CLEAN SWEEP

Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: kindle ebook

About Clean Sweep:

Dina Demille runs a Bed and Breakfast in a small Texas town and tries her best to pretend to be normal. Her broom is a deadly weapon, her house is a sentient magic inn for otherwordly visitors to Earth, and her 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 can be a little difficult. Now something with wicked claws and deepwater teeth begins hunting dogs in her neighborhood. Feeling responsible for the welfare of her neighbors, Dina decides to get involved. Before long, she has to juggle dealing with an alpha-strain werewolf and a cosmic vampire, while trying to keep her inn and its guests safe. But the enemy she’s facing is unlike anything she’d ever encountered before. It’s smart, vicious, and lethal, and putting herself between this creature and her neighbors might just cost her everything.

Source: Info in the About Clean Sweep was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19090384-clean-sweep on 05/12/2012.

Review:

I've already read this book while it was being posted as a freebie serial on the author's website, so this is a re-read review.

Sometime ago, Ilona Andrews posted this image of Dina holding Beast in her arms. This picture of Beast with her sassy ponytail made me smile when I was re-reading the scene where the big bad werewolf asked Dina whether he ought to be scared of a ponytailed little dog... A sentence loaded with subtext... I know I'm sappy, but, it is little details like this that makes a book delicious! Another evidence of the wonderfulness of the story telling quality of this author! Another thing which makes reading this author's work easy to connect with is the realism in the story lines. The teenage character is painted perfectly with a petulant drama queen effect and sassy attitude. Or... maybe, It's just me being a die-hard fan. I cannot tell anymore. But, one thing remains certain, this book has Ilona Andrews' trademark compelling author's voice. 'Nuff said.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 5
Story itself = 4.5
Ending = 4
World building = 5
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = 4.5

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Innkeeper Chronicles:

IA site

Amazon

Amazon

Amazon

Amazon

Amazon

Amazon

Meet The Author

About Ilona Andrews:

Ilona Andrews is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing team. Ilona is a native-born Russian and Gordon is a former communications sergeant in the U.S. Army. Contrary to popular belief, Gordon was never an intelligence officer with a license to kill, and Ilona was never the mysterious Russian spy who seduced him. They met in college, in English Composition 101, where Ilona got a better grade. (Gordon is still sore about that.)

Gordon and Ilona currently reside in Oregon with their two children, three dogs and a cat. They have co-authored two series, the bestselling urban fantasy of Kate Daniels and romantic urban fantasy of The Edge.

www.ilona-andrews.com | twitter | facebook | amazon | goodreads

Thank you to Ilona Andrews for the review copy received.

FTC Disclosure:
This book was received for free from the author. No money received for this review.

UPROOTED by Noami Novik

Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Genre: epic fantasy
Format: paperback

About Uprooted:

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But no one can predict how or why the Dragon chooses a girl. An when he comes, it is not Kasia he will take with him.

Source: Info in the About Uprooted was from the press kit from the publicity team.

Buy Link(s):
             

Narrative Evaluation:

The cover, although it has lots of meaning and is very appropriate to the story, does not ping my book buying radar. In fact I had this book for two weeks before I finally picked it up to read. I keep coming up with excuses like, I'll finish this book first before reading that one. Or, I'll watch the eclipse first before I'll start with that... etc... Loved the eclipse, by the way. All due to the fact that the cover did not appeal to my fantasy reader's eyes. This being the first book I've read of Naomi Novik, the author's name on the front did not even help in drawing me to pick up this book. However, the fact that somebody spent the time and effort of sending me this book, it got read, by hook or by crook! And so I entered the world of Agnieszka of Dvernik... and what a wonderful world!! The world building along with the story telling quality are both compelling and masterful! However, there are some loose theads that was left hanging which I didn't like very much. Like where exactly did the stick men come from and how they came about? The ending also, while closed the story nicely, was not the big bang I expected. Having said that, I would still give this book a 5 out of 5. It was just that good that I finished the book in a day and a half with a fervent hope that Novik would write a book 2!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 5
Story itself = 4.5
Writing Style = 5
Ending = 4
World building = 5
Cover art = 3
Pace = 5
Plot = 4.5

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 cherries

About Naomi Novik
	An avid reader of fantasy literature since age six, when she first made her way through The Lord of the Rings, Naomi Novik is also a history buff with a particular interest in the Napoleonic era and a fondness for the work of Patrick O’Brian and Jane Austen. She studied English literature at Brown University, and did graduate work in computer science at Columbia University before leaving to participate in the design and development of the computer game Neverwinter Nights: Shadow of Undrentide. Over the course of a brief winter sojourn spent working on the game in Edmonton, Canada (accompanied by a truly alarming coat that now lives brooding in the depths of her closet), she realized she preferred writing to programming, and on returning to New York, decided to try her hand at novels. Naomi lives in New York City with her husband and six computers. Her website is at naominovik.com
www.naominovik.com | facebook | twitter | tumblr | goodreads | google+ | pinterest

Thank you to macmillan for the review copy received.

FTC Disclosure:
This book was received for free from macmillan.
No money received for this review.

NOTE: This review was first posted at http://www.cherrymischievous.com/2015/03/review-uprooted-by-noami-novik.html on 25 March 2015.