Tracy’s review of Under the Vampire Moon (Argeneau series #16) by Lynsay Sands
After a bad relationship and an even worse divorce, Carolyn decides to go on a long overdue and much needed vacation with the ‘girls’. Only the rest of the vacationers didn’t get the memo. Around every corner there seems to be another couple celebrating their honeymoon or anniversary and the few single men she does see are far too young to even consider, including an irresistibly attractive rock violinist she meets. It’s really too bad he’s so young but in the end it doesn’t matter because according to his cousin, Giacinta, women in general aren’t Christian’s type. But there’s a catch, Christian needs Carolyn’s help. He needs her to be his beard (to play the part of his fake girlfriend) for the week to appease his ‘machismo’ family. Carolyn just can’t seem to say No and decides to help Gia’s cousin. The only problem is that being around Christian and acting like they are a loving couple is wreaking havoc on her emotions. Carolyn’s thoughts keep drifting back to places they shouldn’t, like kissing his full lips or feeling his broad shoulders under her fingertips… good lord, she’s in trouble.
Carolyn is on vacation with her friend Bethany when she runs into Marguerite and Julius Argeneau who are on their honeymoon. If you’ve read the series you know that Marguerite has a weird knack for knowing when she meets a fellow immortals life mate. In this case Marguerite believes that Carolyn is her son Christian’s life mate. Since the resort they are staying at needs a band, and Christian and his cousins are in a band, Marguerite gets them to the Caribbean pronto.
Christian knows almost immediately that Caro is his life mate but he looks like he’s 25 years old and Caro is 42. She feels like a horrible cougar being attracted to such a younger man. Gia, Christian’s cousin takes Caro aside to try and figure out an angle that will help her feel more comfortable with Christian so that she can get to know him without the guilt. What does she come up with? Gia tells Caro that Christian is gay and that he needs a beard (fake girlfriend) because his macho family just wouldn’t understand the fact that he’s gay.
Caro agrees reluctantly but soon starts to feel comfortable with Christian. She’s still incredibly attracted to him but since she knows that she can’t act on it she doesn’t freak out about it too much. She can spend so much time with him because her friend Beth is sick and has to stay in the Villa constantly. This puts Christian and Caro together almost non-stop. His family tries to help but Christian gets more and more frustrated with the fact that Caro thinks he’s gay and he can’t act on HIS attraction. When Caro decides that she needs to get out there and just get laid Christian has enough and decides that it’s time to tell her the truth.
This was definitely a different road that Ms. Sands decided to go down for Christian and Caro. I was quite surprised but it was fun…at first. I definitely got tired of the Argeneau family interferring but since they did it for Christian’s own good it was hard to stay mad at them.
Caro took the fact that Christian wasn’t gay very well – especially as she could act on her attraction right away. The immortal reveal was a bit more complicated but I liked how Ms. Sands changed that up a bit from previous books and didn’t make it quite so involved.
There was a surprising twist at the end of the book that was kind of out in left field and I can’t say that I found it necessary. It had to do with Caro’s abusive soon to be ex-husband. I just wanted Christian to call up one of his relatives in Canada and tell him to take over the ex’s brain and have him give everything back to Caro in the divorce! lol
Overall it was a fun, quick read and a a good addition to the series.
Rating: 3.75 out of 5
You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place
This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
my friend really love reading lynsay sands’s book.. i will tell her about this book 🙂