Rowena
Written on Feb 16, 2018
"Dina DeMille isn't your typical Bed and Breakfast owner. Her inn defies laws of physics, her dog is secretly a monster, and the only permanent guest of the inn is a former Galactic tyrant with a price on her head. 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, bridging the gap between space vampires, the Hope Crushing Horde, and the merchants of Baha-char is much easier said than done. To make the summit a success, she must find a chef, remodel the inn, keep her guests from murdering each other, 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"--
- ISBN10 1518741282
- ISBN13 9781518741289
- Publish Date 22 October 2015
- Publish Status Active
- Imprint Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 314
- Language English
Reviews
Berls
Written on Oct 3, 2017
I found myself wishing I remembered some of the characters better, but I was able to catch on.
For me, what makes this series cool is the concept of the inn and innkeeper. It's so different from anything I've read. The other races are enjoyable, and some are very unique as well.
I love Renee's narration, probably the BEST thing about the series :)
MurderByDeath
Written on Jun 23, 2017
EBookObsessed
Written on Feb 4, 2016
Dina Demille, Innkeeper of Gertrude Hunt, bed-and-breakfast for supernaturals, is approached by an arbitrator to host the Nexus summit. Nexus is a mineral rich rock that has been settled by two battling entities, the vampires and otrokar, also known as the Hope Crushing Horde. It is also settled by the Merchants of Baha-char who bleed profits off the vampires and otrokar to get their minerals off the planet. After decades of vicious battling for control of the Nexus, all parties have agreed to a sit down conference. All the other Innkeepers have refused to allow these parties into their Inns for fear of bloodshed, not only between the parties, but for the safety of their other guests and staff. That leads the arbitrators to Dina’s door. With only a 3 1/2 star rating on her tiny Inn, Dina knows a successful summit will be a huge boost to her Inn and will bring in many more guests. The money for a successful summit will also help her be able to make improvements. So Dina agrees to the crazy risk to her life and to her future.
The vampire Marshall Lord Arland, who we met in the first story, is among the Vampires of the House Krahr who are in attendance. There is also Nuan Cee and his family representing the Merchants of Baha-char, who we also met in the first story. The otrokar or their PR friendlier name, the Hope Crushing Horde, are a new introduction to the series.
Another new introduction, who is easily my new favorite character, is the top level, Red Cleaver Chef who Dina was able to hire for the summit. She was desperate and was told that Orro was in hiding after he lost his Red Cleaver standing after one of his guests was poisoned. Dina was truly desperate and goes in search of Orro. Orro is a Quillonian which is humanoid creature, sort of a mix between a dog and porcupine and he is also a prima dona. He has the best drama queen moments over everything. He has got to stay in this series. Orro likes playing the martyr but Dina uses his own vanity to convince him that only he could succeed in the challenge of serving these warring parties and keeping them in culinary bliss.
Dina does everything possible to keep the peace between the parties and risks life and limb for them. What Dina doesn’t know is that there are certain parties who are determined that the summit fail and the arbitrator who is determined that it is successful. And none of them are concerned that Dina and her Inn may become collateral damage.
THOUGHTS:
I thought Orro was hysterical and the narrator did a wonderful job of playing up his drama queen theatrics/hissy fits beautifully. We have to keep him. Have. To.
Although it started a bit slow while Dina used magic to revise the inn for the guests, created a ballroom, hired Orro (love him), once the guests arrived there was a lot going on in this story. While logic told us, the readers, that this war was not winnable and that a “you keep on your side and we’ll keep on our side” solution would be perfect, there are decades of spilled blood and lost love ones and thoughts of them are what are keeping the parties from agreeing to any thing less than complete domination of the planet. So it kept you guessing how they would finally get a resolution.
We were missing Sean Evans, the werewolf, who left Dina with a kiss at the end of Clean Sweep and wanted to get out into the wide galaxy for a look around. Dina spent what little free time she had lamenting where he went and if he would come back and we wondered too if he was going to show his face, especially since Lord Arland was there again trying to stake a claim on Dina. We do get to see Sean again but not until very, very late in the story.
I am enjoying the series. My only hope is that we don’t get stuck on characters. The potential for new storylines and characters is endless and yet the first story after the initial set up novel included characters staying at the inn who we met in the prior book. Yes, it is good to bring back characters that the readers already know, but I am hoping the future books will only contain Dina, Sean, Orro and Caldenia and then branch out with new visitors each time. I would hate to see it stuck in a rut so soon.
kimbacaffeinate
Written on Jan 13, 2016
“Caldenia blinked. “Who are the attending parties?”
“The Holy Anocracy represented by House Krahr, the Hope-crushing Horde, and the Merchants of Baha-char. They coming here for Arbitration and they will probably try to murder each other the moment they walk through the door.”
Caldenia’s eyes widened. “Do you really think so? This is absolutely marvelous!”
She would think so, wouldn’t she?”
