REVIEW: One Fell Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles #3) by Ilona Andrews
Dina DeMille may run the nicest Bed and Breakfast in Red Deer, Texas, but she caters to a 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 to pay the ultimate price. Though Sean may have something to say about that!
Review,
Dear Ilona Andrews,
I really enjoyed the first part of this online serial, which you offered for free on your site every week for several months and have now published as a complete book. I also read and enjoyed the second part of the story but after thinking it over I decided to not review it simply because I really hated one of the characters, who clearly was not supposed to be a bad guy (at most I felt you wanted me to think he had shades of grey, but overall was a decent guy who would do anything to stop the war). I was afraid that he would be pulling strings behind the curtain in this book as well, and I guess he did help set certain events in motion. However, thankfully for my enjoyment, he at most appeared very briefly in this part of this story. Even if events went into the general direction he may have wanted to, I never felt that he robbed Dina of her agency here.
I loved this book. I know that the story has not changed much from the online version but I think I noticed that some transitional parts were smoothed out and yes, we have a little sex at the end – one scene.
At the beginning of the story Dina receives an unexpected message from her sister, asking for help. Dina’s sister never asks for help, so Dina understands that the situation must be dire. I have to be honest – I do not remember Dina’s sister ever being mentioned in the series before, although her brother Klaus was. I could be wrong of course – I did not reread the first and second parts before starting this review. If I am right, I do wonder if Maud’s existence was planned from the very beginning or decided on just before this book began. Not that I am complaining, I just think that if I am right it shows how in an online serial the author can easily take the story in some unexpected places.
In any event, I was so happy that we met Maud and her daughter Helen. Apparently Maud married a vampire and went to live with him several years ago, but then he betrayed his House and they exiled him, Maud, and their daughter. They were banished to a planet where both of them had to take mercenary jobs to survive, her husband started to make even more stupid choices, and he eventually got himself killed. Maud and her five-year-old daughter avenged his death, but they could not survive on that planet for much longer.
We learn all of this after Dina manages to get them off the planet, but to do so she must ask Arland, a powerful vampire who is a Marshal of House Khar and who holds Dina in the highest affection, for help. Arland is only too happy to oblige, offering Dina his ship and other assistance to get her to the planet (not everybody can get to that planet because reasons). And we have known since the end of the second book that Dina and Sean were going to attempt to date, so Sean jumps at this opportunity to help the girl he’s interested in rescue her sister in the galaxy far away, and off they go.
Their little expedition ends well, Maud and Helen are with them now, and they are on the way back to the Inn. Arland is more than a little smitten by Maud’s fighting skills by the way .
All of this happens pretty quickly in the first few chapters of the story, and then the main storyline starts when an alien species, the Hiru, come to Dina and ask for her help to bring Archivarius to her Inn. Hiru have been almost destroyed by another alien species called the Draziri. The Draziri destroyed their home planet and almost drove Hiru to extinction. Most of their people are dead and the Hiru want to ask Archivarius where they find a planet whose conditions would be sustainable for them. Archivarius is some omnipotent being who can give the Hiru the answers they seek to avoid total annihilation by the Draziri. The problem is twofold – Archivarius will be arriving to the Inn from different places in different forms and they would need help to get there and Draziri folks are already following Dina. One of them is threatening her when she did not even make the decision yet. She wants to help Hiru but she is hesitant to put other guests in danger.
Dina’s present guests however do not mind a little bit of fighting apparently.
“I will be more than delighted to lend a hand,” Arland said. “You are a guest,” Maud said. “I’m on a sojourn,” he said. “Trying to improve my physical and mental state. A little exercise is good for the body. It is my understanding that an innkeeper must meet the needs of her “guests. I require a battle.” “Nobody asked me,” Caldenia said, gliding into the room from the kitchen. “Because I’m apparently, what is the saying, chopped kidneys.” “Liver,” I said. “Thank you, my dear. Chopped liver. However, I would welcome some excitement as well. Life can be so dreadfully dull without a little spice, especially around the holidays.” Only Caldenia would call the threat of an interstellar invasion “a little spice.”
However as Sean tells her:
“What makes you so sure I’ll take them up on it?” He grinned at me, turning into the old Sean Evans. The transformation was so sudden, I blinked to make sure I didn’t imagine it. “You’re a carebear.” “What?” “You’re the type to get out of a perfectly dry car in the middle of a storm in your best dress so you can scoop a wet dog off the road. You help people, Dina. That’s what you do. And the Hiru need help.” “I’m sensible,” I told him. “I’ll give you till tonight,” he said. “You won’t even last twenty-four hours.”
