The Nightlife; San Antonio by Travis Luedke Review

Synopsis   

Chock-full of vampires, mafia & mayhem, this wicked blend of dark romance and paranormal fantasy from New York Times and USA Today bestseller Travis Luedke is an indulgent sinful pleasure.

The Nightlife is violent, sexy, and occasionally violently sexy, and San Antonio starts with blood on the floor.

EMT on call, Adrian Faulkner resuscitates a beautiful woman after a Mexican mafia shootout. He can't explain why he picks her up in the hospital parking lot three days later and then ducks the San Antonio police – and the Feds.

She needed to hide. With no memory of even her name, she didn't know from who. She only knew she wasn't safe. Lucky to survive, all she wants is to escape the police.

Looking to hit it and quit it, all Adrian wants is to get laid. They both got more than they bargained for.

The naked woman tangled in Adrian’s sheets and his life is far more than a damsel in distress, and now he’s stuck with her. All hell breaks loose as the past she can’t remember catches up with them both…

Review

The Nightlife; San Antonio is the second standalone book in The Nightlife series by Travis Luedke. We meet Adrian Falkner in the beginning of the book as he works as an EMT, his back ground is that of the military with a dark psychological profile, he’s a loner never needing to rely on anyone but himself. Whilst on nightshift he and his partner are called to a shootout where they’re needed to treat a beautiful female shot multiple times. In the ambulance her heart fails her, but Adrian is determined to save her, shocking her heart back into life, they make it to hospital with her still alive. Drawn to her he keeps checking on her to see if she’s recovering, until the fateful night he meets her in the hospital car park dressed in only a hospital gown. Against his better judgement he takes her home and the rollercoaster begins.

A vampire with no memory is a great twist to the beginning of the book, and we are able to see their relationship develop as Adrian observes how quickly the vamp heals whilst finding it difficult to comprehend how she heals and why she keeps biting him drawing on his blood. I haven’t read a book for a while where a vamp lives on instinct alone not knowing why she does things. I also liked that the main vampire in this book is female who instinctually takes a male blood slave who can care and protect her.

It’s not long before the mafia starts raising its ugly head, along with the local white supremacy biker group and a dirty cop. Travis once again drags us through the seedy under world of drugs and the mafia and uses it to great effect in the book. Adrian fights hard against his natural instinct to destroy anything in his path he didn’t want to be the sociopath the army psychiatrists labelled him, that’s why he became an EMT but the need to protect the vamp draws the ruthless side from him.

As is usual in The Nightlife books there’s lots of hot steamy sexual encounters, the tension between the two of them is gripping and intense with the continuous temptation in her mind to bite him while he has an inability to hold back or to play it safe. Travis writes in his own inimitable style giving the reader enough information for them to finish the scenes in their mind and isn’t gratuitous in any way. I must admit I really like Travis’s style of writing erotica in to his books it makes a change from some of the books I’ve read where there’s just lots and lots of sex not always written well.

There is some irony with Adrian and La Rena’s relationship, he’s a sociopathic loner with OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) relying on no one and the first women he really falls for is also a tough sociopath & a high ranking drug lord and can be quite messy when she feeds, what were the chances of that Travis!! I also liked Crenshaw who came across as a very funny character although it was a shame about his ending.

The book is gritty and takes you into the world where the mafia is king, law and ruler mix this in with vampires and you get a great Travis Luedke novel. It’s an easy book to read, there’s no need to concentrate too hard to follow the plot, and it allows you to travel into a different world with different laws. It’s a great standalone book within the series and you could read it at any point in the Nightlife book series. I’m sad to reach the end of these books, but I would highly recommend them to anyone who loves a good vampire book or as a first set of books for those just coming into the vampire/fantasy genre
 

I Rate This Book                                                                                                         

                                                                                                                   

 

I Rate This Series

 

 

The Nightlife; San Antonio by Travis Luedke

Now reading the final book in The Nighlife series

Synopsis
Chock-full of vampires, mafia & mayhem, this wicked blend of dark romance and paranormal fantasy from New York Times and USA Today bestseller Travis Luedke is an indulgent sinful pleasure.

The Nightlife is violent, sexy, and occasionally violently sexy, and San Antonio starts with blood on the floor.

EMT on call, Adrian Faulkner resuscitates a beautiful woman after a Mexican mafia shootout. He can't explain why he picks her up in the hospital parking lot three days later and then ducks the San Antonio police – and the Feds.

