Hunger Untamed

Carney deserves kudos for tweaking romance tropes in the third of her Vampire Hunger erotic paranormal series (after Hunger Revealed), but falls short in the execution. Like a sweet young thing in old westerns, Lucy Drake tries to hire a gunslinger to kill the powerful man who did her family wrong. However, the former blood slave cannot convince Victor Collins, the mercenary vampire with a half-paralyzed face (a novel riff off Beauty and the Beast), to kill the vampire councilman who is responsible for her sister’s death, and who’s planning her own imminent one. Victor later agrees to train her to kill the councilman herself in return for sexual favors, and they grudgingly fall in love, although his big secret (involving a pack of lycans) may destroy any hope they have together. The book’s wry humor serves it well, and the story of two damaged souls finding love is sweet, but Victor’s overly vague backstory is a problem, as is the epilogue, which comes of out nowhere. (Mar.)