Review: Twice Bitten by Lynsay Sands (Argeneau #27)

Twice Bitten (Argeneau #27)
Lynsay Sands
Published: March 27, 2018 (Avon)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review

Reviewed by: Amy

Rating (out of 5): 4 stars

Note: While this review will be spoiler free, it will reference events from the previous story arc in the series. If you missed it, check out VBC’s review of Runaway Vampire.

For over a century Elspeth Argeneau Pimm has been counting down the days until she could get away from her overly controlling mother and gain her independence. When that day comes and Elspeth moves to Canada to begin working with the Rogue Hunters, she’s excited to be able to try things she never would have imagined under her mother’s watch. Case in point, her landlady’s sexy grandson, Wyatt, just might prove to be exactly what Elspeth is looking for: no strings attached fun. Despite popular opinion, Elspeth isn’t ready to settle down with a Life Mate—should she happen to meet hers.

Wyatt and Elspeth have actually met before, four years ago, and Wyatt immediately fell in love. He was hurt when Elspeth stood him up the day after their meeting, and he’s kept looking for her ever since. Now, he’s surprised to find out she’s renting an apartment from his grandmother, and she has absolutely no recollection of Wyatt whatsoever. While he’s trying to figure out what happened to Elspeth’s memories, a barrage of strange accidents keep befalling Elspeth, accidents that funnily enough would have killed a normal person, but as Wyatt quickly learns, there’s more to Elspeth than meets the eye.

What I really enjoyed the most about Twice Bitten was seeing the family dynamic. Elspeth’s family is established. It is not new and just starting out. She and her siblings are grown (even if they are still considered young in Immortal years), and should be out on their own in the world. Yet tragedies in her mother’s past prevents Elspeth’s mother from letting her children go. It’s, at times, a toxic dynamic, but I think it speaks a lot about the burden that older Immortals carry. Those old enough to have seen the evils in the world repeatedly and how they’re subsequently affected.

The problems with Elspeth’s apparent memory loss were subtle yet in the end turned out to deal with a bigger picture-type issue. I liked how Lynsay Sands tied it all together, however, I think we could have felt the impact of her memory loss more if we had more snippets of what happened on that day four years ago when she and Wyatt met. It was just a little short of satisfying for me in that regard.

Sands’ Argeneau series never fails to entertain. I’ve enjoyed the “break” we’ve had from the previous story arc involving the missing Immortals where we get to see what else is happening concurrently with the hunt in Venezuela. Some not-so-veiled references in Twice Bitten have me wondering if we’re set to revisit that storyline in the next book.

Sexual content: sex