Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Sweep with Me by Ilona Andrews

The biggest Innkeeper holiday is coming up and it's a doozy. A celebration of the day that the innkeepers signed a treaty to start hosting alien beings on earth. It's a day that any creature may claim a room at any inn. 
One of her guests is from a race that rarely comes to Earth; an inkeeper might never see it in their time serving an inn. This particular Drifan is a liege, the leader of her group. And she has a meeting set up with a very rich, very shady developer.
Dina is also dealing with a natural hunter, a Medamouth, which would be fine if she didn't have a brace of Koo-Kos (very chicken and prey-like) also visiting. 
I wish this book had been longer but it was a nice little bite that expanded the world even if some of the storylines weren't necessarily needed. 


Four stars
Follows Sweep of the Blade
This book came out December 20th, 2016
Ebook of my own on Kindle
Opinions are my own

Reread in January 2022 as ebook, July 2022, December 2022 as ebook from Libby; August 2024 as Graphic Audio from Audible Premium Plus



One Fell Sweep by Ilona Andrews

Sean has returned and he and Dina are just getting settled into being Inkeepers when she gets an SOS from her sister. The one who married a space vampire but couldn't come back when their parents disappeared. But she's family. So Dina rounds up her her werewolf and asks for a favor from a friend and heads toward the furthest reaches of space to rescue her sister from a planet inhabited by exiles. She barely gets her sister and niece off planet and back to Earth when a being, one of the last of it's kind arrives at the inn. So, now, while getting her sister back to normal and teaching her niece about the Inn, she's also warding off a ruthless species that is intent on killing her guest.
A nice conclusion to the first part of the series while already setting up Dina's sister's stories. Definitely read this series in order but definitely read this series.

Four stars
Followed by Sweep with Me
This book came out November 13, 2015
Ebook of my own on Kindle
Opinions are my own

Reread January 2022July 2022December 2022 as Graphic Audio from Libby

Monday, March 29, 2021

Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews

I think that it is definitely worth investing in at least the first three books of the Innkeeper Chronicles. The fourth book is also amazing but the first three tell Dina and Sean's story. In this book, Dina has been asked to host a summit. Not just any summit, but one between warring factions of alien beings. There are familiar friends (and enemies). And we get to meet a group called the Hope-Crushing Horde. 
Of course, why would any of this be easy? Especially since Dina still isn't sure what has happened to Sean after he left at the end of the last book to explore the Universe. She's just trying to cope as best she can while keeping warring groups under control. But the Arbitrator, the one who set up the summit, may not have told her everything she will need to know in order to survive.

Four stars
Follows Clean Sweep
Followed by One Fell Sweep
This book came out November 13, 2015
Ebook of my own on Kindle
Opinions are my own

Reread January 2022July 2022December 2022 as Graphic Audio from Libby, August 2024 as Graphic Audio from Audible Plus

Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews

I read the fourth book in this series first and did feel like I missed some things. Plus, I love Ilona Andrews so I figured, why not read the whole series? And I'm so glad I did. I highly suggest getting at least the first three books at one time because the books, okay on their own, really shine as a trilogy.
This book is great with setting up the world building. We've got Dina Demille who is an innkeeper. Her parents disappeared and she's wondering where they are. Her sister married and moved away. Her brother is a wanderer. Maybe not a hard world to build until you realize that Dina is actually linked to her inn and that they people that stay at her inn are beings from other planets using Earth as a place to stop on their travels. 
From the opening chapter, we actually get a glimpse of this one Dina approaches one of her neighbors. Something has been killing dogs in the neighborhood and she wants Sean Evans to take care of it. At first, he denies responsibility (and the fact that he's a werewolf) but she finds him staking his territory on her apple trees later that night. It's a hilarious encounter that only gets better.

Three stars
Followed by Sweep in Peace
eBook of mine on Kindle
This book came out December 2nd, 2013
Opinions are my own

Reread July 4, 2023, August 2024 as GraphicBook audiobook -- Very Fun

Sunday, March 28, 2021

Murder at Wedgefield Manor by Erica Ruth Neubauer

I very much appreciated that Jane got to expand as a detective. This definitely wasn't one of those "the detective only solves it when the murderer tries to kill them" stories. It was nice to see her grow as a detective. It was sort of interesting that more than one person actually looked to her to fix everything when a mechanic from the Wedgefield Manor is murdered. After the events of the last book, that does make some sense - she's part of the family (in a sense) so she can be trusted to keep a secret and she does have some experience.
Her experience isn't especially vast though so it helps that her beau from the last book, Mr. Redvers, also mysteriously appears on the scene and is able to stay long enough to help solve not only the murder but some other mysteries as well.
Maybe everything doesn't hang together perfectly but it was overall an enjoyable read and I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

Four stars
This book comes out March 30th
Follows Murder at the Mena House
Followed by Danger on the Atlantic
ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Saturday, March 27, 2021

Wilde Child by Eloisa James

Two sisters. Thaddeus Erskine Shaw, heir to a dukedom, has been interested in two sisters. But both have married other people. He certainly isn't interested in the third. Lady Joan Wilde is most certainly not a biological Wilde. She has the blond hair and features of the man her mother had a wild affair with (and eventually ran away with him.) Lady Joan is a living scandal. And that's even before she decides to don breeches and play Hamlet. Thaddeus can't believe that her father would allow it. Actually, no one in the family seems to have minded Joan's earlier brushes with scandal so maybe they won't care about this one. But Thaddeus will certainly make it his business to stop her.
And that is mostly covers the blurb on the cover. Quite frankly, I was trying to figure out how that would fill a whole book because an uptight man berating the woman he eventually falls in love with isn't a book that I particularly wanted to read. But, of course, there is more to the story and a lot if it has to do with why Thaddeus is so rigid and seeing him relax a bit. Also getting to see Joan, who starts off pretty awesome and sure of herself, really get to stretch her wings and then find her place. 

Four stars
Wildes of Lindow Castle #6
Follows Say Yes to the Duke
This book comes out March 30th
ARC kindly provided by HarperCollins Publishers and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Reread as hard copy from the library June 2024

Friday, March 26, 2021

Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers

A body has turned up in the bathtub of a house that he didn't belong to. This is at the same time that a prominent financier has disappeared. Lord Peter Wimsey is called in to help when the man who owned the bathtub is accused of the murder. He is thrown into a mystery that comes down to the underpinnings of one man's ego.
Great instance of Peter having PTSD which, of course, wasn't talked about at the time so, I think, a wonderful addition to the story. Disappointingly casual racism in the book especially towards Jewish people.

Four stars
Followed by Clouds of Witness
This book came out in 1923
Audiobook from Audible Plus Catalog
Opinions are my own