Clean Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles, #1)

by Ilona Andrews

"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 Shi-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."--Page 4 of cover.

• ISBN10: 1494388588
• ISBN13: 9781494388584
• Publish Date: 20 December 2013
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 234
• Language: English

Reviews

[layawaydragon]

I can see where this is going and I'm tired of waiting for it. The world setup felts a bit wonky, this marriage of magic and technology on uneven territory. I wasn't connected to the bland trope characters, though Beast the dog was a hoot. And I liked the idea, not much the execution.

[annieb123]

This is a genuinely readable and entertaining paranormal UF with an interesting setup and plot arc. I really enjoyed it. There's a dash of romance, but it's not overwhelming. It's a promising series start and getting the other books in the series to binge has already led to me procrastinating a bunch of my eARC reading for review.

Very cool series starter.

[booksandcats]

This book was great.

It wasn't at all what I expected and I have to say I enjoyed it, it was a really pleasant surprise. The mix between magic and technical stuff is fascinating, and quite unique, at least as far as books that I have read so far.

I loved the characters, Dina is really cool as main character, she is very composed, she thinks things through and tries to always do the right thing and for the good of people is willing to take risks. Her calm and collected way was really nice, especially when it was somewhat bothered and shaken by Sean.

The storyline was interesting as well, the way the vampires got into it, how they worked together to defeat the bad guy. I really liked this as an introduction to this universe and I would highly recommend this for anyone who likes Fantasy, badass female characters and unique worlds.

[bookperson]

I liked it in the first half, but when all the sci-fi elements started Iwas too overwhelmed. But for those who like pnr and need something new - that is the book for you

[scarr]

***10/31/2020 REREAD***
time to enjoy this series again before the year ends. I need some light-hearted urban fantasy this Halloween

[Berls]

I have had this book on my TBR forever - if it weren't for book club I have no idea when I would have read it, since I've been dragging my heels really reading anything from this author.

And that would have been a shame because I really enjoyed the story - it was quite different. The role of an innkeeper is unique and quirky. I liked the characters and will look forward to reading more. The narration was good, though not my favorite from Renee. Maybe an A, instead of her usual A+

[MurderByDeath]

I'm a huge fan of Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels series and had heard nothing but great things about this first book of a new series about a special kind of innkeeper offering sanctuary to all kinds.   The rave reviews are well earned - it is a great story with very intriguing characters.  The Andrews team takes a whole different spin on werewolves and vampires, and I'm in love with the sentient inn named Gertrude.  It's a great plot, fast paced and well written (although with more than a few copy writing errors).  I was very invested in all three main characters.   The only reason I didn't rate it higher (besides the poor copy writing), is purely subjective.  This story is a blending of traditional urban fantasy with its magic and paranormal entities, and science fiction.  My friends know I really don't like science fiction, especially if it's the outer space variety.  it just leaves me flat and disinterested, so whenever this story touched on those parts of its world building I tended to disengage.   Not enough to avoid reading the second book though; they had me at tall, broad and blond (the vampire), and really, I am besotted with that house.

[jesstheaudiobookworm]

3.5 ★ Audiobook⎮ This is going to be an extremely subjective review and my intention is not to deter anyone from giving this audiobook a chance. I do feel that it is a quality piece of work with some wonderful attributes. If intense paranormal fiction with all the trimmings is your kind of thing, then Clean Sweep will be perfect for you! It's got witches, werewolves, vampires, and lots of alien critters. It's basically the literary version of the television show Supernatural. If I had known that going in, odds are that I never would have started this. I have tried (and failed) to get into Supernatural on numerous occasions, but it's just not for me. I think I must prefer my paranormal fiction to stick to two (or less) types of supernatural species instead of throwing in the whole lot of the paranormal universe in a package deal. If this story had stuck with just specializing in witches (like I was expecting it to), I'm sure I would have enjoyed it much more. But no, Andrews had to throw in werewolves, and then vampires, and then a whole host of obscure alien creatures (which is where I lost interest). I'm not ready to rule out alien fiction altogether, but I haven't had much luck with it so far. I will say that I preferred this story so much more than other comparable paranormal fiction. Namely, the Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. Unlike Obsidian, I was actually able to finish this audiobook. Clean Sweep was a much less juvenile story and this one installment far surpassed anything I have ever experienced from Armentrout. If you are a fan of hers, I seriously encourage you to give this series a shot. The writing is so much better, the protagonist is very likable, and the plot isn't centered around a romance. And this story never gave me the impression that it was written for someone younger than me.

Aside from the basic plot premise not being "my cup of tea", I was a bit disturbed by a couple of points. Firstly, the story opens with the protagonist investigating a string of gruesome dog murders in her neighborhood. For some people, that may not bother them at all. However, animal abuse is extremely difficult for me to tolerate in literature (and life). My motto is "kill the character, save the dog". No apologies. So obviously, this bit of the story struck me the wrong way. The second thing was that I found the writing in some scenes to be a little graphic in contrast to the overall feel of the story. The writing was very descriptive, which was generally a positive thing, but it sometimes came off a teensy bit scifi horror-ish. Maybe I've gone soft from reading so much YA, but I wasn't prepared for that type of gore in this particular story. Coincidentally, that is also one of the primary problems I had when watching Supernatural. But it's not anything that would deter me from continuing on with the series. However, my general lack of interest in the story is. Unless one day I suddenly become majorly interested in all things alien/paranormal, I don't think I would particularly gain anything from listening to the rest of the series. I don't feel bad about having listened to this installment, especially because it was only 7 hours long, but I don't exactly feel like it was time well spent for me either. But I must emphasize that I do think a great number of you would feel very differently, especially if you already know you are attracted to this type of genre. I would recommend this to someone in a heartbeat if I felt that it was their "thing" because it is extremely well-written, witty, the characters are refreshing, and it has a great plot. I'm just not into aliens. It's that simple.

