Red-Haired Ash Reads

After two thousand years, Cale Valens has given up finding a life mate. But when Marguerite tells him Alexandra Willan’s might be a potential mate, he can’t help but try. Now he has agreed to be her head chef when he doesn’t even know how to cook, all for a chance to get to know her. 

Cale Valens is one of Martine Argeneau’s sons, and has basically given up on finding his life mate. He is very surprised when Alex is the one and in his rush to stay close to her, agrees to be her head chef when he doesn’t know how to cook. I liked Cale because while he is agreeing under false pretenses, he quickly turns the situation around so he doesn’t have to cook and Alex can go back to cooking, which is her passion. I appreciated how helpful he was and how determined he was to make Alex’s new location successful.

Alex was a hardworking woman who loved cooking. Her restaurant was so successful that she is now working on opening a second location but it’s not going well. All the renovations seem to be going wrong though and she is close to becoming broke from it. But Cale changes everything for her. Not only is she falling for him, but he is also fixing all her issues with the second location. I liked how determined and hardworking Alex was. I did think her reaction to finding out about vampires was amusing to some extent (foil hat), but was glad it wasn’t stretched out for long. 

While I did enjoy this book, it’s mostly centered around a restaurant and opening a second location. Yes there is some tension where they are both attacked, but for the most part, this story wasn’t really exciting compared to previous books. I’m not saying it was boring, but it was definitely a slower paced and minimal action one. 

Overall, it was good to see the last Willan sister find a mate and another Argeneau find love. I wonder who will fall next, and when Bricker is going to find his mate. 

TW: death of parents and grandparent mentioned; death of siblings mentioned; brief instance of toxic masculinity; attempted mugging; on page car crash; toxic boyfriend mentioned;

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Goodreads | The StoryGraph | Amazon

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Previous books and reviews for the series:

#1. A Quick Bite
#2. Love Bites
#3. Single White Vampire
#4. Tall, Dark & Hungry
#5. A Bite to Remember
#6. Bite Me If You Can
#7. The Accidental Vampire
#8. Vampires Are Forever
#9. Vampire, Interrupted
#10. The Rogue Hunter
#11. The Immortal Hunter
#12. The Renegade Hunter
#12.5. Bitten By Cupid
#13. Born to Bite