A Bite to Remember

A Bite to Remember by Lynsay Sands
Book #5: Argeneau Series
Source: Purchase
My Rating: 4½/5 stars
Jackie Morrisey has had to fight for every ounce of respect she’s received. As a woman working in the male-dominated field of private detecting, Jackie has had to work harder, longer, more efficiently, and more successfully than her male counterparts. She takes crap from no one, handles her business discreetly and professionally, and prides herself on her resourcefulness and capabilities. With her partner, Tiny, Jackie has managed to amass an impressive client list, and the Argeneau’s are among them!

Vincent Argeneau is a man of the theater! For four centuries he has worked to build his theatrical empire, his reputation, and a loyal show more following. For four centuries, with few exceptions, Vincent has little trouble enjoying the life and work he has built for himself. The last several months have been a most decided exception to the four-century rule. In the last few months, Vincent’s productions and people have been plagued by mishaps and misfortunes. From physical accidents to spontaneous abandonment of parts, Vincent has no idea what or who has begun to plague his life, and if he doesn’t find out soon, all he has built is going to be ruined.

Jackie has intention of seeing Vincent Argeneau as anything other than a client. He may be dead sexy, accomplished, and surprisingly nice, but he’s a vampire and she’s had her fill of those blood-sucking bastards! One truly awful and tremendously embarrassing relationship with a vampire is more than enough for a lifetime so Jackie walks in to Vincent’s home and life with nothing more than work on her brain. Until things other than work begin to pop into her brain. With more than a bit of trepidation, and with a serious whack job on the loose and targeting her client, Jackie embarks on a relationship with Vincent.

The Bottom Line: Y’all, I totally adored this book!! Jackie is kickass and sassy with no tolerance for anyone’s bullsh*t!! Though she knows about vampires, her perspective is quite skewed, and she learns so much being in Vincent’s home and life. Accompanying Jackie is Tiny, one of my favorite characters in the entire series! Tiny is steady, calm, quiet, skilled, and a wonderful balance to Jackie. He cares for her as much as Vincent does, but in a very different way. He is, by far one of the most endearing characters in the series. Vincent is a funny character for me, and one the author was able to totally change my opinion about. Vincent first appears in book four, Tall, Dark, and Hungry and comes off as a rather childish character. In this book, we see a much different, much improved Vincent. He is actually quite mature, committed to his work and his employees, and interested in finding his life mate. In fact, Vincent is quite a likeable character and a perfect fit for the feisty and fiery Jackie. What really pushed me over the edge with this book, was the big reveal at the end and the reasons behind all the awful! Though it is a tragic story, I really liked the dark turn that absolutely set this story apart from the rest of the series! show less

Sad, sad day. I always could rely on Sands, always, always... but this was a disappointment.

Wow, I really hate to give a book of Sands a bad review and maybe it should get one and a half stars for the quick story at the end but this was bad, and I don't understand the 5 star reviews.

1. The Private Investigator is incompetent. She never goes over the background of all the employes that she meets. Doesn't even ask about the closest ones to Vincent. Does put safeguards into place after the first break in so that a mortal guards the door? You have 6 vampires and the mortals answer the door?

2. As some of the books go, the hero, Vincent, drags his feet to test whether he can read Jackie and find out if she is his lifemate. Too bad because if show more he had, maybe there would have been more sex and dreams, etc.. to make up for...

3. the lack of... everything, sex (not enough), plot (Vincent keeps on getting attacked and they never learn anything, nothing they do helps in the investigation, and the only reason they catch the bad guy in the end is because of a fluke of spotting someone in a passing car? Then the reasoning behind the attacks is told and it is a total out of the left field reason).

4. The story line doesn't hold up to explanations on how things work for immortals. OK, immortals get stronger as they get older, so how does the 'bad guy' have so much mental control? Why in the end, with 5 old immortals, could they not just take over the other's mind?

5. Sex, I kept waiting as Sands can really put sex scenes out but... one OK scene, one rushed sex scene and a scant dream scene. None of the orgasmic sex bites, really none, and no fainting from the first immortal orgasm. Even Lucian passed out after his first with his lifemate because he had abstained for so long. I've read 'A Quick Bite', 'Love Bites', 'Single White Vampire', 'Bite Me If You Can', and 'The Accidental Vampire', of Sands' vampire series and all had the fainting/ love bites, and pretty good to great sex.

6. Fun, where was the laughs. When I want a fun read, at least some laughs, I pick up a Sands. Some of her books are more serious than others, but she always infuses a little humor. I think I laughed once and it wasn't the 'I can't stop laughing, I'm crying' that many of her novels have inspired but a chuckle.

7. An unresolved occurrence in the book, the guy who gets turned doesn't have any of the cramps and thrashing, screaming, etc... They never talk to him again and you never hear about whether he is alright with it. You never find out why it didn't hurt him like turnings do.

