Installment 5 of the Innkeeper Chronicles

We pick up a bit after book 3, since book 4 follows Mod (Dina’s sister). Sean is now inn-keeping with Dina. Wilmos, a father like figure to Sean, has gone missing and the only way to get to him is to…host an intergalactic ‘The Bachlor’.

What an interesting ride. I really enjoyed seeing some favorite characters pop back in. The space chickens, Cookie, even the Cosco woman makes an appearance. Each challenge for the ‘competitors’ was interesting and seemed fairly well thought out. At the beginning of each chapter we’re given a kind of “when you last left us this was happening…” which works really well when reading each chapter week to week like on the authors’ blog but felt a little odd in the book when continuously reading. While I enjoyed this story, it wasn’t a favorite of the series. That ending though! What a doozy. Can’t wait for the next one!

The narrator did a wonderful job.

Many thanks to NetGalley for an audiobook ARC.

Sweep of the Heart
(Innkeeper Chronicles #6)
Ilona Andrews
The authors are a married couple who write under the pseudonym of Ilona Andrews. Ilona and Gordon met in an English Composition class in college. She was born in Russia, and he was a communications sergeant in the U.S. Army. Together they make a dynamic writing duo.
Dina and Sean are inn keepers. Not just any inn but Gertrude Hunt one of the special inns that host a variety of galactic species/visitors.
Wilmos (a werewolf) is missing, he’s been kidnapped. Dina and Sean are desperate to rescue him. But in order to access the portals they must first agree to host a bridal. The contestants on the Bachelor would not want to participate in this contest. The Dominion’s ruler is in search of a bride. There are twelve contestants; they have to prove their worth and why they should be the chosen one.
The bridal competition takes up most of the book and I found it fascinating. The last ¼ of the book returned our attention to the missing werewolf, Wilmos. He was kidnapped in order to trap Dina. She faces great danger in her quest to rescue Wilmos.
This tale is a combination, intrigue, romance, humor, fantasy, sci fi, thriller, and mystery. There are a lot of characters in this book, too many to keep up with. I was listening to the audiobook perhaps it would have been easier to keep up with them if I had been reading the book which I believe has a list of characters along with their role. The authors describe the culture, customs, atmosphere and manners of each contestant.
Outstanding quote: “The ugly truth about democracy is that it breeds anxiety. The responsibility for the government is shifted onto the body of the citizenry, who often lack the awareness and knowledge necessary to make informed decisions. They are tasked with electing their officials, they stress over it, they fall into despair when their side loses and act like their lives are over, and then when the government they elected inevitably does something they don’t want, they feel betrayed. There is no constancy in leadership, the policies vary wildly from one administration to the next, and one never knows where the nation shall be in ten years’ time. It is chaos.”

Dina and Sean have a lot going on in this one. A big event, and a missing person.

I had a great time listening to this one. The narrator did a great job with all the different species. I need a physical copy just to see how to spell them. I especially liked the Gooshidubs (spelling). I thought they were hilarious. And let's not forget the Murder Beaks.

As always, I loved the characters. I liked how comfortable Sean is as an Innkeeper now. I also liked getting a bit of a back story on the Inn's only permanent resident.

The ending left it wide open for more. Part of me wants it to be about Dina, but part of me wants to get back to Maud.

I adore Ilona Andrews and her work. The world building is so mesmerizing. And I love the idea of a sentient or almost sentient house connected to you and your magic. What a wonderful world. I love the push and pull and the 'what happens next' feel but without too much anxiety (for me the reader). I will continue to love Ilona Andrews and will probably read everything she puts out.

Sweep of the Heart is absolutely addictive, compelling, heart stopping and a frantic page-turner!

‘This book is flippin’ brilliant! I could not put it down. It is so well written – you can feel the tension, the anxiety, the need to walk on eggshells, cry, laugh and cheer. It will get your pulse racing! And the humor and wit is as always completely awesome. I literally can’t say enough so…..

JUST WOW, what a fantastic book!!! Just when you think you know where the story is going it veers off in another direction and you scramble to keep up…I utterly loved every page I devoured it.

So compelling and engrossing I have the Kindle version and was supplied the audio book from Netgally. Both are absolutely excellent!!!

