Tall Dark and Hungry (Paranormal Romance) [Mass Market Paperback]

Bastien has been living in the penthouse over the Argeneau offices, quite happily alone since Lucern had moved in with Kate. But that solitude is about to come crashing down around him as the wedding approaches. First Kate pressed Bastien into picking up Terri at the airport, since the loving couple had other business. Bastien has no problem with that request. It's the second favor Kate asks of her brother-in-law to be that puts the crimp into his quiet lifestyle - she needs him to put Terri up while she is in town for the wedding. Seeing no real problem putting her up for a day or two, Bastien agrees. Only after he commits to the arrangement, Kate informs him that Terri is coming earlier than the rest of her family - two weeks earlier! But it's too late to make other arrangements, because Terri is due at the airport within minutes!

Bastien has viewed the pending nuptials with mixed emotions: happiness for Lucern, disgust at their frequent public displays of being besotted and a wee dram of envy. Bastien is not about to voice this aloud fearing mommy dearest Marguerite will sharpen her matchmaking efforts. She has always insisted her children need to be mated with someone who brings the zest for living back and the Lissianne and Etienne married and Lucern well onto his way, her crosshairs has come upon Bastien and he is feeling her breath down his neck.

Bastien fears logistical problems in having Terri around for two weeks. How do you hide that you are a vampire from a woman living under the same roof for that long? It gets worse when his nephew Vincent shows up. A wannabe actor, he is preparing for a roll on Broadway playing ¯ what else ¯ a vampire! Terri is instantly charmed by Thomas who tries to lure her in helping him "rehearse". Bastien is distracted by the physical attraction to Terri, but his befuddlement is compounded by having to keep an eye on Thomas - a vamp of the old style who likes to keep his fangs sharp!

Matters grows worse as Kate's co-editor, Chris, has one accident after another and Kate ends up installing the editor in Bastien's apartment while his is being repaired. (Note for those loving an inside jest Chris is loosely based on Chris Keeslar, editor at Dorchester Publishing ¯ Lynsay's editor for the vamp series!). All in all, it's another delightful Argeneau romp that will delight readers of the series! In a bidding frenzy, Avon books bought the rights to the Argeneaus. Lissianna's tales in being finished with at least four more planned. So, long live the Argeneaus!

So not only does he have to listen to his brother spouting about love and weddings incessantly, he's going to have to put up with sharing his home for the next two weeks. That would be bad enough for anyone used to living on his own; but considering that Bastien is a vampire and needs to drink blood regularly in order to remain healthy, it's a recipe for disaster. Oh, not that he actually drinks from humans - these vampires have it all sorted. Owning their own private blood-bank helps.

This is the third in Sands' vampire series, following Lucien and Kate's story in Single White Vampire and Etienne and Rachel's in Love Bites. Unfortunately, it feels as if it were written by a completely different author. Tall, Dark and Hungry has none of the frothy humour of the first two books. Instead, it is boring, repetitive and flat. It was a real struggle to finish. There's no humour this time - there are attempts at it, but all so ponderous that none of them work. Instead, as another reviewer comments, we are treated to page after page of descriptions of things we really don't need to know. Information is supplied in a mundane, uninteresting manner. Trivial details are given the importance of earth-shattering events. The book was incredibly disappointing.

Even the minor characters were tedious; I liked Chris, Kate's fellow editor, in Single White Vampire, but in this book he's a whiny pain in the [...]. And yet Terri notes, by the time of the wedding, that he's a nice guy! Excuse me? He's been nothing but a nuisance to all of them, whining and moaning and accident-prone as hell, complaining about absolutely everything and getting up everyone's nose. And yet she says he's nice? Um... how? As for Vincent, the campy actor, he had his moments but overall I could have done without him.

And then the Big Misunderstanding... big yawn here.

Sorry, Ms Sands, but this book was a flop. If there is another book in your vampire series - and I would like to read Lissianna and Greg's story - please rediscover your earlier flair.

wmr-uk