Tuesday, April 20, 2010

single white vampire by lynsday sands is light, escapist reading

Lyndsay Sands returns with another book in her Argeneau vampire series, this time with the tongue in cheek title of Single White Vampire. Like the previous work, Love Bites, the story centres on a family of vampires – the Ageneaus.
This time it's eldest brother Lucern who is the centre of the piece. He's a writer, of romances no less, who is about to have his peaceful life invaded by feisty, young, beautiful Kate C Leever, his new editor.
The plot of Sands' books are fairly predictable – girl meets boy (in this case a vampire boy), boy meets girl; neither of them really want someone in their lives, certainly not a feisty/brooding, beautiful/handsome, passionate/passionate human/vampire.
Naturally enough, it all works out in the end after a number of humorous escapades – this time including cod-pieces and a break and enter attempt.
Single White Vampire isn't a bad book, it's well-written, the characters are formulaic but not ordinary, the prose is good and some of the scenarios are quite funny. But this isn't literature, nor is it the best example of the urban fantasy / supernatural fantasy genre available these days.
If anything, Sands' first book, Love Bites, was better. The plot more adventurous, the characters more developed and the outcome more believable. This time around it seems a little like Sands' is reaching, trying to rationalise the four book deal she (presumably) got on the basis of one idea – love in the vampire world – and the success of her predecessors.
However, if you're looking for a bit of light, escapist reading, there are worse books out there than Single White Vampire; trust me, I know, I've had to review them.

Single White Vampire by Lyndsay Sands is published by Gollancz and is available from good book stores and online.

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