Review: Another Roller Coaster Ride
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 26, 2013
'Blood Slave' is the latest in Travis Luedke's paranormal romance series 'The Nightlife'.Luedke, however, departs from his usual 'city-based' formula with characters Aaron and Michelle, to portray the story of Esperanza de Salvador, a prostitute working for a drug cartel. The other departure for the author is that this novel is written in the first person - and hence from a female perspective.Twenty-two-year-old Esperanza (real name 'Hope') has lived a brutalised existence. Sold by her father at age fourteen into a life of prostitution, she is trafficked from her native Colombia into the seedy underbelly of New York where lacking  the legitimacy of work papers she is used as a sex slave by her lowlife bosses. But then one day she is sent a female client - who also happens to be a vampire - and her world changes ...I have read and reviewed the other two 'Nightlife' novels, and this one feels more assured and incorporates some interesting background research into criminality South of the Border. The portrayal of the debased Esperanza's life is chilling at times - the almost casual descriptions of violence and rape that suffuse the pages of the novel. Of course most of the sexual activity is consensual, and fairly kinky. There is the anticipated quota of neck-biting and screaming orgasms, along with the odd threesome for some athletic variation. Fans of Mr Luedke will not be disappointed with both the physicality of the writing and the roller coaster pace of the narrative.But even leaving aside the erotic elements of the book, there are interesting twists and turns in the story and the evil psychology that motivates a number of the characters rings true. Moreover, Esperanza may be a victim, but she is not one to go down without a fight.If you like strong meat in a vampire thriller, you will certainly enjoy 'Blood Slave'.'The Nightlife' series remains firmly on track.