Iron and Magic – Ilona Andrews

Worth reading if you’re an Ilona Andrews fan and completist, which I am. Weaker than the Kate Daniels books from which this one spins off. There are other spinoffs that use major characters from the main series, and they have the advantage of dealing with characters the reader cares about. It’s hard to care about Hugh.

Hugh is known - from several books in the main series - as a super-powered bully and thug. He falls from grace when he discovers - to his surprise, apparently - that his boss doesn’t approve of serious harm done to the boss’s daughter. At the start of this book he has been on a months-long bender. From which he emerges a reformed man.

The Hugh of I&M has little in common with the Hugh of the earlier books. The cast of I&M has little in common with the cast of the earlier books - except for cameos by some lesser characters - so this book is basically and fantasy/romance with new characters in a previously-developed world.