She needed to hide. With no memory of even her name, she didn't know from who. She only knew she wasn't safe. Lucky to survive, all she wants is to escape the police.

Looking to hit it and quit it, all Adrian wants is to get laid. They both got more than they bargained for.

The naked woman tangled in Adrian’s sheets and his life is far more than a damsel in distress, and now he’s stuck with her. All hell breaks loose as the past she can’t remember catches up with them both…

Blood Slave (Nightlife Serie) Travis Ludke

Synopsis   

Her mother named her Esperanza Salvación - Hope for Salvation. But when a girl works as an escort for Colombian cartel in the ghettos of Spanish Harlem, there wasn’t much hope, or salvation. Hope’s telepathic ability keeps her a step ahead of ruin, but her unusual gift attracts the attention of a psychotic vampire bitch. Trapped in a Manhattan penthouse with the psycho, she thought she was dead meat.

Her survival lies in the hands of Vampire Master Enrique. He seems to respect her, perhaps even care. As a measure of protection, he makes her his personal Blood slave. Helplessly addicted to his bite, Enrique rules her every moment. As always, Hope must adapt to survive. Swept into the decadent nightlife of Manhattan's elite, she falls in love with Enrique and prays someday he may grow to love her, too. But is it simply a relationship of convenience? Is she nothing more than a concubine desperate to satisfy his nightly demands for blood and sex?

And forever in the background is the fear that one day the cartel boss she abandoned will hunt her down to collect on old debts.

Review

Blood Slave is one of two standalone books in the Nightlife Series, in this one we meet Hope an escort working for the Columbian Cartel living in Spanish Harlem. She is beholden to Foustino for a debt she’s paid many times over and her visa has expired which he won’t allow her to renew to keep in her place. The book starts with her next appointment an Asian women called Lia, who turns out to be a psychotic lesbian vampire, who wants to kill Hope as she can’t bespell her into forgetting there tryst, but can’t until she’s talked to her master. As we go through the book we find out what made Lia as she is, and Hope fears for her life when Lia continues to mentally torture Hope with visions of violent, gruesome ways to kill her.

Lia’s master turns out to be a hot Spanish vampire called Enrique, he is the epitome of a well healed gentleman who treats Hope with respect, giving her a job, clothes and jewellery whilst she provides him with sex and blood. Making Hope his blood slave is the only way he can protect her from Lia and help her to fit into their lives as he refuses permission for Lia to kill Hope. This a great story of a young women who is a victim of circumstance who is saved by a man normally well out of her reach

Throughout the book there is a lot of violence, torture and violent sex, but the way Travis deals with it, is not going blow by blow of the violence in minute detail. Instead he gives you a flavour of what is happening, whilst leaving your imagination to fill in the blanks. This is what I like about this Nightlife series, it doesn’t go into unnecessary gory details which the reader may not want, instead he leaves it to his readers to process it.

I’m not usually a fan of standalone books, as I feel I want to know more than the book gives, hence why I prefer series and trilogies. This book though is I think my favourite so far of in this series of books, it’s one where I got angry at the unfairness of Hope’s situation towards the latter part of the book where she is being abused by one of Foustino’s henchmen, as I wanted her to have her happy ending. Also I loved Hope who is a survivor and a very strong woman to go through what she did and come out fighting rather than giving in to her situation. Travis always manages to give such detailed back stories and characters you can’t help but like or loath.

I won’t lie, I didn’t like the fact this is a standalone book, I wanted to learn more about Hope and Enrique, but that is my personal issue. This is a great book, which I really enjoyed and would recommend it to anyone to read. It can be read as a one off, but it also sits well within the series though I would suggest starting with The Nightlife; New York. If you’re not sure whether to read the series, this is a great book to get a feel of how the author writes, how he deals with the subject matter and whether you want to read the rest although you should also be aware I wouldn’t recommended this series for those who have problems with violence and hard-core sexual activities in the books they read.

Once again the author demonstrates his ability to write great books which are a combination of sexy and sweet, so you'd think a woman wrote it, but it's tough and rough, so you know there's no doubt a man actually wrote the book.

I rate this book

 

 

New Book; Blood Slave by Travis Luedke

Synopsis 

Her mother named her Esperanza Salvación - Hope for Salvation. But when a girl works as an escort for Colombian cartel in the ghettos of Spanish Harlem, there wasn’t much hope, or salvation.

