Hugh d'Ambray is the villian everyone loves to hate but he has met his equal in Elara Harper. Watching these two fight each other for dominance is almost as exciting at the supernatural attacks where they need to join forces to protect their people.
Hugh d'Ambray is the villian everyone loves to hate. I loved Hugh as Kate's nemesis in Magic Breaks. I appreciated Hugh as the antagonist because he was more evenly matched with Kate as a magic user and as a swordsman. He is just a lot more vicious. A lot more. For the first time in the series, I felt a moment of real anxiety when Hugh had Kate helpless. Roland loomed in the background, always a threat but since he was all-powerful and god-like there couldn't be any real clash between Kate and Roland which would allow Kate a fair chance, at least not at the beginning of the series. Hugh gave us our first flesh and blood villian to fight.
We cheered when Kate manipulated Roland by telling him of Hugh's attack on her knowing Roland would tossed aside Hugh as his warlord. You know you did! Now, we see the sad effect this had on Hugh after centuries by Roland's side. Hugh is a broken man at the start of Iron and Magic. He has spent the last few months drunk. He realizes for the first time in centuries what it means to have nothing. No money, no power, no entitlement. Hugh has become used to being offered whatever he wants, the best of the best, and not worrying about such petty things as cost. He now is left almost begging for aid.
Roland has given his Master of the Dead, Landon Nez, the green light to pick off Hugh's Iron Dogs. Hugh needs money, supplies and a safe place for his men who have stayed loyal to him, not Roland. He send scouts to find the Dogs someplace that would need their services, no matter the cost. What they find is a castle in Berry Hill, Kentucky. Roland wants their land and has sent Landon Nez to force them out. They could use the Iron Dogs protection and Hugh's experience. But after years of doing Roland's bidding, even abandoning allies as Roland demands, the only way they will agree to an alliance with Hugh d'Ambray and his Iron Dogs is he agrees to a marriage of convenience.
Elara Harper isn't any more interested in marrying Hugh as he is her, but they both need to protect their people. She isn't going to allow a manipulative asshole like Hugh d'Ambray to take over either. Everything between Hugh and Elara becomes a battle of wits and wills to stay one step ahead of the other, and everything is negotiable. Especially once they both begin to realize just how much they like the challenge of trying to outmaneuver the other. Elara and Hugh might not be ready for wedded bliss, but they will stand together when death comes knocking on their castle door.
I enjoyed watching Hugh and Elara snipe at each other even as their respect for each other grows. Once they realize they are both working toward the same goals, there is still fun in taking potshots at each other. There is no doubt that Hugh and Elara enjoy their continued friction almost to the point of being an aphrodisiac.
What I love most about Iron and Magic is that the authors, in making Hugh the hero of the story, didn't try to make Hugh into a wonderful, kind soul and misunderstood man. He's a controlling, manipulative asshole from beginning to the end, but as long as he is not attacking our Kate or any of her allies, we can appreciate this controlling, manipulative asshole since he and his Iron Dogs are now focusing on protecting everyone in the castle that we come to care about.
"How is it that (he) made more holes in you than in swiss cheese, but your assholeness survived?"
"(He) doesn't have a knife big enough to kill my assholeness."
Now, I am not saying the I like Hugh d'Ambray (although by the end I did) but we do come to see why he has the loyalty of the Iron Dogs. Never forget he is the cold-blooded killer that Roland and Voron raised and in the end he does what is best for Hugh and for his Iron Dogs but he also comes to see the village and its people as his as well and risks his life to protect them.
There is still so much to learn about Elara and her people. Goodreads notes that this book is The Iron Covenant #1. I haven't read anything confirming this, but I do hope to see more stories of Hugh and Elara, even after the anticipated end of the Kate Daniels' series with Magic Triumphs, so that I can continue to
Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.