Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays: IRON AND MAGIC by Ilona Andrews

 

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IRON AND MAGIC

Author: Ilona Andrews

Series: The Iron Convenant #1

Source: Purchased from Audible

Publisher: Nancy Yost Literary Agency, Inc

Publication Date: June 22, 2018

Summary:

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.

Purchase:

Amazon | Chapters | TBD

In this rare edition of Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays, you get.... a negative review!

I really wanted to like this one. I wanted some good Urban Fantasy and wanted to be blown away. All of my Goodreads friends LOVED this one, so when it came up as an Audible Daily Deal, I was sold. Except... I wasn't. It was really disappointing and I definitely wouldn't recommend it.

Mostly, my pain comes from not being sure what time period it was until much later in the book because the cover, the castle, and the way the characters act make it seem like it was many moons ago when in reality it is present day. Which blew my mind. I had to go back to some of the beginning chapters to see why I thought it would be the past and then remembered most of the plot was around building a moat to defend a castle. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But really, I didn't like so much about this. Even though it is the start to this series, it is a spin-off of another. And I am getting pretty bored of authors and publishers who say you can start series when they are clearly in the middle of something else. To truly understand the backstory and the intricacies, I needed the other aspects of this. And that's on me, truly, for not reading the rest. 

What isn't on me is that the characters were just terrible. I can't tell you much more about Hugh except that he is moody and Elara is white. That's pretty much all I know about them. And their "romance" was just meh to me. I wanted to know more about the world and truly I would have rather watched them build the moat a thousand times than have to listen to those sex scenes again.

TLDR: This was not my favourite read this year. I did not really enjoy it and thought the romance parts of this took over the rest of the plot rather than supplement it. Also the cover is bad and made me think this was like a historical urban fantasy rather than contemporary.

Have you read this one? What was your favourite part?