Hope’s telepathic ability keeps her a step ahead of ruin, but her unusual gift attracts the attention of a psychotic vampire bitch. Trapped in a Manhattan penthouse with the psycho, she thought she was dead meat.

Her survival lies in the hands of Vampire Master Enrique. He seems to respect her, perhaps even care. As a measure of protection, he makes her his personal Bloodslave. Helplessly addicted to his bite, Enrique rules her every moment. As always, Hope must adapt to survive.

Swept into the decadent nightlife of Manhattan's elite, she falls in love with Enrique and prays someday he may grow to love her, too. But is it simply a relationship of convenience? Is she nothing more than a concubine desperate to satisfy his nightly demands for blood and sex?

And forever in the background is the fear that one day the cartel boss she abandoned will hunt her down to collect on old debts

The Nightlife; Moscow by Travis Luedke

Synopsis 

Vampires Aaron and Michelle have landed in Moscow, on the prowl. In the company of a misfit pack of mercenary werewolves and Urvashi, a fallen angel, the vampires are forced into the violent, decadent underworld of Russian mafia, drugs and blood slaves.
This time the hunters have become the hunted.

Dmitri, a Russian vampire billionaire, sends his mafia hit men to the streets, gunning for the wolf pack. Now they must bring the fight to Dmitri and face the ultimate battle for survival.
Experience the violent, sensual underbelly of Nightlife Moscow, as Aaron and Michelle mix up a wicked blend of sex, chaos, mayhem, and vengeance.

Review

We find Michelle, Aaron, Urvashi and the werewolves arriving in Moscow, ready to hunt down Dimitri another vampire. This time Dimitri knows they’re coming and he’s hunting them down in a bid to illuminate them before they kill him. What is different in this book, is we see the two vampires planning their violent assault, where previously in other books, most of the violence has been reactive to the situations they’ve got themselves into, this time it’s premeditated.

 What I like about Aaron is his ability to fall into trouble, like a magnet he pull calamity towards him, yet he always gets the girl or two or three at the end and usually embroiled in sexual activity with them! I also think it’s his naivety that makes him so endearing, he has no idea how to get out of dangerous activities without leaving his DNA all over the place like a white flag waving Aaron was here all over the death scenes he leaves behind him, just waiting for the clues to be put together. He also seems to attract the biggest baddist mafia groups, like the Albanians, Russians and Columbian cartels to name a few, he doesn’t do things in half measures.

 Aaron just wants to live the quiet life with Michelle, but by the end of the book he has his own personal harem of blood slaves and a young girl he becomes guardian for along with Michelle, Urvashi and his pet werewolf Katya. What is he to do with all the women he collects “accidently” in his life!

 Urvashi may be a fallen angel, but she definitely has friends in high places as she organises bribes, helicopters and all the weapons any one could need. She also has Aaron on a tight leash ensuring he does as she bids. In this book we see more of Urvashi’s abilities and a glimpse of what lies underneath under the façade of the Kim Kardashian look alike. We also see Urvashi leading from the front as they proceed with the attack. Yet she always keeps Aaron in the dark, feeding him only titbits of information on need to know basis. On the whole she remains a mysterious character which has many more miles left to go.

 What I also really liked in the book was the ancient vampire Dimitri’s links to Russian history especially how he manipulated the downfall of Rasputin and the Russian royal family. Linked to this was a great twist revealing Rasputin was the alpha mail of the werewolf pack that Ivan and Katya are part of, giving the killing of Dimitri a more personal touch for some of the characters. The other twist that came in the London book and followed through into this book was how Ivan and Katya were part of the pack of wolves that attacked Michelle during world war two. This leads to a lot of mistrust and anger between the vamp and the wolves. Travis is great at pulling out the little threads he left in earlier books and padding them out to feature in the later books.

 This book is fast paced, with lots of action and violence intermingled with the great sex scenes the author is so good at writing without making them feeling gratuitous. We have Dimitri with his own personal army and a boundless power base bought in a country where bribes are the name of the game. Then we get the involvement of the local Russian Mafia who set Aaron up after he interjected when they went too far with one of the blood slaves. The icing on the cake is the involvement of the American CIA black ops. This could lead the series to go in many directions if Travis is to continue with the series, which I hope he does.

This book along with the others are a great easy read, the author doesn’t require his readers to concentrate heavily trying to follow the plot, like others do. It pulls you into another world full of intrigue and away from everyday life. The series is a roller coaster through some of the major cities in the world, and I hope there’s more to come.