Wilmos, Sean’s werewolf friend and advisor is kidnapped and the only way to reach the place he was taken is through a portal controlled by the Dominion. The Dominion agrees to give access if Dina and Sean host their spousal selection at Gertrude Hunt. This a huge undertaking with representatives from twelve different alien species consisting of around 300 guests. Several very tricky and dangerous species are in attendance sone of which are so violent they are usually band from coming to earth. It is a risky event, one refused by several other larger Inn’s and Dina and Sean would never consider under normal circumstances but they are unwilling to abandon Wilmos. Sean and Dina definitely have their work cut out for them to pull off the event..

Caldenia is a big part of the story!we learn how she becomes so hated and needed to request sanctuary at the Inn. Officer Marais is excellent as always and suprise, suprise, even the Costco lady has a reappearance and won’t you be surprised. We see the first Scholar Thek of the koo-ko, aka: space chickens!!! Thek is once again sharing his enlightened intellect as he saves Dina and Sean from a Spynx and is so funny and dramatic.

As usual, humor is woven through the story that at times had me laughing at loud and this book also has sone really dramatic events and so many things come to light that my breath was taken away by how complex and well woven the plot threads were so many things are revealed and so many questions remain.

The Innkeeper series is best read in order. Such a phenomenal series, so if you haven’t started you are in for a completely binge worthy experience and I highly recommend reading them.

Now for the audio version is was fantastic! Nora Sofyan performed all the voices so well with a original and recognizable voice for every character. She had me dying with his flamboyance and grandiose shenanigans! And his recommendations for Dina to take up a career in hijinks had me rolling! 100% Definitely recommend!

And hang in folks we find out what happened to Magnolia Green (Dina’s parents’ inn). No Kidding Must Read Book!!!

Sweep of the Heart by Ilona Andrews is a urban fantasy novella with science fiction elements, the fifth book in the Innkeeper Chronicles. The fifth book in the series heavily features an intergalactic dating reality show hosted by Dina DeMille and Sean Evans, the Innkeepers of Gertrude Hunt.

If you aren't aware "Ilona Andrews" is a husband-and-wife writing team and probably two of my favorite living authors. They produce the Innkeeper series as a serial on their website (where are my #FrInnDay people at?). The serial does not include the full ending, and there's usually some editing/updates to create the finished published version. In my humble opinion, they 100% stuck the ending here.

Though I did keep up with the serialized version, I cried again during one specific scene. I even tried to buck myself up before it happened, but these authors just know how to stab me in The Feels.

Nora Sofyan does an AMAZING job with this narration. I especially like how she voiced Gaston; it's exactly how I pictured it in my mind when I read this initially with my eyes.

Dina, the main character of the Innkeeper series, holds a special place in my heart. I actually created a wizard for a dungeons & dragons game that I modeled off of her, which was super fun!

I'm also very happy that I guessed correctly where the new door growing from Gertrude Hunt was going to open up. Man, do I want the next book already! I'll soothe that need by continuing to read the graphic novel version of the first book in the series on Tapas.

Tropes in this book include: paranormal, shifters, reality dating show

CW: violence, brief animal harm

DNF at 15.5 percent.

I wanted to try out a fantasy romance and unfortunately, I think this being midway through a series I just couldn't follow. I enjoyed the narration and the style this author wrote in, but if I can't retain what I'm reading I cannot continue on.

I definitely want to give Ilona Andrews another shot because I know a few of my fellow booktubers really enjoy her writing.

Thank you to #netgalley for this arc.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’d been following the serial for this as it was released and did something a little differently for this review. I don’t review audiobooks often, but as I had the digital version as well as the audio, I followed along with the print version as I listened. I get frustrated with some narrators as they will sometimes have weird pronunciation on words, or their phrasing so I wanted to clarify that I love this story, and this is mostly a review of the narration and how I felt it impacted my enjoyment of the story.

In this case, there was a little bit of a difference in how I generally hear Dina in my head, and how it was in the audio. I lived in the south, so I remembered my grandmother’s Texas drawl, and thought it’d be a more defined version of that. After a few minutes though, I found I liked it and it no longer had the same effect as when I first started out. The story comes across clearly, and the voices she does for the different characters are defined and jump well- you’re able to tell the difference in characters without any jarring and the announcer voice is a hoot.

