Sweep in Peace by lona Andrews

Title: Sweep in Peace
Author: Ilona Andrews
Genre: Fantasy
Series: InnKeeper Chronicles # 2

Trade Paperback, 301 pages
Publication: November 13, 2015 by Createspace

Source: Personal library.

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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… 

I’ve been on an Ilona Andrews roll! I’m a big fan of both their Kate Daniel and InnKeeper Chronicles series. After finishing Magic Breaks and Magic Stars, I stepped away from Kate and the gang to Dinah and The Gertrud Hunt with Sweep in Peace, the second novel in the Innkeeper Chronicles. The book starts off 6 months after the events of the previous book. Dinah’s only bed and breakfast occupant is none other than the infamous Caldenia, a wanted woman across the galaxy. So financially, Dinah isn’t doing so well. However, an opportunity to host a peace treaty at her Inn falls into her lap; one that will solve most of her financial troubles…there’s no way Dinah can turn it down, even though all the other Innkeeper within the area did; afraid of the chaos that is likely to ensue when three rival clans come to stay under one roof…what’s the worst that can happen, right?

It’s been awhile since I last read Clean Sweep, my memories of the first book is a bit fuzzy. But I didn’t know how much I missed these characters till I started Sweep in Peace. It feels great to immerse myself in Dinah’s world once again. There were a couple of familiar characters from the previous novel but a lot of new ones as well. My favorite new character was Orro, the red clever chef that Dinah hires. Orro was a riot! I loved his dramatics, he brought endless humor to the story. We also got to see more of Caldenia, she too was hilarious…which still trips me out because she’s supposed to be some crazy wanted murderer! Apparently the nice looking ones are the ones you gotta watch out for! 

The first book was jammed packed with action, but this time around the pacing of the book was slower and read more like a whodunit mystery. Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. By stepping away from all the action sequences, Andrews focused more on the characters themselves highlighting the characters’ pain, fears, concerns, emotions they shared in common if they actually stopped and thought about it. 

Sweep in Peace was another excellent novel by Andrews and great follow-up to Clean Sweep. Many authors nowadays have branched out to self-publishing and I’ve noticed that yes, even though you may love their traditional published work it sometimes doesn’t translate to self-publishing. Whether it’s the editing, direction change in term of genre, writing style…something is usually off/different and I find myself hesitant to pick up their self-published work. But It’s not the case for Andrews. Not only did they published this online first as a serial for free but reading it, you know it’s written by Andrews with their unique signature never lost. I’m looking forward to reading the third installment, One Fell Sweep! If you haven’t read this series, you need to get on it A.S.A.P!