Clean Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles Book 1) by Ilona Andrews

I read Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews to fulfill a prompt on the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge for the year. 

Dina looks like a normal innkeeper from the outside, but she's really a witch and her inn is magical. When dogs start getting killed in her neighborhood, she asks the local werewolf for assistance. And then vampires appear on her door. Combine all this with a permanent resident who appears to have a dark past of her own, and things are really heating up at Gertrude Hunt (the name of the inn).

Look, am I interested in a story about a woman, a vampire, and a werewolf? After reading Twilight, I would have thought that the answer was no. But it turns out that I am into it if the woman is pretty awesome, the werewolf is self-aware, and the vampire is really an alien. 

Is this book ridiculous? Yes. Did I love it anyway? Yes. Is there a Shih Tzu named Beast who has multiple sets of teeth who saves the day more than once? Yes. Have I already downloaded the second book in the series on to my Kindle? Yes. 

4/5 stars - The stuff about Costco was very unrealistic. LOLOLOL. (The book has werewolves and aliens and I'm concerned because it claims there was a quiet time at Costco.)

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Lines of note:

The Shih Tzu trotted next to me like a vigilant seven-pound black-and-white mop. (page 13)

Beast!!

There was something almost serene about walking through Costco in the morning. The clean expanse of the floor just rolled on and on, interrupted only by twenty-foot-tall shelves and stacks of merchandise arranged in neat bright islands in the gray sea of concrete. (page 145)

I have never been to a serene Costco. 

This early, the warehouse was practically empty. (page 145)

What? What? Do I need to go to a different Costco? I have never been to a practically empty Costco. NEVER. 

Things I looked up:

October of 1938 (page 147) - I looked at this up in Wikipedia and all I can really gather is that The Wizard of Oz started production and Hitler was on the rise in Germany. NO! It was the War of the Worlds radio broadcast that freaked everybody out and made people think aliens really were on the planet. That makes sense. 

Hadramout (page 189) - a geographic region in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula

sidr trees (page 189) -  hardy, evergreen trees native to parts of Africa and Asia, renowned for their spiritual significance and diverse traditional uses. The tree is also culturally important, associated with religious traditions, and its flowers provide nectar for valuable Sidr honey, a prized monofloral honey with medicinal properties.

Hat mentions (why hats?): 

"Also a hat," Caldenia said. "One of those hideous straw affairs with little flowers on them." (page 85)

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Do you think that fantasty/sci-fi books that use real things and places should make those real things and places super realistic or am I just being a jerk?