I continue to love this series, it is so vividly written and the world building is so interesting, it puts me in the mind of Star Trek and I could see it as a TV series.
In this installment, we find Dina and Sean having to host a multitude of different inter-galactic species vying for their chosen one to become the spouse of the Dominion leader. All in an effort to rescue Sean's mentor, who has been kidnapped.
I enjoyed all the twists and turns the story took, and I especially enjoyed Dina and Sean's relationship and their friendships.

My least favorite book of the series. There was way too much character set up and description, not enough action. Given the storyline, we did need to know about all of the characters, but it was just slow and uninteresting.

I received the audiobook version of this from Netgalley (in exchange for my honest review) and I didn't like that it was unabridged. There were recaps of what had happened in the previous section which is unnecessary if you are reading a published book when you have all entire book at once. There was also supplemental information from the authors' blog and listening, I lost track of what was happening with the story. I had to stop listening and go to the book which I had cut and pasted from the blog and author newsletter. After reading it in paper form, I went back to finish listening.

I had listened to a couple previous books in the series recently in audio which had a full cast plus sound effects. So that experience didn't make the single narrator version, that this is, shine. The narrator did a decent job though.

I listened to this book instead of my norm of reading from a Kindle. The narrator was fantastic and did a great job voicing the various characthers/aliens. I found myself constantly fitting in listening to the story throughout my day as it's very exciting with lot's of action as are all of Ilona Andrews books. The main characters of Dina & Sean are engaging and their strategic problem solving is fascinating to follow. A fabulous 5 star book!

Wilmos, Sean’s werewolf friend and advisor is kidnapped and the only way to reach the place he was taken is through a portal controlled by the Dominion. They’ll agree to give access if Dina and Sean host their spousal selection at Gertrude Hunt. This is a huge undertaking with representatives from twelve different alien species. Several very tricky and dangerous. It is a risky event, one refused by the other Inn’s and Dina wouldn’t take it on except for the situation with Wilmos. Sean and Dina definitely have their work cut out for them.

Caldenia is a big part of the story. Officer Marais and even the Costco lady has a role. First Scholar Thek of the koo-ko, aka: space chickens!!! We met them in the novella, Sweep With Me, and First Scholar Thek is with us again sharing his enlightened intellect. So, so funny!

I’m always amazed by Ilona Andrews’ writing talent, they’re just so good, and I’m immediately sucked in every time I pick up one of their books. Here I was in wonder over their imagination, creating all the different species and worlds, and the ways Dina accommodated them at the Inn. At every turn there was a problem to overcome, but Dina and Sean tackled them together as a united team. As usual, humor is woven through the story that at times had me laughing at loud.

Sweep of the Heart is part of the Innkeeper series, book five, and these books are best read in order. Such a phenomenal series, so if you haven’t started you are in for a treat and you can binge read!

The audio version was fantastic! Nora Sofyan performed all the voices beautifully. I loved her portrayal of Dina, which for me was the most important as the lead, and she gave each character (there were many) a distinct voice. I listened at my usual 1.5-1.75x normal speed. Definite recommend!

I love this series and if you don’t mind spoilers for all the other books in the series you can read this but I say start with the first one so you will not be disappointed. Dina and Sean take on a contest for a ruler of a star empire to find a bride. Thanks to science, the spouse doesn’t have to be the same race as the ruler just be genetically compatible enough to mix DNA to have an heir. The two of them take on this task in order to get a favor from said ruler to track down Wilmos, a friend of theirs that has been kidnapped. Ninety percent of the book deals with the shenanigans of the spouse selection since they have also been told there will be an assassination attempt during the contest. The last ten percent deals with Wilmos’ rescue and that sheds some light on things in the past few books .As always the audio version of this is very entertaining and the teasers for each chapter really shine with the narration.

Dina and Sean are again forced to hold another major event at Gertrude Hunt in order to save Sean's mentor, the werewolf Wilmos. This time it is a marriage selection for the leader of the Dominion. Everyone from the Lees, the Vampires, and the Hope-Crushing Horde have a stake in the outcome, not to mention trying to keep the candidates safe. So many interesting species from across the galaxy are in attendance, thank goodness for Dina's knowledge to know how to deal with them all. I think my favorite are the Dushegubs, who are homicidal trees whose first, second and last option is always murder. (Yes, I wrote that correctly, homicidal trees!) The search for her parents and their inn continues and while some questions will be answered, new ones arise. I loved finding out what happened with George and Sophie and not to mention the Costco lady's identity.

