The prologue for Single White Vampire, with the hero’s all-too succinct responses to letters from the heroine, made me laugh, and I settled in for a funny read. The rest of the book did have its moments, but too many in-jokes and a heroine who’s both dull and annoying put a damper on the fun.

Vampire Lucern Argeneau became an unwitting bestseller when his biographical books recounting his family’s history were marketed as paranormal romances. Suddenly he’s receiving mail from adoring fans and his editor wants him to participate in book signings and romance conferences. He does his best to ignore her, only to have the woman arrive on his doorstep to convince him.

A young editor at Roundhouse Publishing, Kate C. Leever wants to make a name for herself and impress her boss. Convincing the reclusive Lucern to cooperate in the marketing of his books would do that. The man is difficult, aloof and downright rude, but she’s not about to let that stop her. She horns her way into his home and his life, slowly coming to realize there’s something a little different about this author….

It’s a great concept that isn’t executed quite as well as it could, or should, have been. In Lucern, Sands creates a very interesting hero and puts her own stamp on vampire mythology. He’s a vivid and appealing character, with a solid heart beneath his gruffness, which is the only way to explain how he manages to put up with the heroine. I’m no fan of meddlesome families (aren’t there any families in romanceland that know how to mind their own business?), but while Lucern’s mother and siblings were irritating at times, they also provided good support at others.

Kate and her coworkers are evidently thinly-disguised versions of the editors at the author’s publisher, Dorchester. If so, it’s not the most flattering homage, at least when it comes to the heroine, because Kate is a complete bore. (Editor Chris Keeslar, or “Chris Keyes,” on the other hand, comes off far better). Maybe the requirements of writing a stock romance heroine forced the removal of any hint of real-life personality, because the fictional Kate doesn’t have one. Her range of emotion runs the usual romance heroine gamut from perky to horny to dumb as a stump. She starts out so insufferably annoying it’s not hard to see why Lucern wants her to go away and leave him alone. And that’s before she develops an even more serious case of the stupids late in the story to spur the final conflict. Whenever Lucern was tempted to bite her neck, I wished he would grab her head first and shake it to see if anything was rattling around in there.

While there are a number of chuckles to be found in Single White Vampire, the humor is uneven, coming off as strained just as often as it works. For instance, when Kate catches Lucern and his brothers slipping out of a party to partake of bags of blood, she assumes they stepped out to smoke “debbies.” Um, ha? Some of the sequences just went on too long, like a section involving pins, a tablecloth and a codpiece that felt as though it would never end.

The lovemaking scenes are more successful and appropriately steamy. The author’s writing style is smooth and generally engaging throughout, which kept the book readable despite some of the weaker elements. I may have spent parts of the book grimacing at how stupid Kate was, but it was never boring.

A large section of the book takes place at the Romantic Times conference, complete with multiple appearances by the magazine’s founder, Kathryn Falk. After a while, it seemed like she would never go away. I’ve never been to an RT convention, so it felt like I was missing out on quite a bit of what was going on and what all of this entailed. Others more familiar with these events may not feel as left out of the proceedings.

The story also took too long to move the characters’s sexual attraction to deeper feelings. For more than three quarters of the book I would have said their relationship was based solely on sex. When Sands does get around to adding love to the equation, she makes a persuasive argument, but this part of the story, requiring life choices and big decisions, is too rushed to be as emotional as it should have been. It would have been nice if this part of the story was expanded and some of the RT shenanigans cut back.

Single White Vampire is the very definition of a mixed bag. It is an easy, often enjoyable read. It’s built on a solid idea with plenty of nice touches throughout. But the heroine is irritating, the book often felt like it was aimed at a specific audience I was not a part of, and the humor is hit-and-miss. If Sands decides to spin off a story for one of Lucern’s brothers, I might give it a try. Hopefully it would be more consistent than this one.