 

I rate this book

Now Reading

Synopsis

Vampires Aaron and Michelle have landed in Moscow, on the prowl. In the company of a misfit pack of mercenary werewolves and Urvashi, a fallen angel, the vampires are forced into the violent, decadent underworld of Russian mafia, drugs and blood slaves.

This time the hunters have become the hunted.

Dmitri, a Russian vampire billionaire, sends his mafia hit men to the streets, gunning for the wolf pack. Now they must bring the fight to Dmitri and face the ultimate battle for survival.

Review The Nighlife; London by Travis Luedke

Synopsis 

Vampires Aaron and Michelle prowl the dark, gritty, strip clubs and back alleys of London on the hunt for Michael Jamison, the man who stole Michelle's blood and left her for dead. To assist them, Aaron's new master, Urvashi, calls in favors from her friends, Russian mercenary werewolves.

Wolves Katya and Ivan, hunters adept at killing rogue vampires, set aside their animosity for Aaron and Michelle to stop Jamison from killing again – he already has one bloodless victim lying in the morgue.

 Jamison, ex-special forces, feels his enemies closing in, but he won’t go down without a fight – and like Aaron and Michelle, he also has powerful friends.

 Experience the violent, sensual underbelly of Nightlife London, as Aaron and Michelle mix up a wicked blend of sex, chaos, and mayhem.

 Review

We find Michelle, Aaron and Urvashi in London intent on finding Michael Jamison, before he kills again, their investigations take them to Soho and the seedy club The Rocking horse run by the Albanian mafia. When Aaron & Michelle fail to find anything, Urvashi introduce them to two Russian mercenaries and they become aware that these two are more than mere mortals. I like how Michelle and Aaron roll from one disaster to another, this time it’s becoming entangled with the mafia, when Aaron try’s to save a young stripper after he pumped her for information, resulting in him assaulting the mafia manager of the strip club.

 Aaron and Urvashi’s link together leads to Michelle becoming very unsure of their relationship and extremely jealous of Urvashi and Aarons relationship. To be honest I didn’t really like the needy vamp Michelle was becoming, constantly wanting reassurance from Aaron whilst moaning constantly about him being with Urvashi. This isn’t the Michelle I’ve come to love, I much prefer her when she’s at her best, deadly and very sexy.

 This book picks up the pace in the story not quite the roller coaster ride of the Vegas book, but definitely much more action packed than Paris. I can appreciate the Paris book more now as I can see how some of the points in the book are now being developed further in the London novel. Travis is very cleaver in how he leaves little nuggets of information for the reader, and when they read the next book you get the ahh moment that’s what it means or that’s the way the story goes. Some writers leave lots of threads hanging and don’t always finish these threads in later books leaving the reader wondering what they all meant. I think that’s the beauty of writing a series rather than a trilogy, you can put lots of threads to be weaved in future books.

 I’m loving how Aaron is developing into such a badass character, it’s only his lack of experience holding him back, but when he needs to be he’s as deadly as the rest. He is naturally a good guy but he seems to attract trouble wherever he goes, stumbling from one disaster to the next, one of which created his bond with Urvashi, so he basically swapped one master for another. I really like Aaron, he tries to make everyone happy, but really wants to live the quiet life with Michelle, but that isn’t about to happen any time soon. He has Michelle who’ll do anything to stay with him, whilst Urvashi uses him as she pleases, and the poor guy has to keep the peace between them.

 Travis is a master at weaving together all the characters in the seedy side of Nightlife, we get strippers, lap dancers, drugs and the mafia, none of it is gratuitous it’s all appropriate for the story being told. It’s the sleazy clubs that are Michelle and Aaron’s hunting ground when they need to feed and it’s where the stories are at their best. He has Michelle and Aaron’s sexual shenanigans to a fine art, they are short hot and add to the story, Michelle is very disreputable and Aaron is just a magnet for women. Yes there’s lots of sex, no it isn’t just there for no reason and yes it adds to the story, please don’t let it put you off the books. Also I particularly liked how Travis used British terminology for the London based characters, this is sometimes overlooked by authors, and is appreciated by your UK readers.

