LoveVampires - the website dedicated to vampire fiction.
With vampire book reviews, information and author interviews.

The Accidental Vampire

Lynsay Sands

Published 2008      361 pages

Summary (from the book jacket)

Ever since an accident turned her into a knockout vamp, Elvi Black's been catching her z's in a coffin, staying out of the sun, and giving up garlic. She knows there's more to being undead than what she saw in Dracula, but she can't very well ask her mortal friends about proper biting etiquette. But when her neighbours placed a personal ad for her in the local paper, she never imagined she'd meet Victor Argeneau, a vampire who could have his pick of any woman—dead or alive.

Rich, powerful, and drop—dead gorgeous, Victor's the perfect man for a novice neck—biter like Elvi. He's willing to teach her everything he knows, but he'll have to do it fast. Someone's out to put a stake through her new vamp life, and only Victor can keep her safe—and satisfied—for all eternity.

The Review

The Accidental Vampire is the seventh book in the Argeneau Vampire series by popular romance author Lynsay Sands.  The Accidental Vampire is, like all the novels in this series, a stand alone paranormal romance.  Although characters from the earlier novels appear again in the later books you don’t have to read all the books in order to understand and enjoy the story. (Unless you want to - in which case the books are listed in reading order on the Lynsay Sands page!)

The Accidental Vampire is the story of Elvi, a woman from Port Henry, a small Canadian town, who was accidentally turned into a vampire after a road accident in Mexico.  With the help of her quick thinking best friend Mabel and the rest of the residents of Port Henry Elvi has been coping with her undead existence for the last five years.

Elvi’s friends decide that as they aren’t going to live forever they had better find Elvi an immortal boyfriend so that she won’t be left alone when all her mortal friends are dead.  They place an advertisement for a male vampire in the Wanted Items section of the Toronto Star! Newspaper, little realising the consequences this will have when the Vampire Council see the advert.  The Council, unhappy at this flagrant flouting of their most important rule (that immortals should never do anything to draw attention to themselves) despatch Victor, their toughest enforcer, to find out if Elvi is a real vampire and stop her from doing anything else to expose herself as an immortal.

Victor is an ancient and powerful immortal, but even he is shocked when he arrives at Port Henry to find that the whole town knows Elvi is a vampire.  And although Elvi is popular with the people of Port Henry, someone seems out to end her immortal existence.  This is bad news for Victor.  He has already lost one lifemate and as he finds himself attracted to Elvi, he has no intention of losing another.  Not to the Council, who may demand her head for breaking their rules, or to some deranged vampire slayer.

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, fuelled by blood, repair all damage to their bodies – giving them the appearance of vampires.

Lynsay Sands writes with a light-hearted touch and there are plenty of opportunities for humour in The Accidental Vampire, as Elvi realises that she can eat cheesecake and sleep in a real bed (not a coffin) after five years of abstinence.  The characters, both the mortal town’s people and the visiting immortals, are written to be both quirky and likeable, making The Accidental Vampire a fun read.  In a departure from the normal young female protagonists of romantic fiction the author has given us mature women (both Elvi and Mabel are 62 years old) finding eternal love, which adds an interesting twist.

The Accidental Vampire will not appeal to every paranormal romance reader - there is no vampire angst, dark fantasy or horror here.  This is a light-hearted fun read where even the vampires don’t think of themselves as vampires.  Full of cheerful romance and playful fun, The Accidental Vampire is a perfect antidote to the winter blues - and with back-to-back releases of new Argeneau Vampire novels in February and March 2008 there is plenty more to look forward to.

LoveVampires Review Rating: