Vampires Are Forever

Let me first say that I am loving this series. However, this book is my least favorite in the series so far. I am not surprised by this and was expecting it. With as many books as there are in the series it was bond to happen.

Yet, I enjoyed it, just not as much as the others. The humor is what I love best about the series. There were a couple of scenes that I found funny; but, not any laugh out loud ones. I was wanting the kind where people look at you funny because there is nothing going that you should be laughing at.

I don't want to give anything away, so I am just going to say that the ending felt a little rushed. I still had a couple of questions that the author did not answer for me.

What I did enjoy was the characters. I like show more the way the author introduces the various family members and you get to see them repeatedly through the books. I liked the character of Thomas and how he was so misunderstood. Of course, his fake persona did not fool everyone and I liked that the people who figured out he used it as a shield did not call him out on it. The family has a lot of respect for the other members.

The plot was good and it was believable. However, the one thing I wanted tied up at the end didn't happen. Hopefully book 8 will answer that question.

In summary, though I found a few items to nick pick about it was still a fun read. These are great books if you want a light read and there is always some kind of drama to pull you into the story. show less

The Argeneau family matriarch Marguerite has gone missing. Thomas has always been considered the irresponsible one in the family but when all of Marguerite's children find themselves entangled in commitments that are difficult to separate themselves from, it becomes Thomas's job to fly to London and locate his missing aunt. To help on this task, Bastien assigns the vice president of U.K productions for Ageneau industries, Inez Urso to help. The search will take the two on a dangerous small European romp, with Thomas realising that somehow in the midst of all of the family drama going on that not only has he met his life mate but he has to find a way to woo her while keeping her safe from danger.

As with all of the Argeneau series, show more Vampires Are Forever, is essentially a paranormal romance with mystery thrown in as sort of an aside. The mystery gives the characters something to do while supposedly falling in love lust (supposedly because people don't fall in love in a week without the woo woo Sands uses). Thankfully, because the missing character is Marguerite, it means that her children make an appearance in the story giving the readers a chance to see a little bit of what has been going on with them. Though each Argeneau novel is essentially a one off, the family connection helps to tie the books together.

In this book, Inez is the female love interest and other than the fact that she speaks Portuguese when she is angry or horny, we don't get much of a cultural sense from her. I really found this annoying because despite the fact that this series moved from the United States and Canada to Europe, it still reads like a one note cultural mishmash. It's now book number eight and we have yet to meet any people of colour. Inez being Portuguese with dark curly hair, is as close as we have gotten so far. Where are all of the people of colour in this series?

Inez spends most of her time being fixated on the fact that she is twenty pounds over weight, is too curvy and has breasts that are too large. Does that remind anyone else of Merry Gentry? It's just a ridiculous trope to have a female protagonist who is described as conventionally beautiful in every scene, then have her whine about her large breasts and being too curvy. Every time it happened, I found myself rolling my eyes. Furthermore, if Inez had managed to work her way up to a vice president position, why exactly is she so socially inept? Why does she have absolutely zero confidence in herself? Why does she need Thomas to repeatedly tell her how smart, and sexy she is? Calling Lynsay Sands, can we get a protagonist with a spine and a personality please?

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It was entertaining and kept me reading I'm still left with a slight feeling that there was something lacking in the romance of the two characters, the romance of them creating a long-term relationship rather than slight attraction and casual sex. This series is quite readable but the vampires don't really come across as that old, that knowledgeable about the world and how it works, that experienced.

Don't get me wrong, it did keep me well up past my proper bedtime and I really did get a longing to go back to Amsterdam but somehow the characters didn't come alive for me and I wasn't rooting for them.

Inez Urso (who, contrary to the US cover has curly hair she keeps bemoaning) is Portugese living in London, working for the Argeneau family show more in their business and is good at her job, she doesn't know about the Argeneau secret, but she is loyal to the company, so when the director rings her at 5am and asks her to meet his cousin in the airport and to grease the wheels for him in his quest to find the family matriarch, she does just that, without thinking and without breakfast or a shower. She misses Thomas Argeneau at the airport because her boss forgot to mention that she would be there. It turns out that there's more to them than just work, she's attracted and he suspects that they're lifemates, but will she be able to embrace the life?

Yeah, it's pretty predictable, but, as I said, very readable. show less

Like always, Sands writes them light and passionate, and I really like it. It's a great formula because I can just sit down with the book and read and read. They are relaxing.

And this might be my favorite to date. I do not what made it so, perhaps it was Thomas, a nice hottie. Or perhaps it was Inez, a curvy woman who lives for her job. Together they were perfect. As always the passion is sizzling between these too and what is there not to like when Thomas bites her a bit too quickly and finds out that she is his lifemate. Trouble in sight. And she is not a woman to stand by and do nothing.

The story then, here it's about finding Marguerite who is missing and that hunt takes them over England and to Amsterdam. I have been waiting a while show more for Marguerite's book now and I am happy to say that it's number 9 so soon I will see if she can find happiness too.

Fun and light, passion and suspense, that is all promised in this book. And hearing about the fall of Atlantis again sure makes me want a book about that. Now that would be cool, but that's ok, I can live in the present.

Conclusion:
It turned out just as I hoped it would. A good book to keep me company, and vampires sure are forever. show less

This is probably my least favorite of the Argeneau series so far, although Thomas has been a favorite character of mine. This story also had one of the best "mysteries" yet, with the disappearance of Marguerite & it wasn't completely resolved at the end of this book, but I believe her story is next so that's probably why the author couldn't reveal where she's been. I just couldn't get into Thomas' story & it seems he was written completely differently than he had in all the previous books. Although an explanation was given for him dropping his irreverent "surfer dude" type persona, it was weak & completely forgotten the minute it was explained why he been acting that way for 100? 200 years?? with some members of his family. It just show more seemed contrived & when Thomas lost the "dudes" it seems he lost anything remotely interesting about himself too. No more development regarding him secretly being a composer, etc. I liked Inez, but just really couldn't get into either one of these characters. Overall, I think the book felt rushed. show less

still loving this series I love how it's light hearted, funny and romanticce. this one though wasn't my favorite but I still enjjoyed it. However I loved how they still hadn't found Maugerite therefore leaving it open for more books. HOORAHH for that.

I can sum up this book by saying it's a vampire romance story. It does bring a little something new to the background of vampires, but mostly it's exactly what you'd expect from this type of book. That being said, I really enjoyed it and I look forward to reading more from this series.