Ilona Andrews, who I only knew from her Kate Daniels series, with the magical tavern/innkeeper trope. This is significantly worse than Kate Daniels – writing quality, plot quality, worldbuilding, characters: Everything. Apparently this series grew out of an online serial, which accounts for some of it.
The characters are honestly the best part, and even then, only the side characters really get to shine. The protagonist is somewhat generic (plucky young woman, semi-troubled past, blah). I had high hopes for the worldbuilding because I am very, very into sentient houses and ships and the like – I wasn’t completely disappointed! But it’s been done better, and I wish more time had been spent with the semi-sentient magical house and less on rejecting-then-falling-for the arrogant-but-caring werewolf. (Yes, this trope has also been done better.)
What I really liked, apart from the whole sentient inn thing, is that Andrews took the whole concept in a scifi direction, which I didn’t really expect. There’s magical space travel, portals, high tech, other civilisations, and travel across the universe. All of that is neat, and I’d love to see more of it.
