Summary:
Playing host to peace negotiations between alien vampires, bullies and merchants has never been so tricky but Innkeeper Dina Demille needs the guests and money to ensure her Inn thrives. Between finding a chef, keeping the suspicions of local law enforcement at bay and dealing with the Arbitrator who might not be whom he seems, Dina is in for some more trouble.
Overview:
Fair warning, I love the wonderfully talented husband and wife team that authors the Ilona Andrews books and have pretty much read everything they have written. This is the second book in the Innkeepers Chronicles and starts up about 6 months after the finish of book one – Clean Sweep.
The book is fairly short, similar to Clean Sweep, at only 315 pages long and took me around 4.5 hours to finish. It has a decidedly darker tone that the first book with some violence, although nothing graphic.
The Gertrude Hunt Inn and Dina are playing hosts to three parties in a last gap arbitration to determine the rights of the planet Onetrikvasth IV, colloquially known as Nexus. These parties are:
• The Holy Cosmic Anocracy – think alien vampires and yes Arland is back!
• The Hope-Crushing Horde – rivals of the vampires, an alien warrior race
• The Merchants of Baha-Char – fluffy, cute fox like aliens to whom trade is everything
Nexus is rich in a substance called Kuyo that is prized for its application to improve a warrior’s strength, agility, recovery etc. The war has been raging for 20 Nexus years and each side has suffered devastating losses.
Dina is a wonderful main character and her empathy for each of the sides really stands out in this book. Her number one concern is for the welfare of her guests, even if they do make life difficult for her. We also see Arland again as one of the representatives of the vampires and while there is some mild flirtations from his side the story doesn’t revolve around the romance.
The supporting characters are wonderful too, I love Orro the Chef that Dina has to hire. He seriously needs to cook for me. The descriptions of his food still makes me drool. Caldenia is still the wonderfully droll but sadistic character I enjoyed in Clean Sweep and has some of the best lines in the book. We also see Officer Marais again and his suspicions about Dina and the Inn continue to grow.
For those of you who loved ‘The Edge’ series by Ilona Andrews you will be very happy to know that we get a glimpse of some of those characters, confirming that the two series are set in the same universe. I was always sad that there wasn’t more books as I loved the characters so being able to read about George, Jack, Gaston and Sophie made me very happy.
I found the plot in Sweep In Peace was a lot more suspenseful and the pacing was better than the first book. Unlike Clean Sweep I actually worried that Dina might not come out of the events completely unscathed. There is also a nice plot twist towards the end of the book that took me a little by surprise, but in a good way. Whilst the world building continues and the characters are getting more fleshed out I still feel that there is a lot more growth to be made. The conclusion manages to tie up a couple of plot points but still leaves plenty of material for the authors to use for future stories.
Conclusion:
I enjoyed the second installment of the Innkeeper Chronicles and am looking forward to book 3. The characters are well written and the plot has a touch of whimsy thrown into the mystery. It’s not a book I got completely engrossed in, rather a book I enjoyed but didn’t mind putting it down occasionally to deal with real life. If you enjoyed book 1, Clean Sweep, or anything else that Ilona Andrews has written you will like Sweep In Peace.
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Laugh-out-loud humor in a unique storyline
Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2019
Caldenia smiled. “A Quillonian chef. My dear, you shouldn’t have. Does he have moral scruples? I am reasonably sure this summit will result in at least one murder, and I have never tasted otrokar.” (63)I am a big fan of this book. Andrews has continued a unique storyline, with some significant improvements from the first book. I give this a solid 4.5 stars; I wanted to give it 5, but there were a few flaws I’ll address that stopped me from giving it a full “everyone NEEDS to read it” rating. In quick summary, Dina has accepted an offer to host a peace summit between warring factions on the planet Nexus. We see the vampire Arland return, along with Nuan Cee’s Merchant family, and a new, appropriately named Hope-Crushing Horde of otrokars. With everyone more intent on killing each other than negotiating, Dina must assist the Arbitrators in brokering a peace treaty.This book made me frequently laugh out loud. Caldenia returns as one of my favorite characters, but I’ll now add Orro to my list, Dina’s newly hired, incredibly talented chef with highly volatile emotions. His flowery speeches and loud lamentings about what a challenge life is were highlights of this book, and his final scene left me a little teary-eyed with happiness. To be honest, I tear up at a lot of cute things, but that scene was wonderful.“Very well. Like a primitive savage who sets out to tame the wilderness armed with nothing but a knife and his indomitable will, I will persevere!” (Orro, 62)Dina is still fiery and loveable as well. There’s a bit of pining for Sean that seemed a little much given how they left things, but overall she’s still fiercely independent and refuses to cave to Arland’s advances.I had a problem with world building in the last book and this sequel was a drastic improvement, or perhaps I was paying more attention given my judgement of the last. Regardless, the worlds and people came to life far better this time. Andrews did do some significant info-dumping when building scenes, particularly when Dina constructed the Inn’s ballroom and returned to Baha-char. It wasn’t poorly done, though, as it created concrete visuals of the settings and various new species. Andrews also used a great blend of humor and description, e.g. “colorful banners of the Hope-Crushing Horde” (31), which thankfully helped keep the story more lighthearted given the war theme.The climax scenes were significantly better this time as well. Build-up to suspenseful parts actually occurred, and the two final twists were SO GOOD. Everything matters in this book. Andrews does an excellent job of hiding pivotal clues that only become evident after the twist occurs, although this made me scrutinize every scene as I read.On that note, I am not a fan of mysteries left open-ended and this book had quite a few that were only evident because I was reading so much into each scene. Because these weren’t resolved this time around, I’ll again spend too much time trying to figure them out while reading book three.Finally, the motivations for some characters were somewhat forced upon the reader. I’ll lead by saying that I easily empathize with book characters, villains and heroines both, so it wasn’t impossible for me to empathize with Lord Robart and Nuan Cee when their motivations for the war were revealed. However, it would have been easier had their storylines been developed slightly earlier in the book. I understand the value of big reveals, but these were too abrupt to instigate genuine feelings of empathy for their respective situations without feeling forced.Overall, this was a great sequel to Clean Sweep and showed some specific improvements. The final climax scene and message gave me all the sentimental feels, and the humor Andrews wove throughout these books has created a very entertaining series. I’m also just a big fan of a book where tea plays a supporting role in 50% of the scenes. Everyone, no matter the species, enjoys tea in this world. Like Dina says in the first few pages, “I needed tea. Tea would make everything better.” (3)
Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2019
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Review: Sweep In Peace - The Innkeeper Chronicles (Book 2) - Wonderful book, even better than the first!
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2017Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2019
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2018
Top reviews from other countries
sjhigbee
Intriguing fantasy/sci fi blend that makes for a cracking story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 26, 2017
Meera
4.5* Political power play!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 18, 2021
I Heart Books
Like the other 3 star reviewer
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 2, 2016
Toomanybooksnotenoughtime
The Innkeeper Chronicles just got better!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 4, 2016E. Wilson
Peace conference?? Not likely!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 18, 2019
