Title: The Accidental Vampire
Author: Lynsay Sands
Series: Argeneau #7
Pages: 382
Ever since Elvi Black was accidentally turned, she has been following all the rules that she found in the movie Dracula. She has avoided the sun, slept in a coffin, and given up food. But when her best friend placed an ad in the local paper for vampire mate, she never imagined she would meet Victor Argeneau, or that everything she thought about being a vampire was wrong.
Elvi, real name Ellen, was accidentally turned while on vacation to Mexico and instead of fearing her, the whole town came together to take care of her. Port Henry was a very interesting small town with its acceptance of vampires and the people’s willingness to donate blood and help a neighbor. Elvi was a very excitable and impulsive woman. She doesn’t really think about her own danger or wants the majority of time. Instead she is constantly jumping from one town thing to the next, or rushing out to buy a new bed or food now that she can. I liked Elvi but also thought she was a bit of a pushover since she lets her friends and neighbors treat her like a sideshow.
Victor is an ancient vampire and younger brother to Lucean. He is the father of Vincent (A Bite to Remember), and they both struggle with their inability to drink bagged blood. Unlike in Vincent’s book though, this health issue is barely mentioned and we don’t see how burdensome it is for Victor like we did with Vincent. I was a bit disappointed that this was addressed more or that he didn’t even mention it to Elvi until the end of the book really. While this isn’t addressed, I did enjoy Victor, especially since he fell hard for Elvi and really just loved everything about her personality, even when she was being a menace.
This book also introduces us to a couple of other new, non-Argeneau, vampires: DJ Benoit, Harpernus “Harper” Stoyan, Edward Kenric, and Alessandro Cipriano. I actually enjoyed these four as side characters. I think they brought a little more life into this story and their attempts at helping Victor was amusing. This book actually gives us two matings, because DJ also finds his fated mate in this small town and doesn’t waste any time convincing her to be his.
The tension in this book is around someone trying to murder Elvi. While I enjoyed the little slices of danger and tension this brought into the story, I did think the ending with the villain was very disappointing. Not one is punished for the crimes and Elvi just instantly forgives the attempted murderer. I was really expecting more than that, especially since Victor has lost a mate before so I thought he would be more aggressive about punishment, but he just accepts whatever Elvi wants. I will admit, I think he became a bit of a pushover at the end.
Overall, this was enjoyable but not my favorite. I do think this book was one that Iremembered the most of so far, but it’s not my favorite of the series.
TW: death of a husband and daughter in a car accident; death of wife from fire (burned at the stake); death of friends mentioned (old age); miscarriages mentioned; attempted murder; blood; fire;
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Previous books and reviews for the series:
Red-Haired Ash Reads 