 The introduction of Katya and Ivan as Russian mercenary werewolves was inspired and unexpected as the author had kept his previous books purely vampires and humans. The way he uses them fits the storyline well, and they aren’t introduced just to expand the supernatural characters in the books. He also links them to Michelle’s past which adds to depth to that part of the story and there’s plenty more to come from these two I’m sure. There’s numerous shootouts, mixed with a complicated tale of desire, addiction and power in London's sleaziest borough. With a mix of Albanian and Columbian mafia this is definitely a book you won’t want to put down.

 I rate this book

 

Interesting facts about vampires

It’s only since the eighteen hundreds that vampires have been described as gaunt pale (white) creatures, before this the myths described them as wearing shrouds, bloated and dark creatures. The early films about Count Dracula, featuring actors such as Bella Largosi were older men who were neither handsome nor charismatic. The advent of films such as Interview with a vampire and Twilight changed the image of vampires in popular culture as devastatingly handsome, charismatic and drop dead gorgeous.

 The term 'vampire' wasn't popularised until the 1800's after an influx of vampire superstitions from Eastern Europe, where they were rife. There are many different names for vampires, such as Strigoi in Romania which the authors of today utilise in their books. Richelle Mead actually uses the term Strigoi in her Vampire Academy books.

 The pioneering authors of the first vampire novels featuring charismatic and sophisticated vampires were The Vampyre by John Polidori published in 1819 and the best remembered (and read) Dracula by Bram Stocker published in 1897. These two books formed the bases of modern vampire legend, which has become a dominant feature in the fantasy genre, with many authors and film makers adapting it to great success.

 There are many cultural practices in relation to vampires, for example burying someone upside down was commonplace to prevent them becoming vampires, but the one that made me laugh were putting seeds or rice on the graveside which were intended to keep the vampire busy all night counting every grain as they couldn’t resist counting them. One way to identify a vampire’s grave was to lead a virgin boy on a virgin black horse, which would recoil at a vampire’s grave.

 Traditional ways to ward off vampires such as religious object and buildings, garlic and even mirrors have been manipulated in recent years by authors and film makers. Garlic is the biggest myth busted in most works about vampires but the religious ones have also been reworked. In Vampire academy, the mortal vampires actually go and worship in their form of a church and in True Blood vampires enter a church to rescue Sookie and others held there. Another myth tells us vampires can only enter a place when invited by someone, yet it isn’t used in all vampire novels, True Blood use it, but others such as The Nightlife series by Travis Luedke and Vampire Academy don’t mention it.

 The traditional wooden stake used to kill vampires, varies in the type of wood dependent on the region you are in. In Russia the preferred wood is Ash, in Serbia it’s Hawthorne and the use of Oak is also noted widely. Even the parts of the body to be staked varies, with the heart being the most popular, in Russia and North Germany it’s the mouth whilst it’s the stomach in north eastern Serbia. Novels written in recent times are pretty consistent in going for the heart. In some books the stakes are silver and silver also features as a method of restraint for vampires, yet I’ve not found it mentioned in the research I’ve done, so maybe this is a modern adaptation used by authors. Other common methods to kill vampires noted in the myths are decapitation, burning and holy water and these are commonly used by authors in their books as alternate methods to the stake.

 In early literature such as Dracula there is no mention of vampires being fried in the sun, Van Helsing claimed that Dracula is limited to the power of a human man and not that daylight would destroy him. In Poldoris book Vampyre it is written that the protagonist spends days travelling with the vampire. It’s only in later books that the vampires show the aversion to sun and that it would burn them to death.

 If you thought you only became a vampire when you were bitten by one, then think again. There are some amazing myths surrounding vampires in many different cultures, in Eastern Europe and china it was believed that a corpse jumped over by an animal, particularly a dog or cat may turn into vampire. Also in Russian folklore it was believed witches and those against the Russian Orthodox Church could also become vampires. Here are some other interesting ways to becoming a vampire, they include;

·         Committing suicide

·         Eating the meat of a lamb killed by a wolf

·         Practicing witchcraft or Satanism

·         If an animal such as a cat or dog passed over the corpse of the recently deceased

·         A corpse which is improperly buried may come back as a vampire

·         Having a spell cast on you at birth

·         Dying before baptism

 

Now Reading

I'm now reading The Nightlife; London by Travis Luedke

Synopsis
Vampires Aaron and Michelle prowl the dark, gritty, strip clubs and back alleys of London on the hunt for Michael Jamison, the man who stole Michelle's blood and left her for dead. To assist them, Aaron's new master, Urvashi, calls in favors from her friends, Russian mercenary werewolves.

