Clean Sweep

By Ilona Andrews

Book Overview

On the outside, Dina Demille is the epitome of normal. She runs a quaint Victorian Bed and Breakfast in a small Texas town, owns a Shih Tzu named Beast, and is a perfect neighbor, whose biggest problem should be what to serve her guests for breakfast. But Dina is...different: Her broom is a deadly weapon; her Inn is magic and thinks for itself. Meant to be a lodging for otherworldly visitors, the only permanent guest is a retired Galactic aristocrat who can't leave the grounds because she's responsible for the deaths of millions and someone might shoot her on sight. Under the circumstances, "normal" is a bit of a stretch for Dina.

And now, something with wicked claws and deepwater teeth has begun to hunt at night...Feeling responsible for her neighbors, Dina decides to get involved. Before long, she has to juggle dealing with the annoyingly attractive, ex-military, new neighbor, Sean Evans-an alpha-strain werewolf-and the equally arresting cosmic vampire soldier, Arland, while trying to keep her inn and its guests safe. But the enemy she's facing is unlike anything she's ever encountered before. It's smart, vicious, and lethal, and putting herself between this creature and her neighbors might just cost her everything.

*This is a short novel, about 60,000 words.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1641972971
• ISBN13: 9781641972970
• Release Date: December 2013
• Publisher: Nancy Yost Literary Agency, Inc
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Inter-Galactic Sentient Inn and Innkeeper Tossed Out the Welcome Mat

After reading a great review from Kimberly @Caffeinated Reader blog, I was eager to try this one. I was already a fan of the Kate Daniels series by the author and love their blend of worldbuilding, action plots, and slower developing character plots. Clean Sweep is the first book in a series so it had the job of introduction and providing a compelling story. I like how they steadily revealed the characters and the Innkeeper world. It's an interesting blend of sci-fi and urban fantasy. The story opens with Dina Demille the Innkeeper of her newly reopened inn discovering that something large and predatory has begun eviscerating and eating the neighborhood dogs of her small Texas suburban town. Her first guess is the handsome and fit werewolf who claims the neighborhood as his turf, but Sean Evans is as mystified as she is. He doesn't even seem to know who or what she is even when she has to use magic against him. Dina's job and priority is the care of the Inn and her sole guest, but she is well aware the attacks will escalate and eventually go after the vulnerable humans around her. She will not stand by and watch it happen even if other innkeepers would. Sean is not one to let it go, either. They work together and figure out just what they are up against even as she brings Sean up to speed on just how much bigger and badder his world really is. Soon, the trouble escalates when a clan of vampires gets involved and Dina realizes she is in deeper than she knew. With the aid of her inn, her trusty broom, her Shih Tzu dog, and the two alpha males who insist on treating her as fragile, they prepare to do battle with the predator and his beasts wrecking havoc. Alright, the story grabbed my attention from the beginning. I enjoyed the characters, the fun elements of the world particularly the whimsical and possibly sentient inn itself. The conflict was formidable and posed trouble, but I confess that I was more interested in Dina and her world, Sean, the galaxy of interesting people out there, and of course the vampires. There was mild lag, but I expected it since Clean Sweep had the job of introducing matter. I do hope the broader mystery of what happened to Dina's parents and her ongoing efforts to gain higher rating for her inn will continue to be addressed in the series. The opening relationships and hint of attraction and resistance between the three main parties was a good hook. I found Dina's permanent inn guest a hoot and hope the duchess is around for more. Side point- After finally finishing the earlier written Edge series, I spotted a cameo of George and Jack as adults walking through the inter-dimensional market place. All in all, it was a great start and promises to only get better. Fans of the author pair, of sci-fi, and of urban fantasy should definitely give this book/series a try

Great worldbuilding.

Forget everything you know about vampires and werewolves in these novels, they are actually interstellar aliens traveling to and from Earth using it as a waystation. Dina runs an magical inn in Texas that as a rough description is like a cross between Casita from Encanto and the Tardis from Doctor Who with its ability to follow directions from the inkeeper and create rooms to a guests taste by magic and defies the laws of physics. This series is fantastic, it picks up more as the series goes on. It's not as good as the Kate Daniels series but it is still better than most run of the mill fantasy/ sci-fi and isn't dry.