Ilona and Gordon could. And boy, did they make me root for that asshole.
Trigger warning: Hugh is suicidal and he struggles with it throughout the book.
Also, mild spoilers ahead.
He's got layers: Hugh was rescued off the streets as a child and raised by Roland and Voron. He was bound to Roland through blood magic and had his personality reset whenever he questioned his god king. Hugh is also good at playing whatever role will help him advance Roland's plans, but he can't figure out who "Hugh" really is behind all of the masks. He's dealing with guilt, depression, confusion, anger, and loss. It's interesting to watch Hugh rebuild his life, deal with his regrets, be afraid of good things, but not have a total personality transplant. He's still very much a bastard who is trying to do better, but on his own terms.
Trigger warning: Hugh is suicidal and he struggles with it throughout the book.
Also, mild spoilers ahead.
What I liked
World building: I love the Kate Daniels series world, and I'm so happy that Ilona and Gordon are adding to it. Neither magic nor technology are totally reliable, all kinds of mythologies are brought into play, and I really appreciate the research that goes into their work.He's got layers: Hugh was rescued off the streets as a child and raised by Roland and Voron. He was bound to Roland through blood magic and had his personality reset whenever he questioned his god king. Hugh is also good at playing whatever role will help him advance Roland's plans, but he can't figure out who "Hugh" really is behind all of the masks. He's dealing with guilt, depression, confusion, anger, and loss. It's interesting to watch Hugh rebuild his life, deal with his regrets, be afraid of good things, but not have a total personality transplant. He's still very much a bastard who is trying to do better, but on his own terms.
Things used to be simple. Too simple.
He was a man who killed one father, failed the other, and left a trail of destruction in his wake four continents wide. When he looked back now, he saw bodies. It never bothered him before. He'd felt vague pangs of guilt, but never this.
it wasn't natural. That was the only explanation. If he felt all of this shit now, he would've felt it when he was doing it. He should've been bothered. That part of him had been suppressed and he wasn't the one doing that suppressing.
An absurd urge to find New gripped him. Did he feel this? Was his leash longer? Was he allowed guilt?
Humor: I can always count on Ilona Andrews to make me laugh out loud. I don't even read their books in bed anymore because my snorting wakes up my husband.
“How is it that Raphael made more holes in you than in swiss cheese, but your assholeness survived?”
“Raphael doesn’t have a knife big enough to kill my assholeness.”
Enemies to lovers trope works well: Elara and Hugh are perfectly suited for each other, but they never would have thought that. They are driven, protective, loyal to their respective groups, and not afraid to do things the hard way. While they try to build a working relationship they also can't resist sniping at each other. The authors have done a great job of maintaining the tension without having to use silly conflicts to keep them apart.
When she'd thought of her future husband, which she hadn't done often, she'd always defaulted to this vague idea of a nice man. He would be kind, and calm, and he would treat her with respect, and their relationship would be peaceful and without any sharp edges. Instead she got this asshole, who made her see red at least once a day. Hugh d'Ambray was as far from nice as you could get and still remain human.
And if she could, she would sprout wings and fly to damn Aberdine to make sure he didn't die some stupid death.
Ugh. UGH.
All of the characters: Ilona and Gordon really excel at creating fleshed out side characters that readers enjoy and actually support the story. I'm looking forward to getting to know them better. I'm also absolutely convinced that Bale was modeled off of Kuwabara from YuYu Hakusho. You cannot tell me otherwise. Please give him a kitten so he can be complete.
What I'm on the fence about
Angry sex: I get that Hugh and Elara use the anger to keep a wall between them, and they both look forward to the fight. The only way they can be personal is when they are verbally stabbing each other. The first time Hugh thinks about having sex with Elara, he mentions that she'd fight it and it would be great. For a brief moment I thought he was talking about rape. And there is no way Hugh was going to be a remotely sympathetic character if he was a rapist. In that same comment I also remembered that it would be totally out of character for the authors to approach rape in this manner. So he was talking about them having angry sex, fine. But every time I read that line, rape is what pops into my head first, it's jarring.
The villain isn't revealed in this series, but in Magic Triumphs: While the story is wrapped up in Iron and Magic, we don't really know who was behind the attacks and why they were attacking in the first place. Iron and Magic and Magic Triumphs build on each other quite nicely, but the reader does have to go outside of the Iron Covenant series to finish up the story. This is not a bad thing, just a complication from a librarian's point of view.
What didn't work for me
I'm still mad about Mauro: Sorry, that is a death I won't get over. (This was back in Magic Breaks.)
Savannah, please stop trying to kill off Hugh: I get why she's trying to keep the Iron Dogs but get rid of their dangerous commander. We don't know exactly which allies Elara's people have betrayed, but I assume this Us vs. Them attitude is probably part of the problem. Savannah is trying to protect Elara and their people, but I dislike how willing she is to abandon Hugh so they can keep his army without having to deal with him any more.
Savannah, please stop trying to kill off Hugh: I get why she's trying to keep the Iron Dogs but get rid of their dangerous commander. We don't know exactly which allies Elara's people have betrayed, but I assume this Us vs. Them attitude is probably part of the problem. Savannah is trying to protect Elara and their people, but I dislike how willing she is to abandon Hugh so they can keep his army without having to deal with him any more.
Rating: 4.5
Well, I was right, Ilona and Gordon are great writers who can take their hated bad guy, give him layers, and make him understandable. Hugh is now a guy I'd root for, but I'm really happy he has Elara to help balance him out. Which isn't saying much since she has a bad reputation as well. I'm really looking forward to the next book, I can't wait to see how Hugh and Elara's story unfolds. Especially after reading Magic Triumphs, I really hope the whole chicken thing is explained.
The cool thing with the Iron and Magic is that we see Hugh's thought process and the events that made him the man he is. What other literary bad guys would you like to learn more about? We get a bit of this with Snape in the Harry Potter books, which helped make him more understandable if not sympathetic.
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