Wolves Katya and Ivan, hunters adept at killing rogue vampires, set aside their animosity for Aaron and Michelle to stop Jamison from killing again – he already has one bloodless victim lying in the morgue.

Jamison, ex-special forces, feels his enemies closing in, but he won’t go down without a fight – and like Aaron and Michelle, he also has powerful friends.

The Nightlife; Paris by Travis Luedke

Synopsis

Vampire master Michelle, and her slave, Aaron Pilan, leave the heartbreak of Vegas for a new start in Paris. Aaron’s mistakes in Vegas make him question everything he knows about Michelle, and the prospect of a long, lonely future with her.

Struggling with his predatory alter ego, Aaron chafes under Michelle's rules. His animalistic desires drive him to take a lover without conditions – a bloodslave – but Michelle refuses.

Michelle is not blind to Aaron’s needs. She answers his demands by opening her heart and soul to him. Their minds intertwine and Aaron relives her dark, gritty tale of survival in the ravages of war-torn Paris under the German occupation. Her disturbing revelations are met with shock, pushing Aaron even further from her. For the first time, Michelle begins to reconsider the way she has lived all these decades.

And they are not alone in Paris. An investigator has shadowed them from Vegas, seeking the unique gifts of Michelle’s blood. He hunts the vampires, attacking them at their most vulnerable time. Michelle and Aaron face death and worse – separation.

Review

The beginning of the book finds Michelle & Aaron arriving in Paris, where Michelle is so happy to be back in her home town. Aaron is carrying the burden and guilt of losing Anastasia and Michelle feels the pain he’s going through. She is his one salvation her love for him keeps him going through the days that have passed since the events unfolded in Vegas. Aaron pushes Michelle to show him her home in Paris, and is shocked at the enormity of the property she owns, and he feels a fool that he’s been trying to earn enough money to keep both of them, when he finds out Michelle has millions at her disposal. It’s at this point that Michelle decides to show/tell Aaron about her life in Paris and what made her the way she is.

Most of the book centres on Michelle’s back story and it’s great to find out where she has come from and how she became the vampire that she is today and why she enforces her rules on Aaron. The story takes us from her idyllic life in Paris, through to the start of World War 2 and the arrival of Julian the master vampire who turned her. The story was touching in parts and violent in others as Michelle struggles to survive. Her life with Julian was shocking and the death’s she caused throughout the war left me  astounded at her ability to survive whatever is thrown at her. On one hand I felt so sorry for Michelle and what she had to endure, but I defiantly admire how she fought through and came out the other end a much stronger person for it.

There is also the introduction to Urvashi a shape shifting fallen angel who rescues Aaron (but I won’t say why as I don’t want to spoil the book) and makes Michelle look like a pussy cat. She is a master puppeteer & manipulator who over the century’s gone, influenced humanity and her intentions are never clear. Also lurking in the background is Michael Jamison the private investigator from Las Vegas, who has a major impact on the storyline, and Michelle & Aaron don’t see him coming.

Aaron has become a petulant child again in this book which inevitable brings more chaos to their lives. I must admit I’m not really keen on Aaron when he’s like this, I much preferred him in Las Vegas when he was confident and happy with his lot, but I understand why he had to change again to allow the story to progress with major implications.

I must admit that after the Vegas book I felt a little let down with the more sedate nature of this book compared to the Las Vegas one which was certainly a roller coaster ride which I enjoyed so much. Saying that I feel the series needed Michelle’s back story of her life before Aaron, so the readers could understand how she came to be who she is. One thing defiantly changed in this book is how the two main characters are becoming more dimensional as layers are added to them as the books progress. I did like how Michelle’s story is told as if she was really living the events, it kept me turning the pages to find out more.

If you are looking for loads of amazing vampire sex in Paris then you may be disappointed as it did seem a little toned-down in this book compared to the previous two, but don’t let this put you off. However this book was rawer and full of aggression and fear, and it did not lack the action I have become accustomed to in The Nightlife Series. I must say in a genre dominated by great female writers such as L K Hamilton Travis stands out as a great writer of vampire novels and this is due to the different angles he uses to write his books which are so unlike other vampire books I’ve read.

I rate this book

Currently reading The Nightlife; Paris by Travis Luedke

Synopsis  

Vampire master Michelle, and her slave, Aaron Pilan, leave the heartbreak of Vegas for a new start in Paris. Aaron’s mistakes in Vegas make him question everything he knows about Michelle, and the prospect of a long, lonely future with her.

