Some small spoilers for the series, not necessarily this book. You’ve been warned.
I read this book on Ilona Andrews’ website as their free serial, and it makes my Friday night. In case you don’t know what I”m talking about, Ilona Andrews has written the entire Innkeeper series as a weekly free installment, and as they get to the end, they pull it, and publish it after editing. If you follow along with them, you pretty much feel like part of the process. You get to see the weekly updates, the chats on the blog and in the comments, and it’s a pretty cool feeling. In this book, I noticed something different. At the beginning of each chapter is a little blurb and it’s a fun little aside to the blog. I adored this addition, and it really felt like a fun little wink and nod to the reader.
This book starts off with Dina and Sean doing normal day-to-day Innkeeper stuff. Running errands, baking a cake, fending off female werewolves who are trying to court Sean…you know, typical daily things. Except that this time, the werewolf who came for Sean says something of use. Wilmos, his mentor, is missing. Dina and Sean investigate, and find out that he’s being kept in a place no one can access and will kill them if they try. So you know, it’s totally a trap.
They ask George (George of the Edge series, and of this series) for some help. But help from George never comes free. He doesn’t want money, he needs a favor. He needs Dina to host an intergalactic search for a future consort to the Dominion’s emperor. It’s basically an intergalactic Bachelor. It’s televised across the universe and everything. The contestants are all unique and not all are humanoid, so it makes for some interesting spouses-to-be. But nothing is ever easy at the Gertrude Hunt Inn.
The spousal selection is a fun mix of people testing Dina, plotting behind the scenes, and lots of incredible backstory and history. I especially loved seeing some familiar faces. Karat Lord Arland’s cousin, was there, so was Gaston, and we see a lot of Caledonia. And her part in this book solidifies her position as the most interesting person in the universe. This woman plots and schemes and moves people around the mental chessboard she has going and it’s awe-inspiring.
Dina and Sean make a powerful team, and I truly enjoyed this story. And that ending. THAT. ENDING. I can ‘t describe that ending! Wow. I am incredibly invested in this series and whatever it is that will happen next. I highly recommend this series.
**Quick note: I’ve read the serial, and I’ve read the final version, and I do feel that this is tighter and cleaner, so if you read the serial installments and felt it dragged a bit in the middle, I feel like that is cleaned up.
***I bought this book
