Reviews

Looked through the books I have checked out on Libby right now, saw I still had this, and realized I didn’t really care whether or not I finished it. Therefore, DNF. I like my cozy stuff—Legends & Lattes was great—but this didn’t do anything for me, which is too bad. I’ve been wanting to read more books with werewolf characters.

laurenjodi's review

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4.0

Clean Sweep
4 Stars

Dina Demille seems like a perfectly normal person with a perfectly normal life running an inn in a small Texas town. But nothing is as it seems in Dina’s world because her inn is magic and her one and only guest is an intergalactic criminal. Unfortunately for Dina, keeping a low profile becomes impossible when something with fangs and claws starts preying on her neighbors' pets, and she must deal not only with the sexy local alpha werewolf who refuses to cooperate, but a visiting vampire with his own agenda. What could possible go wrong?

Husband and wife writing duo, Ilona Andrews, are skilled at creating imaginative worlds populated by incredible characters and action packed stories. The Innkeeper Chronicles is no exception. Nevertheless, for me, something is missing from their latest endeavor.

Perhaps it is the intergalactic nature of this current series (I’m really not a fan of aliens as an explanation for weirdness), or maybe it is the fact that no heroine can quite match Kate Daniels and no hero can possibly be as crazy alpha as Curran. Regardless, Dina and Sean’s interactions are witty and their banter is fun, but their chemistry also feels forced at times rather than natural.

Moreover, the plot suffers from first book syndrome as there is a great deal of sidetracking in order to describe the various settings (particularly the inn and its abilities) as well as the various species that populate the universe and their individual characteristics. The unfortunate result of this is that I found it easy to put the audiobook aside despite Renee Raudman’s brilliant narration.

All in all, an intriguing beginning to a new and promising series and I can only hope that with the world building out of the way, future installments will have that little extra something that makes Andrews’ other works so captivating.