Book Review: Vampires Like It Hot by Lynsay Sands

Vampires Like It Hot

Author: Lynsay Sands
Series: Argeneau, Book 28
Publisher: Avon (September 18, 2018)
Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages
Goodreads     |     Amazon

Summary
“Vampires...”

When Raffaele Notte pulls a barely dressed, disoriented woman from the ocean, the last thing he expects is for her to utter that word. The immortal has come to the island resort to help his cousin, but now, it seems, there are rogue vampires dining on unsuspecting tourists. And he soon realizes that not only is Jess a target, she’s also the life mate he’s been waiting for…

Vampires are real. Jess would’ve never believed it until she saw them with her own eyes. She knows she has to get off the island, and her gallant rescuer has offered to help. There’s something about Raffaele that’s unlike any man she has ever met, and his touch sends pleasure through her that is beyond all imagining. But when Jess discovers who he really is, will she risk life as she knows it for a chance of forever by his side?

Rating: 4 stars

Review
I spent the first 3/4's of this book repeatedly checking if I'd somehow mistakenly picked up a previous book in the series that I'd already read, because everything felt so familiar to me. I kept going "I KNOW I've read this before!" However, I've only read one other book in the Argeneau series, and as this book only released about a month before I read it I'm positive I hadn't actually read this book before and forgotten about it in the span of a month. (Even I'm not that forgetful.)

That being said, despite this entire book up until the last quarter of it basically being bookish déjà vu, I really enjoyed Vampires Like It Hot. While I felt like I'd read it before, it was in a good way, like I'd read it before and loved it. I had just enough background on the Immortals and the whole world set-up from reading one other book in the series so I wasn't lost, but I really like the scientific way that Sands approaches the concept of Immortals (never *gasp* vampires). I like that Jess has her issues that she struggles with, and that Raff isn't perfect either. The sort of love-triangle aspect was written in a way that was really interesting to me, especially as I don't read a lot of paranormal romance (which I'm given to understand has a lot of lifemate, instant-life-bond type tropes). The "vampirates" are quite possibly my favorite part of this entire book, along with all the other hilarious nicknames and terms for things Jess comes up with. 

This is the 28th book in the Argeneau series, and while it can be read as a stand alone it does sort of assume that you have some knowledge of the universe in which the book is set. As I said earlier in my review, I've read one other book in this series and that gave me enough of a jumping ground from which to launch myself. I think if this had been the very first book I'd read in this series, I'd have felt a little lost but still been able to muddle though - I'd probably have just identified with Jess a little more!