Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews
Series: Innkeeper Chronicles (#2)
Rating: ★★★★★
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…
Book 1: Clean Sweep
I think it’s a fairly well-known fact that I’m a HUGE Ilona Andrews fan-girl. I try not to let this influence my reviews of their books, and in fact I think it makes me judge them a little more harshly in some lights, but the fact of the matter is that I just flat-out enjoy their stories. It’s hard for me to find serious faults with them. And when I’m having fun, when I’m invested, and when an author can bring out the sort of emotions that Ilona Andrews manages – well, that results in an excellent review from me.
Dina’s stuck in the middle of some serious peace negotiations – where neither side is really sure if they can even begin to compromise on their terms to reach peace. Each faction wants peace, I think that much is clear, but I think I’ve never had a fiction novel show me so clearly how hard it is to get to that when you’ve got years of war and devastation behind you. This novel struck at my heart for many reasons, not the least of which was the fact that war is devastating. I think that’s clear from our current events, and peace is something we need now, more than ever. I find myself wishing that we could protect all of Earth’s inhabitants with a peace summit – even one as difficult as the one here.
I wish I’d written this review yesterday, before I heard about the devastation that’s happened in Paris, before I was reminded about how much we hurt each other on thisplanet. I’m finding it hard to think of anything else, now.
This is an excellent book. A great addition into the series, and I really, honestly, can’t wait to see where they take us next. The world keeps getting bigger – when you have a full universe to work with, it should – and I find there are more and more characters that I care about and want to see a LOT more of.
The stakes are high in this novel, not just for the races seeking peace, but for Dina herself. If you’ve read The Edge series, you’re familiar with George and Jack – we get quite a bit more of them here. And all I can say is that it’s not enough. I need so much more with them, because it’s more than obvious that none of their stories are finished yet either.
Ilona Andrews is my favorite author. With good reason.
I’m starting! And here’s Ilona Andrews’ letter to my boss:
Dear [Angela]’s Boss,
It has been conclusively proven that the wellbeing of employees is the main contributing factor to the superior performance at work. Please see the attached link to Harvard Business Review. It is imperative to [Angela]’s wellbeing that she be permitted to have a day off in an effort to review Sweep in Peace, a volume on importance of employee ethics, team building, and personal responsibility. We hope that you will recognize the value of the material and allow [Angela] the opportunity to continue her development as a skilled and exemplary employee of your company.
Sincerely, Ilona Andrews.
I’ll save the actual review for when I read the final version that’s released (and I have the hard-copy in my greedy hands), but this was an awesome story.
Can I just live my life in Ilona Andrews heads, with their characters and in their worlds?
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