{Review} Blood Slave (Realm Walker #3) by Kathleen Collins

Posted by Melanie
Release Date: August 25th, 2015
Finished Date: November 1st, 2015

Publishers: Self Published
Genre: Urban Fantasy 
Source: For Review
Format: eBook

Pages: 195
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US

 

Can she find a killer in a town where the basest desires are allowed to run free?

There are zombies in the Dead Zone and Juliana Norris is sent to take care of the problem. And for there to be zombies, there had to be bodies. When vampires are found to be the culprits, Juliana is sent undercover in the red light district of Kansas City. Lying to her mate, Thomas Kendrick, isn’t something she wants to do, but she’s in another vampire’s territory and Thomas would not be pleased. Besides, she’s more than capable of doing the job and she needs to prove it to everyone. Most of all herself.

Charles Morgan is in control of the Kansas City area, making a rich living off his various enterprises. Juliana goes undercover at the strip club Lust and gets sucked into his dark, decadent world. More victims turn up and the Agency is positive they’ve got their man, but Juliana is not so sure. When the Agency refuses to listen, she reluctantly turns to Thomas for help. He intervenes but finds Juliana unaware of the danger she is in and discovers she may just be too deep for him to save.

The Review: Blood Slave is the third book in the Realm Walker series and it was awesome!
Book three sees Juliana being sent undercover into the seedy area of Kansas City, the area is notorious because of the vampire who controls the area and that he allows his vampires to feed from and addict humans to them, something that isn’t allowed in Thomas’s area. There has been a zombie problem in Juliana’s patrol area and when they all tie back to Kansas City – she has no choice but to head there to investigate. Juliana has a quandary though….. she needs to be undercover, it’s dangerous and it’s in another vampires territory but…. With her mate Thomas also being a regent for an area, she shouldn’t be going in unannounced or without telling Thomas who can guarantee her safety. So, she decides to keeps Thomas in the dark about her whereabouts and lies to him about where she will be going.
Jules ends up working in a strip club that is owned and managed by Charles Morgan, the vampire regent of the area and after a while, she thinks she has it all worked out….but then has second thoughts that no one will listen too - so she is forced to lie to her employers, confess all to Thomas and hope she can find the right guy this time.
I really love this series and although these books aren’t particularly long – they are jam packed with story, action and romance that makes them a perfect read that you can read in one go. Juliana has always been a likable character and I enjoy the push/pull relationship she has with her mate. He is old fashioned and believes woman need rescuing whereas Juliana is a modern woman who is independent, likes to be given the chance to do things for herself and sometimes Thomas loses sight of that; so there’s always a clash of wills due to that which gave me an understanding into why she chose to withhold the truth from him. I still love their connection and chemistry, they have an easy going feel to them now which is so much sweeter considering their past.
I loved the storyline here, to be honest, if you took the paranormal element out of the plot – it would still be a good read. For all I love Thomas & Juliana together, it was nice to see her head out to investigate without him. With her working in a strip club she draws a lot of attention to herself and she would not have been able to mingle with the men as freely if Thomas was there. There was no shortage of suspects for the women who had became zombies but not much information to be had so Juliana had to put herself right amongst that type of crowd if she needed to blend in but that also left her open to the perils of those creeps. Thomas’s area seemed elite compared to how things were run in Kansas City and you definitely get the sleazy/seedy vibe from the area where it’s all about partying, drugs of choice, sex and blood. The fact that Juliana was in anothers’ territory really added an element of danger and when you add to that the fact that Thomas didn’t know…. Every move she made was fraught with it. I appreciated that whilst Juliana’s pov was the most prominent that we still also got Thomas’s too showing us what was going on in his head and area also, it actually endeared him a bit more to me and he seemed to be more forthcoming with how he felt and viewed his mate. As the story came to a close, I did not know who was the culprit or a motive so it was great to get all of the emotions possible from the story and as always, I’m left wanting more. I actually can’t wait to see where it goes next.

Thank you to Kathleen Collins for giving me the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review.