Fantasy

Iron and Magic


Iron and Magic (The Iron Covenant #1) By: Ilona Andrews

Plot:

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.

Review:

“Iron and Magic” takes place in the Kate Daniels universe, but Kate and most of the people in her books are hardly in this. There is a small bit with the Bouda clan alphas, and Kate is mentioned several times as well as Roland, but this story is about Hugh and Elara.

Before this story, just based on what we already knew about him, I wasn’t a fan of Hugh. Honestly, I was looking forward to this book because it’s Ilona Andrews, but I wasn’t in a hurry to read it because I didn’t care about him. He’s blood thirsty and seemed evil from what we’d seen in Kate’s series, I’m also tired of the whole taking a villain and making him not bad anymore. However, by the time I was finished with this book I’d had a complete change of heart. I can’t help but love a broken badass.

Elara is still a mystery, her powers and history are only hinted at in this story never given too much detail. She seems to be possessed by some kind of god? Or maybe she is a god? She’s super powerful but can be wounded and killed, her people can pray to her, and apparently she’s terrifying in her powerful form. She loves her people and wants to take care of them and so she marries Hugh because he can provide protection she can’t.

The couple fight constantly and Elara is forever withholding information that Hugh needs to do his job. She second guesses him, puts roadblocks in his way, and is very much like his nickname for her, harpy. I was not a fan, there’s being strong because you have to be and then there’s just being stupid. I understand that she’s having issues trusting him, but come on, she married him, she signed a contract, she had to trust him to do all of that, but she was one of the biggest obstacles in the story.

Hugh does his own withholding, but it didn’t feel like the same level. He was a pretty massive baby about some things, though. Honestly, they’re both super flawed and deserve each other, but Elara’s flaws bothered me more.

There’s definitely a spark of romance between the two and there’s a pretty hot sex scene that happens right after an intense fight with an army of tough bad guys. I guess being a healer means that Hugh doesn’t need as much sleep as a normal person.

Lots of unanswered questions about Hugh and Elara have me interested in what happens next but I’m glad that it’s only going to be three books. Hopefully, it’s not a trilogy like the Hidden Legacy series was a trilogy where we don’t get a proper ending with the third book.

4.5/5

Charmed: Let Gorgons be Gorgons By: Paul Ruditis

Charmed: Let Gorgons be Gorgons By: Paul Ruditis

Plot:

When Piper, Phoebe, and Paige undo a spell that turned a local politician to stone, they little realize the powerful magic behind the hex. As attacks on innocents mount, The Charmed Ones enlist the help of their sister, Prue, confined on the magical Nexus, only to learn that the most heinous of mythical creatures—a gorgon—is to blame.

Freed from her underground tomb, Medusa joins her sisters in a crusade to avenge womankind, turning those who cross her to stone forever. At the same time, dark magic seems to be undoing all of Phoebe’s good works, distracting her from the impending battle with the gorgons. With time running out, will the sisters be able to defeat Medusa and restore their innocents to life?

Review:

I liked this book, more for the world building than the descriptions of the sister’s magic. I loved that it expanded on Coop and what being a cupid is, I always felt like he just sort of showed up at the end of the series and was just there, so it was really nice to find out more. Reading a magic fight, though, with the sister’s usual go to moves is kind of eh.

There were lots of call backs to older episodes, including the one where they turned into goddesses, not exactly a Charmed high point, but I enjoyed the addition of Medusa and her sisters. They were a villain that you could understand their side of, it wasn’t just an over the top demon.

The side plot had a rushed ending that mainly happened behind the scenes. Coop and Cole worked together and we saw them for brief periods, but they seemed kind of forgotten.

The book was a bit short, but it was a lot like an episode of Charmed, so while I would have enjoyed more it was pretty good.

3/5

Charmed: The War on Witches (Charmed Series #1) By: Paul Ruditis

Charmed: The War on Witches (Charmed Series #1) By: Paul Ruditis

Plot:

Having won the ultimate battle against the forces of darkness, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige—The Charmed Ones—are looking forward to a hard-earned, peaceful future. But when Phoebe’s former love, Cole, returns from the dead and the sisters are reunited with Prue, now imprisoned at the magical convergence between the realms, a dangerous new threat emerges.

