Audiobook review: Clean Sweep [Dramatized Adaptation] by Ilona Andrews
The Innkeeper Chronicles is probably my favorite book series. This is the fourth time I’ve read Clean Sweep. You can find my original ebook review here, as well as the original unabridged audiobook review, and the dramatized adaptation (both reviews on Goodreads). I found that my enjoyment of the book has only increased with each reading. I also found that I love the dramatized adaptation so much more this second time because I’ve since listened to the rest of the series in the same format.
Knowing where the series is going and understanding the broader world of the Innkeeper allowed me to fully engage with the story, so much more than someone reading it for the first time. I was able to better appreciate the world and details, picking up on and appreciating subtle humor and small Easter Eggs hidden within the text. I also see how the authors are building to events that occur later in the series. The mix of magic and science fiction is sublime. The humor is sly and witty. It’s such a joy to go back to the beginning.
Overall, I enjoyed the full cast production of Clean Sweep. The production features Nora Achrati as the solitary narrator, Dina Demille. The story is shared via her first person POV, so the majority of the audiobook is performed by Ms. Achrati, who has a solid southern accent and adds a lot of emotion into her performance.
Each character’s dialogue is performed by a different cast member – just like a play or TV production. Other standouts are Ryan Reid as the werewolf Sean Evans and Karen Novack as Lady Caldania. Both do wonderful jobs breathing life into the characters, creating personas that match the written descriptions. Overall, the characters are well cast and performances full of energy and emotion.
The audiobook includes music and sound effects, with the sound effects adding more value that the music. Some, like inanimate objects moving (door creaking), dogs barking, and the magic chimes of the Inn are successful and add to the performance. They are well-timed and don’t overpower the narration. Other noises, like those that center on human and alien struggles and fighting, are less successful. The grunting and strains often come across as over produced.
In the end, I wanted to immediately jump to the second book because I love them so much!
My Ratings
Story: A-
Narration: A-
Jen
About the Book:
On the outside, Dina Demille is the epitome of normal. She runs a quaint Victorian Bed and Breakfast in a small Texas town, owns a Shih Tzu named Beast, and is a perfect neighbor, whose biggest problem should be what to serve her guests for breakfast. But Dina is…different: Her broom is a deadly weapon; her Inn is magic and thinks for itself. Meant to be a lodging for otherworldly visitors, the 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” is a bit of a stretch for Dina.
And now, something with wicked claws and deepwater teeth has begun to hunt at night….Feeling responsible for her neighbors, Dina decides to get involved. Before long, she has to juggle dealing with the annoyingly attractive, ex-military, new neighbor, Sean Evans – an alpha-strain werewolf – and the equally arresting cosmic vampire soldier, Arland, while trying to keep her inn and its guests safe. But the enemy she’s facing is unlike anything she’s ever encountered before. It’s smart, vicious, and lethal, and putting herself between this creature and her neighbors might just cost her everything.
Author: Ilona Andrews
Narrators: Alejandro Ruiz, Christopher Walker, Holly Adams, James Lewis, Karen Novack, Ken Jackson, Nora Achrati, Peter Holdway, Elias Khalil, Ryan Reid, Alex Hill-Knight
Series: Innkeeper Chronicles #1
Genre: Science Fiction, Paranormal Fiction, adventure
Audiobook Release Date: February 1, 2022
Publisher: GraphicAudio
Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
Source: purchased
Audio Speed: 1.35x