Any excuse for a bad Muppet joke!
Sweep of the Heart is the sixth book in the Innkeeper Chronicles. Innkeepers Dina and Sean are happily running the inn Gertrude Hunt together. Unfortunately Sean’s werewolf mentor is kidnapped and in order to get him back they must host an intergalactic spousal selection. It’s the Bachelor in space and it is fabulous. Twelve contestants must compete in various challenges televised across the universe for the heart of the Dominion’s ruler. No roses are handed out but there are assassination plots, romance, politics, and space chickens. Also if anything goes wrong with the contest Dina and Sean lose the inn so no pressure whatsoever. May the best alien win!
I’ve never gone wrong picking up an Ilona Andrews story. I actually got to read most of this book through the website where one chapter a week was put up for several months for free. I very much enjoyed the illustrations of the different candidates put up on the website. Although some pictures were included in the digital edition I got from the library, not all were so that was my one disappointment. It was nice to see some characters from the Edge series included here and doing well. We also get some significant backstory on one of the inn’s more intimidating permanent guests. Although this is the sixth novel in the series the spousal selection is pretty much a self-contained story and enough information is included on the overarching inn mysteries that a newcomer would not be lost. Do pick up the series though, they’re quite fun.