Red-Haired Ash Reads

Rachel Garrett doesn’t expect this night shift as a coroner to be any different from any other, but when a madman comes in wielding an axe and raving about vampires everything changes in a split second. Now she has to come with being a vampire and falling for her savior. 

Etienne Argeneau is a 312 year old vampire who creates video games. He doesn’t expect to find his mate, especially in a morgue after he wakes up from an attempted murder. While I really enjoyed how this couple met because it was a very unique situation, I found Etienne to be a bit annoying overall. I can understand making exceptions for being attacked by a crazy person one time, but four separate murder attempts and a kidnapping doesn’t change his mind from doing something drastic with the villain. 

Also the villain in this is just ridiculous. His name is Pudge and he is so cheesy and dumb, yet can get the drop on a 300 year old vampire really easily. It was just a little too ridiculous for my liking and made it harder for me to enjoy this story. 

My other issue with Etienne was that he gives Rachel bad blood to prevent her from learning how to feed properly so she can’t leave and he has time to try and woo her. This made me not like him even more and it is never addressed at all afterwards. He doesn’t admit it and his family, who can read his mind really easily right now, never call him out on it, which isn’t cool. Basically, Etienne wasn’t my favorite. 

Rachel and Etienne’s story was a bit slow building. They are both attracted to each other but the circumstances of Rachel’s turning get in the way. At first, Rachel is struggling with being a vampire and really doesn’t understand what Etienne had done in turning her. While I did enjoy the progression of their relationship, I still struggled a bit with it because of Etienne’s actions and the terrible villain. 

Overall, while I still really enjoy this series, this book is not one of my favorites. I think I would have liked Etienne more if he had been a bit smoother, smarter, and honest. I look forward to reading the next book to see which of Marguerite’s children will fall in love next. 

TW: gun violence; car explosion; kidnapping; blood and injuries;

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Previous books and reviews for the series:

1. A Quick Bite