I Hunger for You is the third single title in Susan Sizemore’s vampire series. The series, which has hooked a multitude of readers and also features two short stories, is one I’ve enjoyed in the past, but I found this particular entry lacking.

Colin Foxe is a Prime vampire out to have a good time until he meets his bond mate and settles down. Life for him is great – he loves his job as a cop on an elite SWAT team, his sex life is active, and he is having a blast. That changes when he telepathically communicates with a hostage his team is rescuing. Mia Luchese meets Colin when his SWAT team saves her and other captives. Mia and Colin both realize that they have an instant attraction that they can not control. They proceed to have hot sex for weeks until Colin realizes he’s starting to care too much for a human woman and dumps her.

Mia and Colin try unsuccessfully to go on with their lives without the other. However, Colin cannot seem to stay away from her and she can’t seem to stop thinking about him. One night Mia is attacked by a vampire, a being she does not believe in even though she comes from a long line of vampire slayers. Colin comes to her rescue again, and must reveal his true identity to her. So what are a vampire slayer and a vampire doing together? Why, having hot and lusty sex, that’s what.

My main problem with the book is that Colin is not an Alpha male; he is an Alpha Jerk. I like Alphas as much as the next girl, especially when reading vampire romances. But Colin is way over the top; not to mention he spends so much time fighting his attraction to Mia I just did not care anymore. I found my self wanting to scream to Mia, “He’s an ass! Please move on!” Couple the Jerk with some weird and unbelievable plot turns that have to do with Mia’s family (I don’t want to spoil it for you) and you have a love story that seems overly contrived.

This book is not a total bust; there are a few things Sizemore does get right, including the humor, which is dead on and laugh-out-loud funny. The pace moves very quickly and story is over before you know it. The readers of the series get a little more insight into the different “families” of vampires in Sizemore’s vamp world, and a chance to catch up on the couples from the other two full-length books.

After having enjoyed the earlier books in this series, though, perhaps I expected too much. There was ample groundwork laid to tell a more dynamic story – I think Sizemore passed on the opportunity. That said, I haven’t given up completely on the series and will give the next installment a cautious try.