Customer Reviews

Tall, Dark & Hungry (Argeneau Vampires, Book 4)

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Tall, Dark & Hungry is another satisfying, hysterical, sexy vampire tale.

Bastien Argeneau has always been the dependable one, the got to guy, the mister fix the problems. So it was no shock that his soon to be sister in law asks that her cousin and maid of honor be put up in his home. Bastien was not expecting in all his four hundred plus years to be falling in love. Terri is a breath of fresh air, which was missing in his life.

Terri Simpson arrived early to help with her cousin Kate Leever to Lucern Argeneau. She moves into Bastien's penthouse and is surprised to find herself enjoying her host company. Bastien is a caring, thoughtful, sexy man.

As Bastien and Terri are thrown into last minute wedding preparations when Kate and Luc are called out of town, they become closer and realize how much they care. But Bastien has one little vampire secret that could change it all.

Lynsay Sands has written another fantastic book in her vampire family. The family dynamics are hysterical. The passion between Terri and Kate is so steamy and so tender.
I hope we get to see more of the wonderful family.

I wish I could give this one more than 5 stars, but I felt that way about all of the Argeneau books! These brothers are hot, hot, hot! Bastian and Terri's love scenes are remarkably tender and sexy! Terri's past makes it hard for her to open her heart to Bastian, as does his. Both have been wounded in the past either by betrayal (in Bastian's case) or death (in Terri's case) and it's made them a bit skittish to give their hearts away again and risk the pain of loss. I know that in a good romance, the characters have to overcome obstacles to their love but this obstacle seems to be so real. I can, luckily, only imagine losing a spouse or parent to death but it would make it very hard to allow anyone that close again. The fact that the characters love one another enough to try is what makes this a wonderful love story.
I recommend that you read all three books (in order)! They are all terrific and not to be missed - whether you are just a vampire fan or a romance fan! There's enough of both elements for any serious fan to enjoy!!

Bastien Argeneau is a vamp in the grumpy mold of his brother Lucern (Single White Vampire), and his lovely curmudgeon ways was going to be put to the test, with the upcoming wedding of Lucern and Kate. Too lovey-dovey wrapped up with themselves, small details of the upcoming ceremony are slipping by them. Like the arrival of Kate's cousin, Terri.

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 Thomas 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 boss, 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!

If you think that the books in this series started out unbeatable and just keep getting better and better, this review probably won't be helpful for you. If these books are a guilty pleasure for you, if the writing and comedy (codpiece) sometimes make you wince rather than giggle, yet you find yourself buying them anyway, then read on.

`Tall, Dark and Handsome' is, regrettably, the worst yet. `Love Bites' was marginally more entertaining than re-reading `Single White Vampire', but this one... nah. No conflict, no tension, no plot, (almost) no biting, things are told rather than shown by the paragraph load. There's lots of uninteresting detail that doesn't advance the plot or develop the characters, an example of the not-so-scintillating prose:

`With two hours to kill until Terri's flight arrived, Bastien and Lucern had retired to a bar, having to make their way into the nearest departure terminal to find one. Now they were returning to the arrival area to await Terri, hoping as they did so that she wouldn't be held up too long at customs. Bother were rather weary of waiting, and eager to get out of the airport, what with its buzz of stressed-out travelers and anxious friends and family.'

After reading the 4 pages it took for Kate to ask Bastien to put Terri up in his apartment, the 1 page required to ask him if he could please pick her up at the airport, and the 7 pages required to prepare to pick Terri up at the airport, having to hear about where exactly the bar was located filled some personal psychological beaker of useless information to overflowing.

I borrowed my girlfriend's copy of this book on a delayed train journey and started reading with some trepidation. Romance is definitely not my thing. How wrong I was. I never thought I'd spend a three hour rail delay laughing my socks off, but thanks to Ms Sands anarchic sense of humour even travelling on the British railways can turn onto an unexpected pleasure. Now if I can just find where my better half has hidden the previous two novels in this hysterical vampire series I may be prepared for the next journey.

I read Single White Vampire and Love Bites in one night each, and thought them fresh and funny. It took me a week to slave through this book. It lacks all the humor the first two contained and therefore all the reasons I bothered reading all three. Come on people, does a reader REALLY need 300 descriptions on just how much one person thinks the other person is sexy. I got it the first 20 times it was said, thank you! None of these characters were endearing, funny, or interesting to me. The off the wall situations Sands introduced that (I'm guessing here) she thought would make people laugh, was unrealistic, and therefore unrelatiable.

Please give me some plot here!

Loved it, loved it, loved it! It was great. Seeing Bastien fall it love and relax was great. Don't want to give the story away but Bastien is a real type A workaholic and watching him transform into someone who would blow a meeting to spend time with someone special was great. Vincent was a crackup. Poor misunderstood guy who has to get his blood the old fashioned way and gets yelled at for having a taste off the housekeeper and then the editor. Really great. Wish I could think of another word besides great but the book was great, it was funny, it made you laugh throughout the book. I really love Lynsay Sands style of writing. If you are a Sandra Hill fan and a lover of vampires you will love this book and this series. Like Sandra, Lynsay will have you laughing outloud while you read. To me that is important. I loved to be entertained while reading and to feel the full range of emotions while reading and I get that from Lynsay Sands books.

I've read all 3 of the series* and I do love the story of ettiene & rachel the best! Bastien & terri's seduction drove me to read page after page w/excitment! Lucern & Kate were such a sweet beginning, although I found her a bit demanding at first, but that's what lucern needed! All 3 books are great reads, and I couldn't put them down, and read them over & over again! I love vampire romance, the sex & seductions are the best! I would love to read about Lissiana & greg next? I recommend this to the romantics, as well as those who read anita blake, and sookie stackhouse! Also some other great reads are Trisha Baker, Cheri Scott, Mary Janice Davidson, Billie Sue Mosiman! Pick up one today!

Take a grumpy Vampire and a bridesmaid who has no clue what her best friend has gotten into, plus a wedding that puts even Murphy's Law to the test and you have laughs around almost every corner.

Between trying to hide his being a vampire from Terri, his nephew showing up to stay for a while and tasting the housekeeper, and the assistant to the bride breaks his leg. This couple has a lot to do and a short time to get it done, the caterer goes out of business, the flowers get a disease and that's just the beginning. Don't miss this 3rd installment of a vampire series that isn't dark and moody. These guys don't go looking for dinner, it's delivered from a special blood bank.

Englishwoman Teri Simpson crosses the ocean to attend the wedding of her cousin Katie. The bridesmaid has no idea that Katie is no longer 100 percent human as the bride has converted to vampirism and is marrying into a family of vampires including her spouse.

Katie asks her future brother-in-law Bastian Argeneau to allow Teri to stay at the family penthouse for the two weeks leading to the wedding. Willing to do anything for Katie, Bastian agrees. However, he might have reconsidered her stay if he knew that cousin Vincent also arrives to stay there. Vincent has a healthy appetite for female humans enjoying a LOVE BITE or two. As Bastian and Teri fall in love, he makes sure that Vincent keeps his teeth to himself especially in light of driving their housekeeper into resigning.

This engaging vampire romance has a biting edge to it as Lynsay Sands spoofs her previous tales and those of the sub-genre with an intelligent satirical spin. The terrific story line moves forward at a rapid pace once Teri meets the in-laws and never slows down yet makes her and the vampires seem so genuine that a nest must be residing in New York. Fans of an amusing tongue in cheek (change tongue on neck) melodramas will sink their teeth into this delightful "relationship" drama and will adore TALL, DARK, AND HUNGRY.

Harriet Klausner