Hungry for You

Alexandra Willan is an up and coming chef who simply doesn't have time for romance. Alex is busy trying to open up a second location for restaurant, worried about being afford the mistakes that keep cropping up while building and dreaming about earning a Michelin Star. When Sam calls to tell Alex about a man she simply needs to meet, Sam most certainly doesn't have time for her sisters match making now that her head chef has just quit. When Sam mentions that Cale is a chef, Alex decides that he might just be who she needs to meet. Cale is a 2,000 year old immortal who has lost interest in most things and therefore has agreed to meet Alex to humour his aunt Marguerite. When he quickly realises that he cannot read Alex, suddenly he show more realises that agreeing to pretend to be a chef might not have been such a good idea, particularly given that its been centuries since he's eaten.

If you're reading this review I am going to assume that you've read this series. At this point, the Argeneau series has gotten repetitive at best. What first attracted me to this series was Sands injection of humour into the stories. Unfortunately, that strain of humour that keeps these books interesting simply wasn't in this novel. Hungry for You is formulaic and absolutely forgettable. Cale is absolutely indistinguishable from any other love interest in this genre. Let the man titteh begin. Another problem with Cale is that I didn't really feel his age. Sure, he didn't watch television, occasionally messed up modern slang and couldn't use a microwave but none of that gave me a sense that I was reading about a 2,000 year old immortal.

In terms of Alex, I really like that she's a modern, independent successful woman. She comments briefly about the sexism in the culinary industry and I really wish that Sands had gotten into this more deeply. Instead, Sands made Alex's strength come largely from the people that she has lost: grandfather and parents. Far too often just killing off and isolating the female protagonist is how authors had depth and I think this tactic did Alex a disservice. Yes, her sister Sam was in the background but Sam's main role really became about pairing off Alex more than working to support her.

It really irked me that members of the Argeneau family quite liberally controlled Alex - particularly Bricker. Sure, their intentions were good but it served the purpose of removing Alex's agency. What irks me is that Alex, like many of the female love interests, seems to have no real lasting issue with this. Sure it led to her making a tin foil hat which was mildly amusing but certainly didn't make up for her lack of real concern about the loss of her autonomy.

Like many books in the Argeneau series, Sands tries to include some mystery or something that lovers have to deal with before they can declare HEA. In this case, someone is trying to stop the opening of Alex's new restaurant. Cue Cale to the rescue. Before he arrived, Alex was barely treading water and very much in danger of having the opening ruined. Once Cale arrives, he fixes the problems with her distributors and workmen. This is supposed to show that they are a good match because Cale is detail and task oriented while Alex is creative. First off, this line of plot is absolutely gender essentialist and then, there's the issue that it's male love interest swooping in to deal with big issues the little woman cannot handle. Why have Alex deal with sexism in the culinary industry, only then to twist her career and relationship in a very gender binary fashion? It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

One of the things that deeply irked me about the book is that Hungry for You is set in Toronto. I know Toronto very well because that's where I grew up. Toronto is easily the most multicultural city in Canada and yet Sands decided to make it all White and throws in one disposable gay couple in passing. I found myself absolutely steaming at the lack of real inclusion. It's absolutely not representative of the city that I call my home.

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A comfort food. I like most of the offerings in this series. The vampire mythology is good for me as I don't like the whole undead vampire thing so any explanation that makes them not dead and not have to kill the one they love is good with me. This one is more like the earlier books in the series instead of the last few. In other words it focuses more on the couple and less on the evil set of vampires who are warring with them. It is light hearted but not in a real campy way. Usually the things the old vampires go through to try to reconnect with the modern world once they meet their lifemate are amusing. The hero was a likable man and a gentleman and the heroine was a strong self sufficient woman. If you like the series, you'll show more probably like this one. show less

This was going great until the resolution of the issues Alex Willan was having at the end that kinda fell a bit flat and left me wanting, it was just resolved too quickly, almost as if the author realised that she had left a plot piece unresolved before the end of the book and it had to go in suddenly.

The couple were good, and you could see a building relationship between the two of them, I enjoyed this one. Alex Willan is trying to expand her business but the expansion is fraught with issues and she's almost broke, both in cash and with stress when Cale Argeneau was sent into her life, initially as a chef, with much stress as he's not a chef and he's not into cooking. So much abuse of vampire powers later he's accepted and then he show more works with her to help her get her dreams. Will she accept him for who he is and can she get over some of her trust issues.

It's not bad but there's nothing that makes it stand out from the rest of the series. show less

The heroine is in a panic. Her restaurant is scheduled to open but it’s nowhere near constructed and her head chef has quit and everything is absolute chaos. The hero, a vampire who’s lived hundreds of years, still has no idea what to do in the face of finding his life mate. He’s awkward and shy and far from a ladies man. His family, the matchmakers they are, discover his secret and immediately plan to set them up. The hero is recommend this handsome young man who is an amazing chef and will more than willing to help her out with her problems. The hero is in a fluster because not only having absolutely no clue how to cook, he hasn’t in fact actually eaten anything in a few hundred years. But the fact that he would be given the show more opportunity to be close to his life mate urges him to accept the position. I enjoyed this book but it was a very basic story and fit the cookie cutter mold of the rest of the vampire series. The one thing I did get a chuckle out of was the fact that this author took her love obsession with food to its highest level by setting the story at a restaurant. show less

Another funny and entertaining vamp story from Lynsay Sands. While there was nothing really new to this plot, I still loved the characters and enjoy reading about another member of the Argeneau family. I am looking forward to reading book 15.

This was a great addition to the Argeneau Vampire series. It was right on target as a humorous love story that has a paranormal element thrown in. This is the last of the books about the 3 sisters. Each of the previous 2 books in the series were about the other 2 sisters finding their lifemates, and now it is Alex's turn!

I really think I enjoyed this book more than the other in the series because the characters took the time to actually fall in love before the whole lifemate part of the equation came into affect. It was nice seeing the human character allow herself to open up and fall in love slowly, instead of being rushed into it.

I really love that while each book centers around a different set of main characters you still get a peep show more into the lives of the past books MC and get to see how their lives are progressing.

While this isn't one of my favorite series, it's a nice break to have this lighthearted and quirky series thrown into the mix every now and then. show less

Another terrific installment of the Argeneau series. A funny, sexy, low-stress read, just like the rest of the series. The part about the tin foil hat had me laughing out loud. A little predictable, but still an excellent brain candy for paranormal romance fans.