This vampire has been alone for far too long . . .
As one of the most ancient in the Argeneau clan, Cale Valens has given up on finding a life mate. His friends and family, however, have not. In fact, they believe they’ve finally found his perfect match. Getting them together, however, requires one little white lie . . .
Alexandra Willan is in a panic. Her restaurant is due to open in two weeks, but her chef just walked out. Then a highly recommended replacement arrives, an impossibly handsome culinary genius who sends electric tingles racing through her body . . .
Except he can’t cook. In fact, Cale hasn’t eaten real food in two thousand years. Yet he’s determined to prove to Alex his prowess in the kitchen . . . and elsewhere. Because never has he hungered so for any mortal woman. And not just for a taste of her, but for the whole delicious feast!
Cale Valens shows up at the immortals enforcement house in Canada. He’s there at the request of Marguerite Argeneau who is just certain that Alexandra Willan is his life mate – and she’s rarely wrong about these things. He’s been around since 280 b.c. and not found his life mate yet so he’s willing to try anything. When he makes it to the enforcers house he meets Alex’s sister, Sam, who is another immortal’s life mate. Sam immediately calls Alex to have Cale meet her but Alex is having some serious problems of her own and isn’t interested in men at the moment.
Alex runs a well known and much liked French restaurant. It’s doing so well that she’s opening a second across town but has been having so many issues with the construction of it that she’s not been focusing too much on the first restaurant. When her chef from restaurant 1 decides to quit because he’s been lured away by her competition with the promise of an exorbitant salary she’s stuck. She really needs to take care of the second location but has no one to cook for the night and no one she calls can fill the space. When she gets a phone call from her sister Sam she’s more than a little frustrated and not interested in meeting one more of Sam’s friends who’s going to look at her intently and then walk off – it’s beginning to make her self-conscious. But Sam assures Alex that this is perfect because Cale is a chef and he’s going to save the night for her.
When Cale meets Alex he knows immediately that he’s met his life mate but there are a couple of problems. Number one is that he has to act as a chef for her restaurant when he doesn’t even know how to cook and hasn’t even eaten in hundreds of years. Number two is that Alex isn’t interested in any type of relationship right now with the restaurant doing so well and the new one about to open. She was also hurt very badly by someone years ago and feels, deep down inside, that she’s just not good enough for anyone.
Cale manages to get through the night of cooking with help from other immortals and a lot of mind controlling of the customers, and even manages to insinuate himself into Alex’s life as her manager and gets the new restaurant in shape for opening. But Alex is still an uber independent woman and he has a hell of a time trying to convince her that she should keep him around for more than work details.
This was a very sweet book. Cale was just a great guy – smart, funny, fun and I really liked reading about him. Alex took me a little longer to warm up to since she was SO independent but in the end I liked her too.
There was a small mystery involved in the book as well as the romance. All the trouble Alex was having and then she’s almost mugged outside of her restaurant. There’s also an accident where her car is run off the road but Cale was driving at the time. The conclusion to this mystery was really the only thing that I was up in the air about. On one hand the bad guy was apprehended so quickly that it almost seemed too fast for my liking. On the other I guess it did give us a chance to hear the villain out and see into his thoughts a bit which was a closure for Alex’s life that she desperately needed.
Lynsay Sands always has a great way of working humor into her stories that you don’t often see in a vampire/paranormal book. There’s one scene after Alex finds out that Cale is an immortal and of course she thinks he’s the evil vamp so she wants to take precautions against mind control. The problem is she has no weapons so utilizes what she has in the kitchen that might work against a vamp – tin foil and a wooden spoon. Omg – absolutely hilarious!
Just a fun book. After 14 Argeneau books you’d think I’d get tired of reading them but Sands manages to put something in there every time that makes it just a good read.
Rating: 3.75 out of 5
(This book releases on November 30th)
I received this book for review by the publisher.
I kinda gave up on this series… it just kept going ON…
I think the last one I read was book 6 or maybe 7. Nice series and this one sounds like a good continuation. Maybe one day. 🙂
I've never picked this series up, but…I'm kind of vamped out ATM 🙂
Do love this though:
…not interested in meeting one more of Sam’s friends who’s going to look at her intently and then walk off…
Am guessing the friends are vampires checking to see if Alex is their life-mate?
Chris – Yes, there are a LOT of Argeneau's coming out of the woodwork. 🙂
Lily – They're all very cute, I think. Sands has a way of mixing the immortal element with humor and it just works for me.
Orannia – Yes, I guess I should have stated that the immortals were trying to find their life mates and that's why they would stare at her. When they figured out they could read her mind they would just walk off (rude!) and she was getting a huge complex. 🙂
Have they hit the fifth cousins twice removed yet?