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.