Valerie Moyer has been kidnapped and locked in a cage for ten days.  She stopped eating the food after realising that its full of drugs.  Having not eaten in four days and her energy almost completely drained, Valerie is about to engage in the fight of her life in her bid to escape and hopefully free the rest of the women who are being held captive.  What Valerie doesn't want to admit is that the people who kidnapped her are not mortal like she is.  Fortunately for Valerie, the immortal hunters are on the case.  When Anders first sees Valerie, he instinctively tries to control her and read her mind and is stunned to find that he cannot, which makes Valerie his lifemate.  Anders is an immortal just like the beings who kidnapped Valerie and so to win her heart, he will have to convince her that not all immortals are the same.

Anders has popped up in a few books in this series thus far.  It's about time he got a lifemate of his own.  I was really hoping that Anders's story would be huge because he has always been such a mysterious character.  I am glad that I learned his origin story but feel that other than his surly nature, I still don't really feel like I really know him.  He's sort of a blank slate and could really be anyone.  

Valerie as a lifemate is a huge relief, considering the last few in this series. Valerie actually manages to save herself twice and is not pleased at the very idea that Anders might see her as a damsel in distress.  I love that Valerie helped Leigh deliver while stopping occasionally to knock out an immortal with a hanger.  That scene really got me giggling.  Valerie is educated and while she has some issues with her body, she's not constantly harping on it the way that some of Sands female love interests have recently. All in all, Valerie is a big step up.

That being said, there are some issues.  Valerie was kidnapped off the street, forcefully fed on and kept in a cage for ten days. Sands says that Valerie has nightmares because of it and that is certainly natural but the character herself didn't actually feel like she was going through PTSD.  One cannot be held against one's will, drugged and abused and not have some kind of emotional trauma.  I suppose with a HEA looming, Sands felt it better to move onto Valerie getting the hots for Anders and moving the story along.  Unfortunately, this made the story feel sort of off to me. 


In terms of writing there were a few issues.  At times, I feel that Sands is intentionally trying to stretch out her word count because she has nothing new to give to the series.  I quickly got sick of Valerie having to walk her dog and discussions about pop bags. Why did Sands feel it necessary for Valerie to have conversations with her dog Roxy and then tell the reader that Roxy doesn't really understand what Valerie is saying? Does she think that none of her readers have ever owned a dog or interacted with a dog?   Then of course, Valerie had to shave and was distraught with the hair on her body - keep in mind she just been separated from her kidnapper. Who the hell worries about how they look in a bathing suit after being kidnapped, starved and tortured just days ago?  Finally, and this I cannot believe an editor missed, if Ambrose was turned during WWI why would he have a renaissance style painting of himself?  If they had said maybe early photograph I could have bought it but renaissance painting?  It totally suggests that someone dropped the ball.

 

 

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I read this because I have read one or two of Lynsay Sand's historical romances and liked them.  This was my second try at reading this because the first time I couldn't deal with the stupidity thrown at me in the beginning.  

 

The first 50%

 

 

As I said, I had a hard time getting around the stupidity at the beginning.  Lissi was like a teenager and not some 202 year old vampire.  She made many stupid mistakes that I couldn't understand why she wasn't dead or at least found out.  Then you have to deal with all the family members.  I had a hard time keeping them all straight, there was so many and they just kept popping up. 

 

But the worse offender was the hero, Greg.  He was so nonchalant about everything.  I can see a little confusion early on about why he went into the car's trunk but once he found out they can read his mind, shouldn't that have been a clue that something weird was going on and that maybe he wasn't in control of stuffing himself in the trunk.  But really he took things so easily, from being kidnapped, to finding that these people could read his mind, and even when he found out they were vampires.  He never panicked or freaked out and just accepted it like it was something normal. But he sure was stuck on wanted to be a sex slave.

 

 

 

I did enjoy Lissi and Greg's romance.  It was sweet and saved this book for me.  I especially liked it when they got away from the rest of the family. I also like the idea of how vampires came to be in this book.  It was something new and different, a little sci-fi-ish

 

But the villain, OMG, was so stupid.  I knew who it was and why in the first couple of pages of this book.  Most people will figure it out really quickly.  I couldn't help but think Lissi was an idiot because she couldn't figure out who was trying to kill her.

 

 

I mean really, it was so obvious.  At at the end, I wanted to roll my eyes.  Of course, let's all be nonchalant when there are guns pointed at us.  Yes, let's just make jokes and oh, let's try not to kill anyone because they are just confused. Pssh.

 

On the last note, I hate books that describe the women so lovingly but we never get a description about the males.  This book went on and on about all the woman and their eye color and hair color but practically described nothing about the men except maybe Greg's chest. *sigh*

 

 

I will at least read the next one since there was also a few things that usually just don't work for me anyways but I think this series has potential to be good.

I always love Lynsay Sands Argeneau books. Yeah, just like any series, once you have a lot there are only so many unique story lines. This one was a tad different. Still enjoyed it.

Leigh is walking home after closing down her bar when she is approached by a friend who she thought was missing. Unfortunately, he is not alone and brings his vampire sire with him. Donny's big plan is for Leigh to be turned by his sire so that the two of them can be together forever. Thankfully for Leigh, Lucian, one of the oldest vampires has been hunting down Morgan on behalf of the vampire council. He and his crew manage to save Leigh but Morgan escapes.Lucian has always been the grumpy old man of the Argeneau series. He is after all thousands of years old and one of the original Atlantians. Lucian is not prepared to deal with a baby vamp and sees Leigh as an intrusion on his time until he realises that he cannot read her mind. Those familiar with the series will recognize this as an indicator that Leigh and Lucian are life mates. While Leigh adapts pretty quickly to the idea that she is a vampire the life mate thing makes her very uncomfortable because she recently escaped a physically and emotionally abusive marriage. Lucian must convince Leigh to trust him and on top of that Morgan, the man who turned Leigh has decided that he is not done with her yet.As with other books in this series, Bite Me If You Can is really light and fluffy. Sands uses humor to keep the reader interested in the budding romance between Lucian and Leigh. As with all vampires, Lucian has given up food and sex and so the prospect of being intimate again worries him. He has no idea how to woo Leigh and so he heads to the bookstore and picks up the most ridiculous books to use as his guide. His younger family has to intervene to save him before he makes a complete ass of himself.Bite Me If You Can, is another in the series which is highly erased. There are no GLBT characters and once again an all White cast. I am particularly disturbed by the all straight characters because each book not only involves a romance but finding one's life mate. This suggests that forever love, or even love worth celebrating must only occur between straight people. All of the characters continually affirm the absolutely necessity of finding a life mate because it forestalls depression, anti-social behaviour and even insanity. If life mates only happen in heterosexual relationships and give such benefits, what does this say about same sex couples and the love they experience?Read More