Caring for—and feeding—an orphaned vampire baby has been tricky enough. But as little Liam grows, so does his appetite. He needs more blood than she can personally supply. And when her attempts to steal from a blood bank go awry, Allie wakes up surrounded by doctors, cops…and the gorgeous, mesmerizing Magnus, who she can neither trust nor resist.
Magnus never expected to find his life mate breaking into a blood bank. Clearly, Allie is already entwined with his world—in deeper, more dangerous ways than she realizes. A band of vicious rogue immortals is in pursuit, and Magnus’ first task is to keep her safe. His second: to awaken her to mind-blowing pleasure, and hope she’ll accept the life, and the passion, that only he can offer.
Comment: This is the 30th installment in the Argeneau series by Lynsay Sands. Once in a while, I dive into another book, for it seems the series will only end when the author cannot write them anymore...
In this story we meet Allie Chambers, whose life changes once more when her friend Stella asks her help to take care of Liam, her son. Stella was turned and believes herself to be a vampire and she doesn't want the man who turned to take her child but she could not guess the villain and his puppets were so close to grab her. Allie escapes with Liam and has been on the run for years but desperation forced her to attempt a burglary at the blood bank where she works because she simply doesn't have any more strength to feed Liam herself anymore. Thankfully, hunters were nearby and could help her but can Allie deal with all the things she learns, especially when Magnus is in the picture as well? Although he is good looking and apparently a good guy, she doesn't want a relationship... or does she?
I actually found myself quite entertained by this novel, in a way I wasn't by some of the ones I considered less appealing. I think the combination of plot and characters here somehow worked out quite well to make this a more interesting story and while I tend to enjoy all the stories simply because the world and the formula are familiar and predictable, some do have an extra interesting appeal to make them more enjoyable.
Allie isn't a traditional type of heroine in these Argeneau stories because she is aware of immortals but she isn't interested in having a relationship with someone. Her role of potential life mate is more than expected, but this time the author developed her character in a way which isn't the norm. I would not say Allie is reluctant or determined to avoid a relationship but it isn't a goal of hers and I found this to be quite a novelty. Obviously, she changes her mind but not immediately for the usual reasons; instead, Allie wants to protect Liam, whom she considers her own child, and she will do what she can to be part of his life.
Allie also is conveniently a lonely person, we discover she had a complicated childhood, but I must say the author sometimes does seem to exaggerate the drama, especially when the purpose is, or seems to be, the justification why this person is at a right place to become immortal or part of the immortal community. I also found it to be a less than adequate choice to only add this and other information at the last third of the novel, when things happened at a much quicker pace. This made certain situations to be rushed and I don't think the author had to do this this way, there was plenty of time to fix the pace.
Magnus is the immortal Allie is paired with but if he had been mentioned more times before, I admit I can't remember. Sometimes this doesn't really matter, for the author introduces characters at any time and other times writes things as if it was already a given readers would know that happened or that specific character. Since the plots are often so similar since the series went towards a more dramatic setting and the couples become so in such repetitive ways (unlike the more comedy toned first books of the series), I don't think this is such a big deal, for those familiar with the series it's easy to get back on track.
Back to Magnus, he is of Nordic origin, quite old, and the only explanation why he is there is that he used to be an enforcer too, I think. he is a classical hero, with sadness and devastation in his past, but this time less than the heroine's despite the huge gap between their existences. His relationship with Allie follows all the usual patterns from the moment they decide to turn Allie, for her safety. Before that, I was actually entertained because she seemed to not mind being alone... well, I think the ideas weren't that badly done here, but it seemed as if things had to be quickly finished from a certain point on.
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