I look at the Innkeeper Chronicles as being Sci-Fi Cozy Mysteries. On the one hand, I can't believe I read the first book in this series, Clean Sweep, and then didn't continue on--thank goodness I found my way back to this series. I could read about the goings on at the Gertrude Hunt every day. It is such a great blend of what I like in a cozy mystery series and what I love in paranormal/fantasy all mushed together with Ilona Andrews's wonderful world-building and well-rounded characters.
On to the reviews of books one and two in the series. In the first book we meet Dina who is an Innkeeper, but not a regular Innkeeper, her BnB caters to aliens from all over the universe. The thing is, no one on Earth can know that aliens travel to and from the earth all the time. Turns out Earth is a hub from which you can travel to many different worlds. Dina's job is to protect her guests and make sure earth people don't know about aliens. We quickly met Sean and Arland. Sean is a werewolf who was born in the USA but his ancestors are from another planet and we met Arland who is a vampire. Vampires in this series are more like super-powerful humans than your classic vampire can't have kids and drain people to death type. I could go on and on because this story is so expansive, but I don't want to bore or spoil you.
This series has elements of cozy mysteries in these ways:
1. Overarching mystery regarding the backstory of our MC. Her parents are missing
2. Dina has a cozy companion, her deceptively cute dog.
3. Dina runs a BnB that is historically old and she loves to garden. The Inn has a name- Gertrude Hunt- How Cozy is That~
4. A community of quirky recurring characters.
5. Light romance
6. Dina does sleuthing to figure out why various people were killed or how to stop a killing.
