Love Bites Book Two

The story: In theory, a vampire is pretty darn close to indestructible. But Etienne Argenau finds out the hard way that all it really takes is a determined self-proclaimed vampire hunter with the means to stack up on weapons and gadgets. During Etienne's second involuntary trip to the morgue (once shot, once burnt), the hunter barges in to finish the job - and the confused young doctor in attendance, Rachel Garrett, throws herself between the madman and the miraculously recovered "corpse" and gets an axe in the chest for her troubles. There is only one way to save her: Etienne is allowed to turn ONE single person in his endless life. Just one. And if she doesn't turn out to be his soulmate, he's in for an eternity of loneliness. Pros: I liked the basic idea of the story: what happens when a Vamp lands himself in the morgue more than once? That's bound to be a sticky situation! And what happens when he turns a woman who didn't ask for it and who might not thank him for it, either? The novel is easy to read and entertaining for an evening or two of light reading - if you don't expect too much. Cons: In large parts of the story, I didn't like Rachel much. She's described as a "firecracker" and "prickly", but to me she often sounded like a rude, whiny teenager. I didn’t feel any real connection between Rachel and Etienne, either; it felt forced because they *had* to fall in love for the story to work. The "villain" is introduced on the very first page, and from there, the story pretty much follows a tired old pattern: two people who were thrown together by fate get to know each other, fall in love, face some minor obstacles and a few misunderstandings... Then there's the showdown with the villain and they live happily ever after. There absolutely nothing surprising or new in this novel. There were some hints that the villain has a tragic backstory, but he's mostly portrayed rather one-dimensional. It also doesn't really make sense that Etienne doesn't stop him - vampire, mind control? The big show-down at the end was just unbelievable - it was like watching a B-movie. The sex scenes are numerous, but mostly not very exciting, more like filler to eke out the plot - except for that one scene where Rachel starts thinking about how biting Etienne would be just like biting into a juicy sausage... (You can guess what she's doing at the time. It doesn't end well for him.) That one was memorable, but not necessarily in a good way! Summary: I'm sorry if my review sounds mean... I honestly wanted to love the book, but it left me feeling like I'd just eaten a huge helping of cotton candy - sweet and fluffy, but without much substance. Don't get me wrong, sometimes I'm in the mood for cotton candy! I just wish the novel had a bit more of a bite (pun intended).