Tuesday, April 8, 2014

The Reluctant Vampire by Lynsay Sands

Synopsis: Has this immortal finally met her match?
Rogue hunter Drina Argenis (from the Spanish side of the Argeneau family) has been many things in her years as an immortal, but bodyguard/babysitter to a teenage vampire is something new. There's an incentive, however: the other vampsitter, Harper Stoyan, may be Drina's life mate.
Trouble is, having just lost a life mate, Harper is resigned to being alone. He's completely unprepared when sexy and unpredictable Drina bursts into his life to reignite his passions. Can Drina, with a little matchmaking help from their teen charge, tempt this reluctant vampire to take a chance?
Or will a dangerous, unseen renegade kill Drina and Harper's one chance at happiness?

My Thoughts: An average installment of a series that has gone on for a long time...maybe too long.

What Worked: The females....Drina is an amazingly strong and independent woman with a complicated and intriguing background. Her history was the best thing about this book. Granted the romance was not bad but Drina really was the bright spot in this installment. How could you not like a woman who has been a Pirate for Pete's Sake? In addition to Drina, the teenaged Stephanie was also a bright spot in the story even though she should have a lot more traumatized than she appeared. I'm looking forward to seeing where her character will go from here. An honorable mention goes to Beth, who, even though she wasn't in the book in person, her story told from Drina's point of view was enough to make me want to see more of her.

What Didn't Work: Harper.....Not that he didn't work but I don't think Harper was as well suited for Drina as I would have liked. Perhaps it was more of him not having as much back story as Drina. Even with his past complicated tale of life mate gone wrong there just didn't seem to be enough to balance what Drina brought to the story.

The Mystery/suspense aspect of this story also didn't work. Although there is an underlying story-arc happening over the past few books involving a really bad Immortal which allowed Drina, Harper, Stephanie and a whole lot of other Immortals to come together, this book failed to bring closure to that storyline. As a matter of fact this book not only failed to bring closure, it failed to propel that storyline forward even an inch. While the threat of the big bad Immortal hung over their heads the seemingly kick butt Rogue Hunters forgot all their training while most of them hooked up with their life mates for some sexy time. Oh, and lets not forget life mates faint after having monkey sex together. Nothing like naked, incapacitated Immortals who are supposed to be guarding one little teenager while someone is actively trying to kill them all. Really?

In a Nut Shell: Although I didn't care for the mystery aspect and thought Harper was a bit to vanilla for Drina the book balance out to be an average read for me. With some really good female characters that I'd like to see more of in the future the book was not a waste of time but it could have been oh-so better.

Oh and by the way, this book brings in a second branch of the Argeneau family, called the Argenis family from Spain. Drina also mentions a 3rd branch but I can't remember the name she gave them (Argen-something). The only purpose of this, in my eyes, is for Sands to be able to continue this series indefinitely. Personally I think she should have stopped the after Vampire Interrupted but maybe that's just me.

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