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Bite Me If You Can

Lynsay Sands

Published 2007              384 pages

Synopsis

Walking home from work in the early hours of the morning Leigh is bitten by Morgan, a rogue vampire, who wants to make her part of his coven.  Snatched from the street, she is taken back to the vampires’ lair to make the change from human to vampire.

Lucian Argeneau is an ancient Immortal who has spent hundreds (if not thousands) of years hunting and killing rogue vampires for the Vampire Council but even tracking down nests of killer vampires seems boring these days.  Tracking Morgan, killing him and burning down his lair is just another routine job.

On his way into Morgan’s lair Lucian runs into Leigh, trying to escape, and he reluctantly rescues her.  After rescuing Leigh, he finds himself responsible for her. 

As Leigh starts the transformation from human to Immortal Lucian decides that the best person to deal with the situation would be his sister-in-law Marguerite, unfortunately due to a miscommunication he ends up stuck with both Leigh and Marguerite’s dog to look after!

Lucian is dismayed to find that he can’t control Leigh’s mind, a sure sign that she is his destined lifemate.  It has been hundreds of years since Lucian has had to look after anyone except himself and even longer since he’s had a date.  Still with his nieces and nephews on hand to give helpful advice and play matchmaker it shouldn’t be too long before he wins Leigh’s heart.

The Review

Bite Me If You Can is the sixth book in Lynsay Sands’ popular Argeneau Vampire series.  The story works well as a stand alone read and if you haven’t read any of the Argeneau books before you could start with this one and not be confused about what happened in previous stories.  That said, there are a lot of characters in this story that have been featured in previous Argeneau books, so for established fans of the series, reading Bite Me If You Can will probably feel like catching up with old friends.

Bite Me If You Can is a vampire romance with more emphasis on the romance than the vampires.  The Argeneau vampires are not traditional vampires, they call themselves Immortals and the only traits that they share with vampires are longevity, strength, mind control abilities and a hunger for blood.  They are not undead, they can go out in the day, eat garlic, have children and enter churches.  Their vampirism is not supernatural in origin it is caused by advanced scientific nano technology, the nanos zip around their blood stream keeping them in the peak of physical fitness.  The nanos feed on blood hence the need to drink blood.  Once infected with nanos (vampirism) there is no cure because nobody has ever worked out how to get the nanos to stop working. 

This all goes towards making the vampire aspects of the story seem quite lightweight; you have all the benefits of being a vampire without any of the negative parts.  However this style of vamp-lite works well with this story, it has allowed the author to concentrate on the romantic aspects of the story rather than vampiric ones giving the reader a well constructed light-hearted romance with vampire overtones rather than dark fantasy romance.

The romance elements of the story are both believable and well plotted.  The romantic conflict is provided by both Lucian and Leigh having issues with long-term commitment.  Lucian had loved and lost a lifemate before, leaving him alone and bereft, while Leigh had suffered at the hands of an abusive husband - making both of them wary of forming new relationships.

Summing up – Bite Me If You Can is a fast paced, humorous, enjoyable, fun read.  If you are looking for vampiric angst, dark fantasy or shocking horror you won’t find it here but this light-hearted romance is sure to be a hit with romance fans worldwide.

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