This is the only Argeneau story I haven't liked. Marguerite comes across as weak and paranoid. This is in direct contradiction to her portrayal in the other Argeneau books where she manipulates people to play matchmaker.

Julius, the love interest, comes acoss badly as well. The reader finds out near the very end of the book about his history with Marguerite. Until then, there is an unusually suspicous and vehement hatred towards her that he fights as he is falling in love with her.

It turns out that Julius' sister Vita was so jealous of the attention her brother Julius received as the son of the family, that she killed Jean Claude's pregnant true lifemate and blamed it on Marguerite. This made Jean Claude return to make Marguerite's life miserable by kidnapping her, mind-wiping her, and manipulating her for 500 years. Which, in turn allowed Vita to try to kill Christian (Julius and Marguerites son) and led to 500 years of Julius's life being miserable. Phew. Using a 22 year period of amnesia (due to a vampire 3 on 1 mind wipe) as a plot device to make Marguerite and Julius fall in love *again* was convoluted and unnecessary. The book even manages to make the great villain Jean Claude into a sympathetic character.

As was pointed out in another review, the family tree at the beginning of the book indicated that Marguerite is the mother and ruined the surprise. However, instead of having the line fall from the dotted marriage line like all the other children in the tree do, it falls from Marguerite only. Considering that there *is* a dotted marriage line between Marguerite and Julius, and Christian *is* their son, I find this anomaly curious. ( )

liked a lot ( )

If you've been waiting for Marguerite's story, this is it. It certainly cleared up some questions I've had about this character. Why did she marry Jean Claude in the first place? Why did she stay with him so long?

If you haven't been following this series, you may not enjoy this book as much as I did. The series begins with Single White Vampire. If you like Sookie Stackhouse and Queen Betsy, then don't miss this series... ( )

Great story... to bad they spoiled us:
I was overjoyed when Lynsay Sands released so many new books in a row. I love reading about the Argeneau vampires, and each book makes me love the characters even more. I was even happier when they began putting family trees in the front. It's so much easier to refer to them every once in awhile to find out which vampires are related and how. Then I got this book. I flipped to the family tree as a refresher before reading.

Big Mistake. Doing that completely spoiled the book for me. I speak not of the fact that Marguerite is lifemates with Julius Notte. That was pretty much a given. I'm talking about who Christian's mother is. The family tree reveals the answer that the reader wouldn't normally find out until about half way through; and even when that happens the reader is still slightly confused. I read it, and my jaw dropped as I quickly tried to come up with possibilities. Instead of finding out things along with the characters, as we normally do, I was way ahead, and it sucked.

I honestly liked this story, but it would have been so much better it it had remained unspoiled. We haven't seen much about Marguerite's love life, so it was great to see it now. I also enjoyed the bit with Lucian at the end. It was something I guessed but nonetheless a nice addition to the story.

To sum up, Lynsay Sands: Kudos to the family tree idea, but in this case, you blew it. ( )

This book makes Marguerite look a little too weak. I know she was controlled all her life, but still it's hard to understand. Juluis gets no points either. At first, he is strong and forceful, but then he becomes all mushy. Zita is so two-faced as to be unbelievable.

The whole "look-like-30" thing is down played a little here as well. There is not much description given to the appearances of the individuals. I guess that is to allow the reader more comfort when dealing with 3 generations of immortals (father, son, grandfather). ( )