Of course, Dina decides to offer the the Hiru who came to her both shelter and protection from the Draziri, and to help his species to retrieve Archivarius, bring his parts to her Inn and to ask him a question about their new planet. Hiru as a payment offers her a chance to ask Archivarius a second question – they know that Dina is still searching for her parents and asking Archivarius a question is incredibly expensive. The Hiru have pooled all their remaining resources to be able to ask their question and to be able to pay for Dina’s question as well. Of course she is unable to resist a chance to learn something about what happened to her folks.
The Draziri are formidable opponents, but Sean, Arland and Maud (and Maud’s little daughter is a vampire, let’s not forget that) are quite skilled in their own right. I liked how a lot of action was mixed with both some romantic elements and a lot of humor. Their humor really works for me!
I think I would classify the book as a romantic fantasy, but I really liked how Dina and Sean’s relationship developed and how they managed to negotiate a couple of very important things in between all the war action. I adore Dina and I think I love her even more after this book, if that is possible. I liked that she did not play games where her love life was concerned. She may have hesitated over whether it was too fast to fall for Sean even thought they had been through so much, but she let him know that she loved him. And I loved Sean too. I did not mind at all that Sean went to do his thing in Book One and for most of Book Two he and Dina were not really together – I thought he needed to obtain experience in the world Dina grew up in, even if lots of that experience was very painful. But I really liked them together in this book. I think they make great partners.
There wasn’t a character in this book that I did not like – Armand and Maud were fantastic. Helen was great. I am usually perfectly okay with children in the stories if they fit in the story (same as any adult character, really), and Helen, besides being funny and fierce and vulnerable after what she had been through, acted like a *five year old* girl. She was not meek at all, but she did not act as if she knew more than the adults did, she did not try to give adults advice. She acted the way a little girl with her magical upbringing and her human upbringing should act.
I hesitated over which excerpt to quote to demonstrate the humor in the book and decided on this one. Dina really wants to celebrate Christmas, which she missed by a couple of days because of all the strategizing and fighting , and the person who is explaining why this could be a problem is a seven foot tall Red Cleaver Chef Orro, who looks like a giant Hedgehog and who can make a feast out of a few simple ingredients.
““I want to celebrate Christmas,” I said. “Isn’t it a little late for Christmas?” Caldenia asked. “I know, but I still want to celebrate it. I want the tree and decorations. I want gifts and Christmas music. I don’t care how many Draziri are out there. They won’t take Christmas from me.” “Yes, but we don’t have a suitable male,” Orro said. “And only one dog.” I looked at him.
“What is this Christmas?” Wing asked. Orro turned from the stove. “It’s the rite of passage during which the young males of the human species learn to display aggression and use weapons.” Sean stopped what he was doing and looked at Orro. “The young men go out in small packs,” Orro continued. “They brave the cold and come into conflict with other packs and they have to prove their dominance through physical combat. Their fathers teach them lessons in the proper use of swear words, and the young men have to undergo tests of endurance, like holding soap in their mouths and licking cold metal objects.” Sean made a strangled noise. “At the end of their trials, they go to see a wise elder in a red suit to prove their worth. If they are judged worthy, the family erects a ceremonial tree and presents them with gifts of weapons.” Sean was clearly struggling, because his head was shaking. “Also,” Orro added, “a sacrificial poultry is prepared and then given to the wild animals, probably to appease the nature spirits.” Sean roared with laughter. I grinned at him. He leaned back, shaking, laughter exploding out of him. “Your culture is so complicated,” Wing said. “On my world, we just go on a quest to kill something big.”
““I suppose small Helen could substitute for a male,” Orro said thoughtfully. “I’m sure we can get her a proper gun.” “We can’t,” Sean managed between gulps of laughter. “She’ll put her eye out.” “That does seem to be a prevalent concern among parents,” Orro said. “Perhaps we could employ some sort of protective eye wear.” “Orro, you and I must watch Christmas Story together, so I can explain that movie to you.” I opened another screen. “Images,Christmas feast.”
I cannot recommend this story highly enough – it has romance, adventures in space, creative world building, great characters and humor.
And I thought that the resolution of the main storyline in this part of the story was full of real wisdom.
Grade: B+
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Yes, the Christmas Story reference was a huge favorite for me too. So much so that I made my hubby read that part.
Are George, Jack, Gaston or Lark (the children–now grown up–from The Edge series) in this one? I want a series about them! I have this in my TBR, but haven’t gotten to it yet (soon, perhaps).
It was mentioned in the first book that Dina had a sister.
@autonomous: George actively featured in the second book, but since he was the character I really hated, I won’t be upset if I never hear about him again to be honest. Lark was there too. In this book George does something off page and it is mentioned, so I suspect you will get your wish and he will resurface in one way or another. So yeah George and Lark in the second book and a little bit about George in this one.
@HelenB: Thank you !
@Make Kay: I shared it with some other people too :-).
@Sirius: I adore Jack and George in the Edge books, and I started reading this series mostly because of the promised appearance by George.
Well, by a third of the way through the second book, I hated hated hated George so much that I’m not sure I could stand to re-read the Edge books where he appears.
I am so glad that I’m not alone in this! I was feeling quite the anomaly.
PS I do think Dina is awesome, though, and being a huge fan of dogs-in-books, I am all about Beast.
@hapax: I hated George so much that I could not even bring myself to review the second part and I reviewed the first one here. To be clear though – I still liked the second part on the intellectual level, I thought the story made sense. I just really REALLY despise the manipulative characters like him and did not want *how I felt about one character* to completely overshadow my review and I know it would have been.
I liked the third part much better despite the tiny bit of off page George and despite being pretty sure that he is not gone. I just hope that when he appears next time he won’t overshadow Dina and other characters. Beast rocks!
Thanks for the great review!
The Kate books remain my favorite Andrews series, but I Iove this one, too, because it shares so many of the best traits–rich storytelling and worldbuilding, strong female characters, knuckle-biting tension combined with terrific humor, etc. The books seem to be doing well, sales-wise, so I’m hoping that means this series will continue for awhile.
Also, as much as I enjoy reading these books (and the comments) in their serialized form, I much prefer reading them all in one go (or, at least, in bigger chunks) in book form.
Yeah George actively put me off the second book as well.
I would really have liked a scene where he had to explain to his organisation why they’re no longer welcome in inns.
I think the problem is that Xanatos speed chess type characters are quite hard to tolerate when POV characters are continually their victims.
@Annamal: That is absolutely a big part of the problem for me with the characters like this. Felt like big part of Dina’s agency was kind of taken away from her – not completely of course because she would usually choose to do the right thing anyway, but it felt that way and it does feel that way when POV character is so badly manipulated . (Hello Dumbledore!).
And even the satisfaction of him not being welcome is no longer there, so felt like the intent was to show that his actions were all right – end satisfied the means, etc.
But as I said elsewhere my other problem with Puppeteers characters is that I just don’t buy them – people are more complex than that and often small details in your plan will go wrong because even though somebody will mostly do as you say , but not completely and boom, whole plan you thought so carefully about is no longer viable.
@Susan: Thank you! Kate’s series remain my favorite too, then this one is very close and Edge series, well started being okay, but not totally wooed me and by book three I was very happy when they announced that they are no longer continue with those series.
I loved this one. Big bounce back from the second book. I had read the first book what felt like eons ago so I couldn;t remember anything about Dina’s sister. But Maud and her daughter’s introduction here was one of those great scenes that basically sets the tone of the series. Great stuff.
I had no idea George & Jack would make an appearance in this series. Happy surprise when they did. I had no problem with George in Book 2. But then again, he was the least of the issues I had with book 2.
@Sirius:
Did you read Ilona Andrew’s The Edge Series? George starts out as a little boy in that series….one that is dying because he can’t stop using his powers to bring animals back to life. Yeah, he had pretty ass-y moments in Innkeeper, but after reading him grow up in the Edge, I just can’t hate him. He was literally killing himself trying to keep everything around him alive – so his manipulations in Innkeeper make a lot of sense to me, he was always the kind of character that would go extreme lengths to save lives.
@Harukogirl: Yes I have read “The Edge” series, or I should say I read books one through three. These books are my least favorite work of theirs anyway – I thought books one and two were okay, but nothing special, found book three irritating, tried and put aside book four and was happy when they announced that series were finished. I did not mind George there, but sadly hated him in these books – I don’t care for characters like him, who seem to think that everything is okay as long as the end is going to be good. I totally understand that his manipulations made sense (with the caviat that I never bought into human beings dancing to the song of the puppet masters exactly as puppet masters envisioned ), but I still hate it.
@Tina: May I ask what were your other issues with book two? Just asking for the conversation sake, don’t answer if you don’t want to :-).