The Innkeeper Chronicles is a series of novellas and novels by husband and wife team Ilona Andrews. The series is unique in that installments were posted on their blog while being written, being taken down before editing and publishing.
Earth is a major hub for interstellar travel. To host the various alien travelers, inns have been created to host them. The inns are each a living being symbiotically connected to an innkeeper. For innkeepers within the inns, the laws of physics are more guidelines. They can shape and change rooms with just a thought. The safety and well-being of the guests is the first priority, and the 1 hard and fast rule is that no one on Earth can know.
Dina Demille is the innkeeper of Gertrude Hunt, a small inn with 1 permanent resident. Several years ago, the inn she grew up in vanished without a trace, taking her parents with it. She hopes that some day, a guest will come with information so she can find them. When alien beasts start attacking her neighborhood, Dina gets involved, triggering a meeting with Sean Evans (a werewolf, a refugee species who destroyed their planet) and Arland of House Krahr (a vampire, a species which never left the feudal era).
From the philosophical space chickens note , to the Hope Crushing Horde, to the nearly extinct Hiru, Dina must manage all her guests needs. But some guests are more dangerous than others, and someone wants the inns to fail.
Books in the series:
- Clean Sweep
- Sweep in Peace
- One Fell Sweep
- Sweep of the Blade
- Sweep with Me
- Sweep of the Heart
Tropes:
- Above the Influence: Coming off an emotional day and an adrenaline rush Dina comes on to Sean. He immediately recognizes that she's in a bad spot and turns her down, pointing that out. Doesn't stop him from holding her or a quick makeout session however.
- Action Girl: Dina can be this but not by choice. Maud, Karat, and Ilemina are more straightforward versions. Overall, any vampire, werewolf, or Otrokor female falls into this category.
- Ambadassador: Could be an alternate job title for the Maven of any vampire house and what Maud becomes at the end of Sweep of the Blade.
- Berserk Button: Implying the inns aren't clean is one for innkeepers.
- Doing anything to a child is definitely one to vampires. House Krahr considers the exile of a child by another house to be a massive stain on their honor.
- By-the-Book Cop: Marais, causing problems with Dina. Those problems go away once he finds out the truth. This doesn't affect his attitude as he immediately starts working on enforcing the treaty with the same gusto as he does human laws.
- Cuteness Proximity: The lees have weaponized this.
- The lees themselves to the kitten in the 2nd book.
- All of house Krahr to Helen in book 4.
- Donut Mess with a Cop: Not Marais himself, as far as we can tell, but Orro has been binge watching cop movies and shows causing him to make donuts for Marais anytime he is over.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Dina and Maud while watching Sean unload weapons. They also wax poetic about their physical preferences in their men.
- Facepalm: Maud is doing this a lot throughout book 4 due to the vampires' various attitudes and decisions.
- Fantastic Racism: The Draziri towards the Hiru. Per their religion, if a Draziri kills 1 Hiru, no matter what they've done they and their entire clan will ascend to heaven.
- Funny Background Event: After Dina gets a kitten for the Merchant Matriarch in Sweep in Peace, any subsequent time she's in their rooms there will be a description of them chasing it around.
- Heroic BSoD:
- Turan Adain is going through a prolonged one due to being trapped on Nexus.
- Dina goes through one when the inn-seed the draziri had dies in her arms after connecting to her.
- Orro goes through a mini one when he discovers that tv cooking shows aren't what they seem to be.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The alpha-strain werewolves were specifically made to be this. A more powerful version of a werewolf, they were to protect the gates so the rest of the species with their lives. However, some have survived including Sean's parents.
- Dina's father Gerard Demille did this in the backstory. Not much is known save that he put himself on the line to save an innkeeper and her children causing him to be trapped in the inn for centuries.
- Iron Lady: Caldenia and Ilemina. Ilemina does show a soft side to children even in public.
- Mama Bear: Maud joined by Ilemina later towards Helen.
- Sean's mother attacks Wilmos when she finds out that he sent Sean to Nexus to be Turan Adain.
- Mirroring Factions: A major plot point of book 2. The vampires, otrokors, and merchants all want the dying to stop, but at the same time don't feel they can because then all the deaths that have already happened will have been for nothing. Showing this is George's plan to bring peace.
- Mood Whiplash: Used in-universe to demonstrate Helen's relative innocence as her brooding over her vampire/human hybrid status is immediately derailed when her new best friend calls her to go see baby birds.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The Hope Crushing Horde.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: The Lees are cute furry Merchants who value a good bargain above all else. They're also skilled and ruthless assassins.
- Our Vampires Are Different: A very large human-like species with fangs and a huge predatory drive. Their species is spread across multiple worlds, but still based in the feudal period with a powerful religious presence. They sometimes travel in stasis pods resembling coffins, don't hesitate to use their fangs to kill, are only vulnerable to holy water when it's mixed with lye, and cannot attack someone while they are invoking their deity. note
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Originally a human-like species from a planet called Auul, they used a retrovirus called an ossai to introduce genetics from their wolf population. This caused them to have enhanced strength, speed, and senses and to be able to transform into a couple of different wolf-like creatures.
- Outside-Context Problem: Dina and the inns are this to Officer Marais. He knows there's something going on, but doesn't have the proper frame of reference to deal with it. This does mean that once she tells him the truth, he handles it fairly well and becomes an immediate ally.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Dina. The first book shows her sleeping in Hello Kitty pajamas. She later forms her broom into a spear and takes down a large, hostile, alien creature without changing. She will go out of her way to make sure her guests are comfortable, but has no issues standing her ground against arbitrators, vampires, nobles, and fellow innkeepers.
