Audiobook: Sweep of the Blade by Ilona Andrews

Sweep of the Blade
Author: Ilona Andrews
Narrator: Natalie Naudus
Publication: NYLA (Sept. 19, 2019)
Length: 8 hours and 53 minutes

Description: Maud Demille is a daughter of Innkeepers - a special group who provide "lodging" to other-planetary visitors - so she knows that a simple life isn't in the cards. But even Maud could never have anticipated what Fate would throw at her.

Once a wife to a powerful vampire knight, Maud and her young daughter, Helen, were exiled with him for his treachery to the desolate, savage planet of Karhari. Karhari killed her husband, and Maud - completely abandoned by his family - has spent over a year avenging his debts. Rescued by her sister Dina, she's sworn off all things vampire.

Except...in helping Dina save the world, she met Arland, the Marshal of House Krahr, one of the most powerful vampire houses. One thing led to another and he asked for her hand in marriage. She declined. Arland is not used to hearing the word "no"; and try as she might, Maud can't just walk away from Arland. It doesn't help that being human is a lot harder for Maud than being a vampire.

To sort it all out, she accepts his invitation to visit his home planet. House Krahr is extremely influential and Maud knows that a woman - a human, with a very questionable past - who's turned down a proposal from its most beloved son won't get a warm reception. Maybe she’s not sure about marrying Arland, but House Krahr isn’t going to decide for her. Maud Demille has never run from a fight, and House Krahr will soon discover that there's a lot more to Maud than they’re expecting.

My Thoughts: This Maud's story. It begins with a more complete description of her life on Karhari as she struggles for survival for herself and her daughter after her husband's treachery and death. She has definitely sworn off vampires.

But then she meets Arland. He is Marshal of House Krahr and a friend of her sister Dina. He is a much more honorable man than her husband was. But she doesn't know if she can trust him with her life and especially her daughter's life.

Maud does agree to go home with him to try to get to know him better and to see if they can have a future together. She doesn't expect to find herself dropped right into the middle of vampire politics and a plot to overthrow House Krahr.

I really liked Maud. She was smart and competent and a woman very worthy of the militant vampire houses. She was also an excellent mother to her half-vampire child. Her intelligence helps her carve out a place for herself in House Krahr and that competence gives her the confidence to link her future with Arland's.

I really enjoyed the narration of this story. I thought the pacing was great and the action nonstop.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook: One Fell Sweep by Ilona Andrews

One Fell Sweep
Author: Ilona Andrews
Narrator: Renee Raudman
Publication: NYLA (Feb. 13, 2017)
Length: 10 hours and 41 minutes

Description: From the New York Times best-selling author, Ilona Andrews, comes a new tale from the Innkeeper Chronicles.

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!

My Thoughts: In this episode, Dina rescues her sister Maud and Maud's five-year-old daughter Helen from exile on a very dangerous planet. Dina also accepts a Hiru as a guest. The Hiru are a race that has almost completely been massacred by the Draziri who look at exterminating Hiru as a religious requirement.

Dina calls on Arland to help rescue her sister and Sean goes along too. Both Sean and Arland remain at the inn to help Dina defend it from the Draziri. Sean and Dina are falling in love but Dina is worried that Sean won't want to stay with her. She is tied to her inn and will be for life. Sean has only recently come back from difficult galactic adventures and she fears he will want more adventures in the future. There is also a growing relationship between Maud and Arland complicated by the fact the he is a vampire and Maud's former husband the the reason for her exile was also a vampire.

The story had lots of action on a variety of different worlds. There was plenty of action on Earth too. Dina is having difficulty keeping the actions of the Draziri secret from the human police since the Draziri don't care if they expose the inn and its secrets.

I like the characters in this series. Maud and Helen are new to the series but are both interesting and entertaining. We find out more about the relationship between inns and innkeepers in this story and also about the governing authority that manages them.

This was a great story that kept me reading late into the night. I had to know how things were going to work out for Sean and Dina and what was going to happen to the Hiru.

I thought the narration was well done and really ramped up the action and deftly portrayed the emotions.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: One Fell Sweep by Ilona Andrews

Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is now hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Beginning:

A faint chime tugged me out of sleep. I opened my eyes and blinked. I'd dreamt of a desert, a vast endless sea of shifting yellow sand under a white sun.

Friday 56:

"Your face is different," Helen said, looking up at me.

"It's because she's an innkeeper," Maud said. "This house is magic and she rules it. She's very powerful within the inn."

This week I am listening to the Innkeeper Chronicles by Ilona Andrews and have reached book 3: One Fell Sweep. Here is the description from Amazon:

From the New York Times best-selling author, Ilona Andrews, comes a new tale from the Innkeeper Chronicles.

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!