Hungry for You

In Hungry For You, Lynsay Sands has penned the 14th installment of the Argeneau Vampire series. I had stopped reading this series a long time ago, probably around book 5 or so, when the series took a turn for the dark. For those who enjoyed the comedies in the beginning of the series, I’m happy to report that Hungry for You is vintage Lynsay Sands. For those who enjoyed the darker side of the series, there is a bit of a suspenseful-ish subplot, though in my estimation, the “mystery” wasn’t very mysterious at all.

Cale and Alex work well together and I enjoyed watching them grow close. I don’t usually like romances where the relationship between the hero and the heroine is based on a secret, because these things never turn out well, but here I didn’t mind it as much, because it was so funny in its execution. Many of the funny moments occur when Cale and Bricker are together in the kitchen. The only thing that didn’t ring true for me is that Cale came off as a little more inept than I think would be expected. When Alex suddenly fires her executive chef, Cale agrees to replace him. Except Cale can’t stand the smell of food, doesn’t even bother to eat any more, and definitely is not a classically trained chef. However, Cale’s lack of training doesn’t explain why he doesn’t know how to do simple things like work a microwave. I guess you’re probably just supposed to laugh and not think too hard about the realism, but I did find myself wondering at times if Cale wasn’t possibly a moron.

My other nitpick is the fact that this far into a series, it becomes hard for new readers to break into the series. Even as someone who has read the series before, but took a significant break, I would say this book works moderately well as a stand alone novel. It works well as long as the reader doesn’t question the canon behind the story, because Sands doesn’t bother to give a lot of explanation until the very end. I’m sure a lot of exposition in the beginning would have been annoying for veteran readers, but I at times I wondered about certain aspects of the Argeneau vampirism that I had forgotten, and I imagine if I had questions, new readers would as well. I also wonder if the canon hasn’t changed a bit since the beginning.

Overall, Hungry For You was a fun way to pass a couple of hours and it was great to revisit a series that has such a long history. Kudos to Ms. Sands for creating such fun characters!