Sweep of the Heart – Ilona Andrews

The premise is fun. A major galactic sovereign must marry - and the spouse will be the winner of a a competition which greatly resembles familiar tv shows. To be hosted by everyone’s favorite Inn.

The execution is on the fannish side: The reader will care about most of the characters to the extent that they are familiar from previous books in this series. Each chapter has a teaser introduction carried over from the book’s original serialization, which doesn’t work well for readers who did not follow the periodic installments. The last chapter of the book did not appear in the original serialization - and is only vaguely coupled to the main story.

According to a mouse-over, as I write this, three stars means “I liked it”. I did like it. The authors can and have written far better books.