The Andrews took us through Dina’s role as the Innkeeper during the arbitrations from beginning to end. There was never a dull moment. I was either stifling a giggle or holding my breath. Sweep in Peace had many different threads from the chief she hired to handling warrior boredom and it held me spellbound. Tricks, theft, murder, and promises all kept Dina forever juggling. The girl is clever and I do not recommend crossing her. Yet Dina is also a softy, and you cannot help admire her. I love that if she friends you, she champions you.
“Football is a wargame of land acquisition.”
We see familiar characters like Sean, the vampire and the local law both of which provided some humor. We also get updates, and see a certain wolf from book one. I am told some of the new characters introduced were from the Edge series, so now I need to read them. Caldenia was a hoot and sometimes downright creepy. The Inn itself is magical, and I would never want to leave..although other guests may be an issue. LOL.
“The universe was full of wonders. Some of them would drive you insane if you thought about them too long.”
The Andrews are a spectacular writing team bringing scenes and emotions to life. I could see each character/species as if they were sitting next to me. They did a wonderful job of explaining and allowing us to identify with the warring factions. Renée Raudman brought them all the characters to life, especially the merchants and our outcast chef. The Andrews and Raudman together are magic! I recommend listening to anything the three of them produce.
“Are you going to let me go?” Jack asked quietly. This review was originally posted on Caffeinated Book Reviewer
Linda
Written on Jan 2, 2016
Full review to come soon.
Melanie
Written on Dec 24, 2015
This is such a fun series. First all, it is originally published as a serial on Ilona Andrews website for free for their fans. I just love that they are willing to do this for their fans. It is not something that they have to do, but they love doing it and the fans love it too. I’m not a fan of serials, so even with the first book, I choose to wait until it was done, planning to read the finished piece. Then they put the ebook for sale, which I quickly bought for convenience and to support this great idea. Then, they took it one step further and got their awesome narrator, Reneé Raudman, to put it on audio. This got me extra excited. So when they did the second book, I sat on my hands, holding my breath, hoping beyond hope that Reneé Raudman would read the second book. So here we are!!!
Okay, enough of me babbling about how much I love Ilona Andrews and Reneé Raudman. I should probably talk about the story. This series is about Dina DeMille is an innkeeper of Gertrude Hunt. Gertrude Hunt is no ordinary inn. It’s an inn for people not from Earth. It has special abilities and is truly a character in this story as much as any person in this story. It is also neutral ground. The innkeeper will protect anyone who is a guest within it’s walls.
Enter the arbitrator. He needs to try to negotiate a peace treaty between three warring factions. The arbitrator has asked all the other inns and they have turned him down. It is too dangerous and too unlikely to bring peace. But Dina, is desperate. Her inn needs guest and money, so she decides to take the risk.
One group are the vampires of the Holy Cosmic Anocracy, which appeared in the first book. The second group are the Otrokars aka the Hope Crushing Horde. Lastly are the Merchants of Baha-char. They are a fox like group, which are all about the money and are not the war-like race, unlike the two other groups.
When Dina realizes that she will need a staff to cook for her and her 36 guests, she goes looking for someone. She locates a highly rated chef, that has been disgraced because he has been accused of poisoning someone. He is also full of drama, which gives many chuckle worthy moments. Orro is a character that really helped make the book.
My future chef was an oversized, hysterical hedgehog with a martyr complex.
Lastly, I’ll add the icing on the cake. If you’ve read Ilona Andrews The Edge series, you will recognize the arbitrator. He is George Camarine. He appears as a child throughout the series. Here, he is all grown up. You can still see many of his aspects, though he is not the same person as he was in that series. He also brings along Jake, his shapeshifting brother, and Gaston another character from the Edge. Lark/Sophie also makes an appearance too. I’ve been wanting to see them again, ever since they ended The Edge series.
This is another great addition to the series. I love how Ilona Andrews is able to ordinary and make it extraordinary. When she buys PS4 to alleviate boredom of a group of warriors. She is sent on a mission to find a “grumpy cat” for a different guest. And hands a football to the other warriors and explains that “Football is a wargame of land acquisition.” It is just a well written series, with phenomenal characters and some of the best world building on the market.
A quote of when Orro first sees Dina’s kitchen. Needless to say, he is unimpressed. LOL
“Like a primitive savage, who sets out to tame the wilderness armed with nothing but a knife and his indomitable will, I will persevere. I will wrestle victory from the greedy jaws of defeat. I shall rise like a bird of prey upon the current of the wind, my talons raised for the kill, and I shall strike true.”
“Oh wow. I hope the inn filmed that.”
Narration
Once again, Reneé Raudman is an artist with the narration of this story. There are so many different characters and yet she is able to do all the different voices and give them all different personality and voice. There were men, women, children and Orro. Orro, was full of enough drama to fill an entire high school theater. She even did a great job bringing back the personality of characters that she hasn’t voiced in at least three years in The Edge characters. She continues to prove to my why I keep her on my list of favorite narrators.