Gerard Demille and Helen Meet

Innkeeper Chronicles #0.1

by Ilona Andrews

Free online fiction from author website

Genres: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Short Stories, Paranormal, Magic, Romance, Science Fiction

9 pages, ebook

First published December 1, 2013

About the author

Ilona Andrews is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing team. Ilona is a native-born Russian and Gordon is a former communications sergeant in the U.S. Army. Contrary to popular belief, Gordon was never an intelligence officer with a license to kill, and Ilona was never the mysterious Russian spy who seduced him. They met in college, in English Composition 101, where Ilona got a better grade. (Gordon is still sore about that.)

Gordon and Ilona currently reside in Oregon with their two children, three dogs and a cat. They have co-authored two series, the bestselling urban fantasy of Kate Daniels and romantic urban fantasy of The Edge.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Free here!
I love these shorts that Ilona Andrews tosses out to fans for free.
How do these guys do this to me?
I wasn't really salivating to find out more about Dina's parents, but now they're #1 on my list!
GIVE ME MORE!

[Aisling Zena · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5 stars

This a lovely short story about Dina's parents meeting for the first time. It's quite short but loved it just the same. I want so much more. I hope that when Innkeeper is finished we get a novella about these two. I want to know what happened next! Click on the link to read for free.

http://www.ilona-andrews.com/gerard-d...

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

I NEED MORE. Why would you tease us with this and not give us SO MUCH MORE THAN THIS! :P

[Jayme C (Brunetteslikebookstoo) · Rating 4 out of 5]

FREE 11 page ghost story (?) from the author's website...👻

http://www.ilona-andrews.com/gerard-d...

Thanks, Holly!

I am intrigued to find out more as well.....👻

[Fafa's Book Corner · Rating 2 out of 5]

GR Ultimate Summer Reading Challenge One and Done.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short little snippet that made me want a whole book of it!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this short snippet about how Dina's parents, Gerard and Helen, first meet but it definitely left me wanting more. I can't wait for Dina to find out what happened to them and their Inn & I hope the family get to be reunited in the main series but I'd also really like a story set before the Innkeeper series too.

You can read this short story for free on Ilona's website here: http://www.ilona-andrews.com/gerard-d...

[Zero · Rating 3 out of 5]

1st read: March 2023
2nd read: June 2025

Interesting short story about Dina and Maud's parents, but it feels very incomplete.

Hopefully the authors tell more of Garard and Helen's story in one of the future books.

[Cheesecake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very short, but hugely evocative.
Humorous.
But it reads like the intro to another story ...which isn't there.
So, a little frustrating.


I found this on the author's website
https://ilona-andrews.com/gerard-demi...

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want morreeeeeeeeee!

[carol. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute but too short. Really more of a fragment, honestly.

https://ilona-andrews.com/gerard-demi...

[Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, that was fun!

[Ami · Rating 3 out of 5]

Far too short and raised more questions than it gave satisfaction.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this world, I wish this wasn't just a short story but a full length book, I'd love to know what happened next!

[Lucie V. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short story is free here.

Well, this is a very short story that does not give us much new information. I think I have more questions now that I had before... 😅

I read books 1 to 4.5 in the Innkeeper series already so I knew that Gerard was trapped in a house until Helen moved in and "saved him", but I still find it interesting that she wanted to buy the house even more after witnessing for herself that it was "haunted". We can already see that she has a touch of magic in her.

The kids are confusing me though. I knew that Gerard was not Klaus and Maud's biological father, but in the short story the boy is named Charlie... Maybe he changed his name later? We learned that Maud's real name is Mathilda so maybe it's the same for Klaus and he has another name? I was also under the impression that Gerard was not Dina's biological father either, but she's not there in the short story so I assume that she's not born yet..? Does that mean that I misunderstood and she is Gerard's "real" daughter? Or she will be born later from another father?

As I said... More questions now than I had before reading this novella... I do hope that we will get more information about Dina's parents... About her whole family actually, they're all quite mysterious.

[Sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A prequel vignette of Gerald trapped in a pentagram prison in the basement of an old house using his magic to scare off the real estate woman each time she brought unwanted buyers until she brings Helen and her two children to see the house.

Not much here, but it was fun to meet Dina's father and speculate that Helen had been married before and the 'Charlie' might be Klaus and the little toddler, Maud. Loved it!

Authors' website link to story: https://www.ilona-andrews.com/gerard-...

[Jujubee · Rating 5 out of 5]

More, please.
This world.
Just awesome.

[İlkim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ay bu hikayenin devamı olmalııııı...

[Chan · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun short beginning to a series. Interested to see what happens with Helen and the two kids once they move in.

[Lena · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a tease! I doubt that was five pages. Not enough, not nearly enough!

[Jassmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have more questions that I had before reading this. Really, it answered none and gave many and now I am confused... I am really interested how all of this could ended in them getting married...
https://www.ilona-andrews.com/gerard-...

[Carolyn F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this off of the authors' website.

I don't remember Gerard and Helen. It's a cute story. Maybe I'll catch up later in the series and figure out who these two are.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Freebie from Ilona Andrews. I can’t believe I missed this one for so long

[Angela (Angel's Book Nook) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A prequel scene of Gerald trapped in a pentagram prison where he uses his magic to scare off the real estate woman and buyers until Helen and her two children come to see the home.

Not much here. It was nice to meet Gerald, Diana's father.

You can read this short on the authors website here.

Rated: 3 Stars

[Darcy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute short with how Dina and Maud's parents met. With what we've read so far in the series and this book I'd like to get more with the parents and even see the kids growing up in the inn.

[Nyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite what I was expecting - I will be interested to see how it connects with the rest of the series.
Although it is chronologically a prequel, its significance is not yet clear to me.

[Jukaschar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like it, but I have more questions now than before I read it. Where can I learn more about the Demille parents?

[Debrac2014 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice! I wish it were longer!

[Preet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish this had been longer and we really got to see Gerard and Helen meet. It's an intriguing little short for sure though!

[Melody · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s just so much in this short story!

First off, pentagrams… low sensitive sensate… Hidden Legacy babies I see you.

3 year old Maud, 6 year old Klaus who was originally named Charlie but then became Klaus. (Also I swear wasn’t Maud the eldest and Klaus the middle kiddo?).

This is also another Ilona Andrews-ism, where ages and times get retroactively changed to fit the story in the new book. See… literally every series book. Kate Daniels. Hidden Legacy.

I can’t wait to see the final culmination of what the heck happened to the Demilles. I wonder if it’s gonna be like what happened with Roland where they build him up so much they needed a few extra books to finish the story.

Buttt - House Andrews are no longer contracted my dudes, so they have power over whatever they want to write. I am a mere mindless spawn of the BDH and devour whatever is served in front of me. Nom nom nom.

Onto Maud’s book!