As seemingly normal mortals violently steal the magic of witches, The Charmed Ones must shield their kind while protecting themselves from a modern-day witch hunt.

Charmed: The War on Witches continues the story of the Halliwell witches, picking up where the hit television series, Charmed, left off. With only the Book of Shadows to guide them, the Halliwell sisters are the fulfillment of their ancestor Melinda Warren’s prophecy that three sisters descending from her line would become the most powerful witches of all time. As The Charmed Ones, the sisters use the Power of Three to protect the innocent and banish evil from the Earthly realm.

Review:

I used to love Charmed. I watched the show live, muted, with closed captioning because my parents would have grounded me if they’d caught me watching. I took that risk, though, because I loved the sisters and their world. A few years back I saw that they had made a comic book for a season following the last, I bought the first volume immediately but ended up not liking the art or really the story so I didn’t continue. Still, I would randomly look into the series and recently decided to try this book.

The War on Witches takes place after the comic and if you haven’t read it you’re going to be confused at first. I know I was, I ended up finding a plot synopsis online for the comic to catch myself up. I can’t say I’m actually fond of having Prue and Cole back, but I can see why they did it. They are some of the fans two favorite characters and book form is the perfect way to bring them back.

The book ended up being almost exactly like the show and I loved that. However, there were times when the characters didn’t quiet sound like themselves and that wasn’t really helped by being able to see inside their minds for the first time.

There were demons, warlocks, reference to past episodes, and family drama, it was exactly what you’d expect from an episode of Charmed. Really, my only complaint is that I wish there was more about the family and Leo.

3.5/5


Side note: I bought this on sale, it doesn’t appear to be on sale now, it is not worth paying $9.99

Dungeon Crawl

Dungeon Crawl (The Twenty-Sided Sorceress #8) By: Annie Bellet

Plot:

New Rule: Never owe a vampire a favor…
Nearly a year after defeating her evil ex, sorceress Jade Crow has found some peace running her comic book store and gaming with her friends. Until the vampire who helped her win against Samir comes knocking and wants the favor repaid.
The Archivist’s request looks simple on its surface. Go into an empty house and check for magic items.
There’s just a tiny problem: simple is not Jade’s forte. There are lies around every turn and soon she’s neck deep in undead.
Not all quests are what they seem and laid to rest doesn’t mean the dead stay buried…

Review:

I’m not sure why this book was necessary. I kind of wish Bellet had just moved on from the main characters because I feel like this didn’t really bring much to the table. It was more of Jade kicking magical butt, but there was no character growth and it felt weird after the big fight from the previous book. It was almost like a big epilogue with a random bad guy in it.

Also, Alec’s mysterious bad guys that show up were really random and didn’t really have any kind of bearing on the overall story.

Overall, I was disappointed.

2.5/5

Veiled Threat

Veiled Threat (Rylee Adamson #7) By: Shannon Mayer

Plot:

Demons are putting rips in the veil in order to cross over and steal my friends and allies away.

But, going after them isn’t even close to simple. The deepest level of the veil is not a place you can just open a doorway too, after all, and of course, that’s where they’ve been taken.

As fate would have it, it looks like I might get some help from a trained demon slayer and his fire breathing ride.

The only problem? Said demon slayer claims to have family ties to me. And I’ve never trusted my family.

Nor am I about to start now.

Review:

This book was nonstop from the minute it started to the very end. That kind of pace just doesn’t work for me. By the end I was skimming because it felt like it was just another fight with Rylee kicking butt. Nothing meant anything anymore.

It was also mainly just build up for the upcoming fight with Orion. Lots and lots of build up with the goal Rylee was working toward for the book kind of feeling contrived except for what happens to Milly and that just seemed like back peddling.

I don’t know, I was more than a bit disappointed. I was hoping to finish the series, but after this I’m not in a rush, which makes me sad.

3/5