Immortal Ever After by Lynsay Sands (Argeneau #18)
Paranormal Romance
February 26, 2013
Avon

Reviewed by Helyce

Valerie Moyer’s life will be forever changed when she’s kidnapped by a rogue immortal who she believes is a wanna-be vampire. Held in a cage with several other women who are being used as a blood source for the rogue, Valerie keeps her wits about her by not eating the drugged food. She waits for her turn to with the rogue, knowing it’ll be her one chance at escape.

When she does, she is rescued by Anders, an Immortal Enforcer who intercepted her 911 call. From the moment he pulls Valerie into his arms he feels a connection to her and since he can’t read her, he’s thinking she may be his life mate. But the task of explaining what he is and convincing her that he means her no harm after her horrific experience is daunting. He’ll have to find a way to do it all and catch the rogue before anyone else gets hurt.

I have been a fan of this series for a while now, but a few of the recent offerings seemed to be missing that spark that pulled me in and attracted me in earlier books. When I realized this was Anders story, though, I just had to read it. I have been waiting for Anders’ story since we met him several books back. As an Enforcer, Anders’ job is to bring in the rogue immortals that feed freely on humans and risk exposing all immortals to the human race. I’ve enjoyed his character in all of the previous books; his dry humor and one-liners always bringing a humorous element to any situation. When paired up with Bricker, a much younger immortal-their ‘age difference’ is often the cause of disagreements and such-but it keeps this paranormal more light than dark which is one of my favorite aspects of this series.

In Valerie, we meet a very strong woman. Alone in the world with no family, she was the perfect target for the rogue knowing that no one would be looking for her. I enjoyed Valerie’s strength as she plots her escape and fights off her captor. She was smart as well and I liked how the author brought about the big reveal of exactly who and what Anders was. She wasn’t willing to accept what she was told and was an advocate for herself as she attempted to “help” catch the rogue before she even knew what he really was.

I enjoyed these two together as well. Anders is several hundred years old and as such has stopped eating food, or having sex. Apparently as they age, the appeal is lost. Watching all those feelings and senses come alive once he meets Valerie was very reminiscent of the earlier books in the series. Anders eating ice cream for the first time after years without was an almost orgasmic experience for him. And when we finally get to the sex, it’s explosive and Valerie is hard pressed to ignore this fact when it comes time for her to make her decision.

The conflict in this story as we watch the search for the rogue is quite predictable. He’s out there, we need to find him, there aren’t many clues, etc. But I liked how the author continued to have Valerie be her own savior-first by escaping her captor in the beginning and again later in the book with things take a turn.

If you’re a fan of this series, you’ll be happy to know that we see a lot in the way of previous characters, especially Marguerite who in the past has always been involved in one way or another when a life mate is found. We also get quite of bit of Bricker, who I love as well and Lucien and Leigh have some very good news to share in this one.

As much as I enjoyed this story, however, it did have a bit of a “been there, done that” feel to it. Not enough to hurt my enjoyment, just kind of there on the periphery. As this is book 18, I can understand how this can happen, and I’m okay with certain things being repetitive-like symptoms of the life mate connection or starting to eat again etc. But I’m pretty sure there has been a kidnapping premise used before as well as one other item specifically used in this story. I’m a fan though, so a bit more forgiving.

As a whole, though, I have to say that the premise of this series, Immortals being descended of an extremely scientific forward race from Atlantis, continues to be different from your average vampire paranormal. It’s not a dark at all, in my opinion, and is often very humorous which is rare in this genre. I’ll probably stick it out until I get Bricker’s story, then we’ll just have to see!

Rating: B

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