Narration review: If I didn't know better, I would swear this audiobook was narrated by Dolly Parton herself. Raudman's voice has a warm, velvety tone that I absolutely loved. Her "Texan" accent definitely added to the story's atmosphere, but did sound a little overdone. However, it didn't bother me as much as I initially thought it would and I actually came to enjoy it as the story went on. I have listened to a sample of another narration she did without the accent and preferred it much more. Her voice really is pleasing to the ear. It's a shame that her considerable repertoire doesn't include more titles that immediately appeal to me, because I would definitely love to hear more of her. ♣︎

[EBookObsessed]

This story was certainly not as exciting as a Kate Daniels novel, but it was still a very enjoyable story with its own interesting world building. The very premises of the story opens up the possibility for future stories and characters

Dina Demille is the innkeeper of the Gertrude Hunt. This Inn is no ordinary Inn and if you're human, you had best be finding a local Holiday Inn because Gertrude Hunt is not for you. Dina's Inn caters to supernatural beings. Of course, right now, she only has one guest who looks like a sweet elderly southern lady but just happens to be an intergalactic fugitive responsible for millions of dead, and quite possibly because she ate them all, with a little BBQ sauce. But everyone knows that an Inn's grounds are neutral territory and as long as she doesn't leave the grounds, none of the bounty hunters looking to collect the multiple contract against her can do anything. Such is an average day in the life of an innkeeper.

Dina helped her parents run their inn until one day, while Dina was off at college, her parents and their Inn just vanished. Dina hopes to make such a success of her inn that eventually someone will come in and recognize her parents' portrait and she might finally find out what happened to them.

But finding her parents is her future goal. Right now she is desperately trying to make a success out of Gertrude Hunt, and the fact that there seems to be something hunting and killing the dogs in the neighborhood is not good for business.

Dina was hoping that Sean Evans, the werewolf who moved into the neighborhood would do something about it, since he obviously claimed the territory and should feel the need to defend it, but merely suggesting it has turned Dina's Inn into a battlefield of wills between Dina and Sean.

As an Innkeeper, Dina's magic is tied to the inn and while she is on the grounds, she and the Inn can keep their guests safe. Off of the grounds is another story but if Sean won't defend the neighborhood, Dina might just need to step in and hope for the best. When a battalion of Vampires parks their spaceship just outside of Earth's atmosphere and several of their warriors, in full battle armor, come knocking on Dina's door, this problem might just be out of Dina and Sean's league.

THOUGHTS:
I once again went with audiobook on this one and the story was definitely easier to follow than the Kate Daniels series. Only issue I had was that it is the same narrator so it took some reminding to remember that it was a different story and not Kate narrating.

It is not as action-packed or as exciting as the Kate Daniels series, but I enjoyed the story and the introduction of the characters. The premise of a magical Inn for supernatural opens up any possibility of characters to be introduced and story lines to followed. It is more than just Earth supernaturals and also a suggestion that all supernatural come from outer space. There are portals to other planets and dimensions where guests can come from and they really do have creative license to create new creatures, cultures and abilities. There is a loose connection to The Edge series.

In this story, Sean Evans is a werewolf but apparently his parents didn't tell him much about his people's history, so through Dina's introduction of the great big universe to Sean, we are given our beginning foundation to the world of the innkeeper chronicles.

I definitely found it entertaining and I want to see where Ilona plans to take the series in future stories.

[kimbacaffeinate]

What is interesting is how this series began. Longtime fans of the Innkeeper Chronicles will know that this was originally a serial on Gordon and Ilona’s website. I would have loved to be a part of reading it and interacting with them. Having said that, I adore Raudman on audio and I am glad that the Andrews team published it on audio. At just under eight hours, I quickly consumed this and I am eager for more.

The world is fascinating in that magic on Earth is contained in these magical Inns scattered all over the Earth. Supernatural creatures come from space visit Earth and stay at these inns. Cool right?!? I love magical homes, inns, castles that become almost characters themselves. A keeper runs each Inn and Dina our protagonist is an innkeeper. They protect the guest, keep humans from learning about them and remain neutral during times of dispute, war etc. Poor Dina does not have the luxury when her town is threatened. Oh boy!

“…Something isn’t right with you and this property. Strange things happen around it. I don’t know what is going on, but I will find out. You could make it easier on yourself by coming clean.”
“Sure. This is a magic bed-and-breakfast and the two guys in my kitchen are aliens from outerspace.”

“You will show that thing to me and from now on, I will deal with them." I opened my eyes really wide and fluttered my eyelashes at him. "I'm sorry, I must've missed your coronation ceremony. Silly me.”

We get a little romance with two suitors. One might infer a love triangle but it is not developed enough to cast labels and Dina clearly lets us know whom she favors with a running thought commentary in her head that I found hilarious. We have Arland and Sean an alpha werewolf vying for her attentions and aiding with the threat to both inn and community. Andrews weaved in snark, made the male figures alluring and humorous for our benefit. In typical Andrews’ fashion, they are taking their time developing the romance and that is just fine by me. I look forward to seeing how it all develops.

“I have spent my spare time studying literature popular with young women of this planet. One should always study the battlefield."
Sean glanced at him. "And?"
"I suggest you give up now. According to my research, in a vampire-werewolf love triangle, the vampire always gets the girl.”

“That suit has gone to your head." "It's not the suit, buttercup." "I don't do pet names." "Do you do werewolves?" "Okay, I'm not talking to you anymore.”

Clean Sweep was a winner and further confirmation that I adore the Ilona Andrews writing team and their spectacular world building. This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer