Thursday, December 22, 2016

Review: One Fell Sweep by Ilona Andrews


One Fell Sweep
Author:  Ilona Andrews
Series:  Innkeeper Chronicles 3
Publisher:  NYLA, December 20, 2016
Format:  eBook, 257 pages
List Price:  US$4.99
ISBN:  9781943772711

DeMille may run the nicest Bed and Breakfast in Red Deer, Texas, but she caters to very particular kind of guest… the kind that no one on Earth is supposed to know about. Guests like a former intergalactic tyrant with an impressive bounty on her head, the Lord Marshal of a powerful vampire clan, and a displaced-and-superhot werewolf; so don’t stand too close, or you may be collateral damage.

But what passes for Dina’s normal life is about to be thrown into chaos. First, she must rescue her long-distant older sister, Maud, who’s been exiled with her family to a planet that functions as the most lawless penal colony since Botany Bay. Then she agrees to help a guest whose last chance at saving his civilization could bring death and disaster to all Dina holds dear. Now Gertrude Hunt is under siege by a clan of assassins. To keep her guests safe and to find her missing parents, Dina will risk everything, even if she has and may have to pay the ultimate price. Though Sean may have something to say about that.



Melanie's Thoughts

One Fell Sweep is the third instalment in Ilona Andrews Innkeeper Chronicles. Andrews releases the books of this series (including OFS) in part chapter instalments on their website for free. Fans wait anxiously by their computers every Friday for their Innkeeper fix and now we get to enjoy it all over again with a bit more detail and a gorgeous cover.

This time Dina has not one but two challenges. She has to rescue her sister Maud and niece from a backwater, restricted vampire planet. She doesn't have to do it alone as along for the mission is her werewolf- almost-boyfriend Sean and Arland, the Lord Marshal. With her sister back safe in the Inn there is another difficult decision for Dina to make. One of the few survivors of the Hiru, a race that are being driven to extinction, has claimed refuge in the Gertrude Hunt. In exchange the Hiru will arrange for Dina to ask one question to an omnipotent being. For Dina this represents her one chance to find out where her parents are. The bigger question however, is what she is willing to do to ask it. It's not long before Dina is tested on exactly that when the Gertrude Hunt is besieged by a race of assassins come to murder the Hiru. Everything is at risk - the safety of her guests, the clue to finding her parents, her sister and her niece and her hunky werewolf, Sean. All her skills as an innkeeper will be required to save the Hiru and her loved ones all while avoiding revealing the existence of supernaturals to humanity.

Not to sound too gushy...I LOVE this series and One Fell Sweep does not disappoint. Dina has now pipped* Kate Daniels to the post as my favourite female butt kicking heroine. I thought that Andrews was very clever to weave a couple of different plot lines together that fed seamlessly into the overall plot arc of trying to find her parents. I liked the addition of Maud and her daughter even though she was used mainly as a romantic interest for Arland. I also enjoyed the resolution of the 'will she/won't she' with Sean. Andrews didn't make us wait too long to see where their relationship would go with very satisfactory results. Andrews does a fantastic job at creating an interesting supporting cast. The other 'regulars' Calendia, Orro, Beast and, of course, the Gertrude Hunt itself were well balanced and contributed to the plot overall. The Hiru were almost the perfect victims and the Draziri (the assassins) were ruthlessly evil. For a novella Andrews provides a lot of detail on the background of their characters especially, the Draziri.

Whenever I read one of the Innkeeper stories I always marvel that Andrews gives us these great characters for free. The price however, is having to wait each week to find out what happens next. Getting to enjoy the whole story along with some fantastic illustrations is more than worth the cost of buying the eBook. Even if you have followed the weekly chapter release I would definitely urge you to buy the book. The 'finessing' of the story, additional information and the amended ending make it worth it. Great book, great series and check out the cover! Gorgeous.


*pipped at/to the post - to be beaten in a competition or race by a very small amount.





Previously

Clean Sweep
Innkeeper Chronicles 1
NYLA, December 2, 2013
eBook, 175 pages

On the outside, Dina DeMille is the epitome of normal. She runs a quaint Victorian Bed and Breakfast in a small Texas town, owns a Shih Tzu named Beast, and is a perfect neighbor, whose biggest problem should be what to serve her guests for breakfast. But Dina is...different: Her broom is a deadly weapon; her Inn is magic and thinks for itself. Meant to be a lodging for otherworldly visitors, the only permanent guest is a retired Galactic aristocrat who can’t leave the grounds because she’s responsible for the deaths of millions and someone might shoot her on sight. Under the circumstances, "normal" is a bit of a stretch for Dina.

And now, something with wicked claws and deepwater teeth has begun to hunt at night....Feeling responsible for her neighbors, Dina decides to get involved. Before long, she has to juggle dealing with the annoyingly attractive, ex-military, new neighbor, Sean Evans—an alpha-strain werewolf—and the equally arresting cosmic vampire soldier, Arland, while trying to keep her inn and its guests safe. But the enemy she’s facing is unlike anything she’s ever encountered before. It’s smart, vicious, and lethal, and putting herself between this creature and her neighbors might just cost her everything.


See Melanie's Review here.



Sweep in Peace
Innkeeper Chronicles 2
NYLA, November 13, 2015
eBook, 237 pages

Dina DeMille doesn’t run your typical Bed and Breakfast. Her inn defies laws of physics, her fluffy dog is secretly a monster, and the only paying guest is a former Galactic tyrant with a price on her head. But the inn needs guests to thrive, and guests have been scarce, so when an Arbitrator shows up at Dina's door and asks her to host a peace summit between three warring species, she jumps on the chance.

Unfortunately, for Dina, keeping the peace between Space Vampires, the Hope-Crushing Horde, and the devious Merchants of Baha-char is much easier said than done. On top of keeping her guests from murdering each other, she must find a chef, remodel the inn...and risk everything, even her life, to save the man she might fall in love with. But then it's all in the day's work for an Innkeeper…


See Melanie's Review here.

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