Updated 12/24/25: I ended up re-reading this and Sweep of the Heart on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, along with my other favorite Christmas re-read Irish Country Girl. I meant to update my currently reading list, but I just gave up because GR and StoryGraph didn’t seem to care for it via my cell. Ahem. Back to the book. I just loved this entire series and I really wish that we got another InnKeeper book. I assume the next book eventually will follow Maud and Dina’s brother. But I think like many of the series that my favorite husband/wife team have started, they maybe just got a bit stalled. I loved that we got a longer story of Maud and her feckless husband. I loved how she got chosen for her and how wonderful she is and I really would have loved more love scenes with Maud and Arland, but ah, we can’t have everything. And even though I know how this book ends (I have read it way more than the 4 times shown) I still get a little thrill at several lines such as “My lady, good strike.” and “You will not pull your sword, do you hear me Raven.”
Updated 11/20/20: I really need a longer novella featuring Maud and Arland today. This is now one of my favorites of the series at this point. We learn so much about vampires in the Innkeeper Chronicles and how they are different than the vampires we get in the Kate Daniels world.</b>
Update: Read the published full length novella and oh boy. I loved it. I loved it! I loved that Ilona Andrews gave us Maud’s POV at the beginning, prior to her going off with Arland to his House’s planet. We get to see how she carried herself more prior to Dina finding her and Helen. We also get to see her first impressions of Arland and Sean. And we even get to witness them sparring. I loved seeing the illustrations in full cover in my Kindle too.
I can’t wait for the next InnKeeper!
Original review: Wonderful! The Innkeeper Chronicles books are becoming a favorite of mine. This free novella released on Ilona Andrew’s website gave us a look at Dina’s sister Maud. We heard some of which Maud had to endure in the last book, this one shows us though why she is so reluctant to give in to loving Arland and marrying another vampire again. The only reason why I gave this four stars though is that I thought the flow was a little lacking between chapters. I am prepared to raise this to five stars when the full novella is released.
After the events in the last book, Maud agrees to go with Arland to his House’s planet. Maud is afraid to hope for anything more really after what happened to her and Helen when her husband cost them everything. If I were Maud, I would probably be bitter forever. I don’t know if I would want to be courted by a vampire either. However, we get enough scenes between Maud and Arland to know she’s fighting loving him. He is everything different than her late husband was (in a good way). I usually don’t like to read romance books with a widow, but Maud’s husband was an ass so good riddance to him.
Helen gets enough scenes in this one to make her a favorite with readers I can see.
Arland’s mother and his mother’s husband were a bit frightening, I did love how quickly Arland’s mother came to view Maud as a wonderful asset to their house. And her love of Helen was great to see. I want so many stories with this family!
I also loved how this book focuses more on vampire politics and we learn more about them in this one. We also get to see Maud finally get the acknowledgment of how worthy she is when it comes to Arland’s family.
I really do want a stand-alone book explaining the innkeepers, vampires, and other alien species our characters have met so far in these books.
The writing was good, will not say much about that though. Reading this on the author website you will probably see some typos. I won’t say anything about that in this review. The flow as I said wasn’t great. I think it will get all smoothed out in the final version. I also love how these books incorporate pictures into the final version. I wish more books did that.
The ending was top notch and we are left with a dun dun dun (in a good way) when Maud gets an unexpected visit.
Updated 12/24/2025: This was a great re-read. I know that technically “Sweep in Peace” comes in between this and “Sweep of the Blade” but honestly I loved “Sweep of the Heart” more. Probably because we get more information on the Dominion and Calendina’s past and what did it mean for her to go from one of the most fearsome rules in the universe and what caused her to give it up.
I also loved reading about the other species and even though I never got into that series, we get callbacks from some characters we met in the first InnKeeper book (Gaston and George). Again this ended on a perfect note and seemed to be a perfect set-up for another novella or conclusion to the series, but it’s been several years and I don’t think we will see what happens to Dina, Sean, Maud, and Arland anytime soon.
Fantastic
This was freaking fantastic. Dina and Sean definitely show us what two innkeepers can do when everything they have is on the line. I can’t wait for the next book!
“Sweep of the Heart” follows the awesome events in the last book and novella. Dina and Sean have hit a nice rhythm until things take a turn and one of Sean’s werewolves friends gets kidnapped. The kidnappers have dropped him on a planet with a portal that will be hard for them to get access to. Dina and Sean are there offered the chance to host the Dominion’s version of “The Bachelor.” There are great callbacks to all of the books and we get even more insight into Dina’s powers and the powers of the innkeepers.
The illustrations that are included are awesome. I loved the pictures that Ilona Andrews had on their blog while they were publishing the chapters to “Sweep of the Heart” this summer, but these ones are next level.
I loved the ending and I feel so greedy because Ilona Andrews set up a perfect pivot point to have us follow up with Maud.