Struggling with his predatory alter ego, Aaron chafes under Michelle's rules. His animalistic desires drive him to take a lover without conditions – a bloodslave – but Michelle refuses.

Michelle is not blind to Aaron’s needs. She answers his demands by opening her heart and soul to him. Their minds intertwine and Aaron relives her dark, gritty tale of survival in the ravages of war-torn Paris under the German occupation. Her disturbing revelations are met with shock, pushing Aaron even further from her. For the first time, Michelle begins to reconsider the way she has lived all these decades.

And they are not alone in Paris. An investigator has shadowed them from Vegas, seeking the unique gifts of Michelle’s blood. He hunts the vampires, attacking them at their most vulnerable time. Michelle and Aaron face death and worse – separation.

The Nighlife; Las Vegas by Travis Luedke

Synopsis  

  
The Nightlife Series is violent, sexy, and occasionally violently sexy.
Vampires, Aaron Pilan and his master Michelle, live by one rule – no blood slaves. EVER. Aaron breaks that rule when he meets Anastasia.

All Anastasia wants is to be loved and cherished, but the predatory men she’s attracted to bring her only pain and abuse. Escaping one train-wreck relationship for another, she finds happiness with Aaron and Michelle as a vampire’s blood slave, their pet.

When Aaron, a powerful telepath, wins too much money at the gambling tables, he attracts the deadly attention of the Colombian Cartel, and the vampires become targets. But Las Vegas isn't ready for this deadly pair of vampires mixing up heroin, sex and vengeance.

Poor Anastasia is trapped in the spiralling chaos.

Strap in for a white-knuckle ride of hot ménage-a-trois love, jello wrestling vampires, and the insane Vegas underworld of drugs and exotic dancers.

Review

Aaron and Michelle have moved on to Las Vegas leaving behind the deaths of the two detectives in New York, they had decided to keep a low profile, but knowing the author this was never going to happen. They are staying at the Ceaser’s Palace hotel and Aaron is wining heavily at the poker tables using his telepathic powers, resulting in him coming to the notice of a local under world boss. As we read through the book, Travis brings to life the seedier side of Las Vegas and the men who run it. They are rich, powerful men who tread on any one who gets in their way, and the lengths they will go to, to achieve their goals is unlimited.

When Aaron is on the prowl for food, he comes across a local girl called Anastasia who is sensitive to his telepathic power and he’s immediately drawn to her with a need to possess and care for her. Aaron knows the rules but he can’t help but make her is blood slave and the trio begin their rollercoaster ride through the Vegas nightlife. The addition of Anastasia into their world opens up a completely new angle to the vampire’s lives. Anastasia is needy, regularly abused in the past, yet she finds love and comfort with the two biggest predators to enter her life.

One thing I loved was the thought of vampires high as a kite on drugs, I’ve never come across this in other books I’ve read and the fallout from it really added a great twist to the tale. Michelle high on drugs turns her into a rampant oversexed vampire who had no limits to her desires and the poor powerful men who thought they could own her and use her for their own needs where in for a huge shock. The highlight of the book for me happened when Michelle fought a jello (or jelly for those in the UK)infused wrestling match, the thoughts of a nude wrestling vampire in a jelly filled ring certainly had my imagination going!! Travis had me swept away with all the blood, sex, and violence!

This book takes advantage of all the depravity and corruption available in Vegas where excess is king. There’s gambling, designer shopping sprees, strippers, and copious amounts of drugs, all of which Aaron and Michelle take advantage of along with their pet Anastasia. This book certainly takes you on a great ride as the story unfolds until the bitter end which leaves Aaron devastated but I’ll not say how as I don’t want to spoil the book.

This second book allows the characters to grow and develop, and allows the reader see how they relate to others and their surroundings. An example of this is how they move around feeding off the humans, without anyone noticing what they are doing. The author does a great job of showcasing his skill and understanding of what it takes to write great suspenseful paranormal erotic literature. One thing I will say is that if you don’t like erotic sex and violence in the books you read, then this book/series isn’t for you. But In my opinion the sex and violence etc. isn’t gratuitous and it does add depth to story line and certainly brings across the excesses of Las Vegas. Don’t let it put you off reading the books, it certainly hasn’t done that to me, I’m definitely hooked on the series and will certainly be reading all the books up to the current one.

What can I say other than a great book, loved it and would highly recommend it to others!

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