OK, so is there any good? Well we meet some European vampires half way through and they have some character so further stories probably will be made. Then there is Tiny who is a mortal character. And we get to see who Marguerite leaves with to Europe. The only reason to read it would be for this, not a good enough reason. I would say to skip this one.

I cannot believe I just said that about a Lynsay Sands book. Wow. And I don't know why the other reviewers rated this one so highly. show less

I really enjoyed reading this book. It followed the same formula as the other Argeneau books, but that is ok by me. The formula is a good one. I did like the mystery aspect of the story, and the fact that Jackie was a PI. The identity of the bad guy was a surprise to me, although I don't know how I could have figured out who it was by the clues given. The story moved along smoothly, and the new characters were interesting. I hope Tiny gets to be in more books, along with Jackie.

PI Jackie Morrisey previously dated a vampire and he broke her heart, this is a problem with her latest assignment with Vincent Argeneau where she's bodyguarding him. Someone is threatening him, killing his previous loves. However he's very tempting..

Yes it's pretty obvious what happens, but the investigation is also fun.

Fun and quite readable.

"A Bite To Remember" isn't anything to write home about. It truly isn't a book I will remember clearly in a month or a year. However, this book, was a fairly entertaining read, and an improvement over "Love Bite", "Single White Vampire", and "Tall Dark and Hungry". Sands has made a wonderful world of vampires here. The Argeneau family is a hoot, and I really find myself wanting to know more about them. Sands gives and original and exceptional reasoning for the vampires. Her's is seriously one of my favorite explanations of vampirism. The problem is her previous books have felt exactly the same to me, change the name and place and the stories were redundant. "A Bite To Remember" changed that at least a bit for me. There was an show more interesting mystery to resolve and the romance was put off for just a little longer than normal. The funny parts weren't in every scene, but they were realy funny, unlike in the other volumes, in my opinion. The book has drawbacks. It still felt very formulaic. It wasn't very exciting. I kept thinking about other books I had in my TBR pile that I could be reading. However, this book was my favorite Argeneau novel, after "A Quick Bite". show less

Plot:

Someone is sabotaging Vincent's plays and to his rescue comes a female PI, sexy, mortal, and with a bit of grudge against immortals. Then his aunt shows up too afraid that he is lonely and depressed.

My thoughts:

Shall I state my do not worry OCD peeps message again, ok. I read book 1 and now I read this one. Were there books in between yes, Vincent's aunt mentioned that his cousins had found life mates but that was it. And the nano thing was explained again and some other things. This book was a perfect stand alone novel. Trust me on this.

Vincent then, an actor, 400 years old, and a bit tired of the hunt, and even sex. He has a disorder that the nanos can't fix. He needs to feed from a source, not bag of blood. He is a hottie, nice show more and cheery around others. Jackie is all business, good at what she does, and she has been bitten before and doesn't have happy memories of her old lover. But there was chemistry between this couple, even if it took some time for them to act on it.

There is saboteur, and the hunt for this person. I kept wondering who it could be, and things will happen. That is all I am saying.

This series is still very light, and with subtle humour here and there. Some romance, passion, danger, and interesting vampires. There was also one great side character and that was Jackie's associate Tiny, this huge guy who loved to work in the kitchen. I could just see him baking his muffins.

Recommendation and final thoughts:

I like this light series, and the Argenau family. They have a rich history and there are sure certain members of the family whose stories I would like to read. I also liked how easy it was to just jump into this series. show less

Plot:

Someone is sabotaging Vincent's plays and to his rescue comes a female PI, sexy, mortal, and with a bit of grudge against immortals. Then his aunt shows up too afraid that he is lonely and depressed.


My thoughts:

Shall I state my do not worry OCD peeps message again, ok. I read book 1 and now I read this one. Were there books in between yes, Vincent's aunt mentioned that his cousins had found life mates but that was it. And the nano thing was explained again and some other things. This book was a perfect stand alone novel. Trust me on this.


Vincent then, an actor, 400 years old, and a bit tired of the hunt, and even sex. He has a disorder that the nanos can't fix. He needs to feed from a source, not bag of blood. He is a hottie, nice show more and cheery around others. Jackie is all business, good at what she does, and she has been bitten before and doesn't have happy memories of her old lover. But there was chemistry between this couple, even if it took some time for them to act on it.


There is saboteur, and the hunt for this person. I kept wondering who it could be, and things will happen. That is all I am saying.


This series is still very light, and with subtle humour here and there. Some romance, passion, danger, and interesting vampires. There was also one great side character and that was Jackie's associate Tiny, this huge guy who loved to work in the kitchen. I could just see him baking his muffins.


Recommendation and final thoughts:

I like this light series, and the Argenau family. They have a rich history and there are sure certain members of the family whose stories I would like to read. I also liked how easy it was to just jump into this series. show less