The narrator, Nora Sofyan, was excellent! It takes a lot of talent to do a series like this because of the variety characters. Because they are all different species, it is expected that the individual voices will be unique, and Nora certainly delivers! This series has had a few different narrators and I think Nora is my new favorite.

This is one of my best-loved series and I have been reading/listening to it since the beginning. The world building and character development written by Ilona and Gordon are incredible. If you like epic fantasy, sci-fi, no-spice romance, and a little mystery, then be sure to check this out. This is book 6 of the entire series and I recommend reading them in order.

5+/5

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for letting me listen to this audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I chose to DNF this book at 40% because, while I really enjoyed the writing and the story, I think I need to read this series in order. That being said, I do plan to start the series from the beginning. I can tell these are books I will enjoy! I’m giving it four stars because that was how I felt about it when I stopped.

This was not bad, but it was not what I was expecting.

It started off well, and I was ready for a galactic adventure to find and save a kidnapped Wilmos, and figure out who was laying a trap for Dina and Sean, but instead, it turned out to be a Bachelor 2.0 with aliens for 90% of the book. Basically, Dina and Sean must host the Dominion’s Spouse selection in their Inn, and in exchange, they will have access to one of the Dominion’s portals to get to the planet where their friend is being held.

I am not a fan of competitions to find a spouse and Bachelor crap, so I was not super excited when I realized that most of this book would be about presenting contestants, having competitions, talent shows, organized dates, and an elimination process. I didn’t mind it at first, but instead of being a stepping stone for the plot to progress, it became the main focus of the book, and while it was not boring exactly, it’s not something that interest me that much, so I was not that involved in the book. There were nice, cute, and funny moments, and there was some action, but overall, I found the plot to be bland and the stakes didn’t feel that high, even though there was a lot of politics involved in the Spouse selection.

Another thing that annoyed me is that there are too many descriptions in this book. Maybe it would not have been so bad had I read the Kindle or physical version of it, but I received the audiobook, so I had to listen to descriptions about the people’s appearances, their clothing, the rooms, the clothing again (because they changed outfits), and the food for blocks of 10-15 minutes sometimes! It would have been faster for me to read it, so maybe it would not have appeared so long, but I swear, sometimes I zoned out a few times because it was just descriptions upon descriptions, upon more descriptions; what the representants of the delegations look like, what they are wearing, what type of food they enjoy eating for breakfast, how their quarters look… Those are all interesting details, but I don’t need to know them for all the delegations, it created some long descriptions that started to feel very repetitive after the third or fourth delegation.

The fact that there were so many characters didn’t help either. There were 12 contestants, and their retinue and their names just started to mingle and mix in my head after a while. The fact that I had the audiobook didn’t help either because I am very visual when it comes to names and species. I think that 12 contestants were too much, and in the end, only half of them ended up being relevant. Having the audiobook also means that I didn’t have the illustrations to help.

One thing that I really enjoyed about this book was the revelation of Caldenia’s past. I found it so interesting to learn more about her motives and history, and it was also heartbreaking. From the very beginning of this series, I’ve liked her, and I still think that she should have a bigger role in this series. She made this book more interesting at least, and she added some craziness to the political aspect of the book.

It was nice to see Sean take up the Innkeeper role, and I liked this side of him, but I really would have wanted to see more of him, and more of him and Dina together. Sean was mentioned here and there, and he was active a few times, but he felt like a secondary character that could have been absent without impacting the plot that much.

The usual subplot about Dina’s family was sprinkled here and there, of course, and we got some new information, but overall, we are still left with the same questions about their disappearance, and after 5 books I am just not involved in that specific subplot anymore. I would have been more involved if we’d gotten more pieces of information in the previous books, but I just feel that while it’s mentioned many times in each book, nothing is being done to develop this plotline.

The last 5% were very engaging though, and it is promising an interesting sixth book, I just hope that we will make progress with Dina’s parents’ plotline at last and that it will stop being dragged on from book to book. I will read the next book because as a whole, this series is very good, but this fifth book disappointed me. I am ready for a satisfying conclusion now. That being said, if you enjoyed spouse-hunting reality TV shows and detailed descriptions about what everyone is wearing and what the rooms look like, you will probably enjoy this book more than I did.

Well the Andrews have done it again and created a great story with plenty of twists and turns in it. How do you make a magical inn bonded to an Innkeeper to ignore most the laws a physics even more interesting. You host a Royal Bachelor competition Intergalactic style.

Sean and Dina are settling into life together at the Inn and everything is going pretty well overall. The Inn is growing. The permanent guest, Her Grace Caldenia, is content and the live in Chef Orro happy. Everything is going great until we learn Wilmos is missing and may need a little rescuing.

“Nothing can ever be easy,” he said. “Nope. We can’t even just walk into a trap like normal people. We have to work really hard first.”
....“We haven’t done anything dumb or dangerous for almost six months.” Sean pushed away from the wall on which he was leaning, walked over, and kissed me. “Let’s do this.”

To save their friend Sean and Dina need the use of a very special portal that only the Dominion can grant access to. No problem...they can strike a deal. Catch is to use the portal the Emperor of the Dominion (Caldenia's Nephew, cue family drama because she killed his father) needs the inn to finish out the Royal Selection (#Intergalactic Bachelor) at the inn so he can get it done and maybe not lose any more contestants.

I LOVED this. This isn't creepy bachelor where we watch one guy smooch on multiple chicks until he picks the hottest and most smoochable. No no no. Everyone still in the spouse selection is there for a boon for their people from the Dominion. Twelve contestants, from various sectors of the galaxy will compete to see who would be the best spouse, parent and partner to the Emperor. Everything is televised to the people of the Dominion and they get to vote on who they like the best.

The contest was so much fun...Seriously seeing characters from cultures we already know about was great but taking a tour of some of the other creatures from the galaxy was so interesting. The Andrews are so good at showing their readers through actions and events what drives certain characters and they did that beautifully here as well. I loved seeing all the characters interact with each other pushing buttons and seeing how the subtly tried to maneuver through the competition. Caldenia is definitely the best at it.

“He seems rather annoyed,” she said.
“You permanently damaged Surkar.”
“I did no such thing.”
“You broke his spirit.”
“Then it wasn’t that strong to begin with. Pain is the best teacher. Whether he learns his lesson is of no interest to me.”

The story is a big blend of political intrigue along with manipulation to get to the final selection. I loved every minute of it. Then there is all of the action of trying to find Wilmos and getting him back. Which led to some interesting discoveries and brought up more questions.

Thank you to the Andrews for another fun and fantastic story. Also bonus to the readers who loved the Edge Series...we get an update on some of our, favorite kids grown up, characters of George, Sophie and Jack.

Narration:

Nora Sofyan is new to the narration of Innkeeper chronicles. We previously listened to the fantastic Renee Raudman and while I'm not sure of the details on why the need to change I think Nora did a really good job picking up a series that previously had a different narrator. Dina the main voice of the series seems to be in good hands and while I did need to adjust my listening speed to 1.65x instead of 1.5x the feeling and voice of all the characters was preformed well and was well distinguishable.

Loved the book. Not so much the navigational tools of the audio book. But I persevered in order to finish the novel and learn more about the other races in this universe. This entry in the series is primarily about the selection of a royal spouse. This selection happens as a widely watched competitive event occurs at Dinah and Sean's inn. Our familiar characters provide the framework for this spectacle, so we learn a bit more about Dinah, Sean, Wilmos, Tony, and the First Scholar. We learn a lot about others throughout the galaxy. The audiobook reader is great, as are the extras: the review delivered at beginning of each chapter, the recipes, and the character profiles.

I absolutely love Ilona Andrews! They are such a good writing team. Sweep of the Heart is the 6th in the series by them. The two leads were truly so great and Sean was such a great hero! I loved him.

The audiobook narration was also very good.

I love how they are able to write action scenes that just truly pull you in completely to the story while also having such great romantic scenes.

4.5 stars
Sweep of the Heart is the sixth book in the Innkeeper Chronicles by Ilona Andrews. We’ve got another audiobook narrator change with Nora Sofyan but I personally found her voice and accents to be the best so far (I know that’s sacrilege for hardcore Renee Raudman/Ilona Andrews fans, but I said it! 🫣). I really enjoyed the format of this installment with its homage to The Intergalactic Bachelor!! 🌹😂