Review: Blood Slave by Kim Dare

From a kinky brat to a vampire's perfect blood slave.  Keats's education starts tonight!

Keats may have reluctantly agreed to admit that vampires are fantasy and not reality. And he may have promised his friend that he would stop searching for them. But people who merely think they are vampires are still fair game for a fun night out.

Leland has been resisting the temptation to bite his friend for months, but when he sees Keats wander calmly into the middle of a Halloween feeding frenzy, he no longer has a choice. He has to claim Keats as a private blood slave before he ends up becoming the community property of his clan.

Everything rests on his ability to convince his clan he can bring the bratty submissive to heel. It's going to be very long night…

I think any review I wrote for a Kim Dare short story would say the same thing...wonderful characters, so much showing, perfectly chosen words, and way too short!

In Blood Slave, all that holds true, but I'll add more since Kim is our Author of the Month and we take that very seriously here at BMBR.   :D

Keats was a brat. An adorable brat I couldn't resist.  

Keats looked just a tiny bit repentant—like a puppy that had been caught chewing a slipper and now regretted displeasing his master. 

On Halloween, he attended a gathering of vampires and their blood donors, believing it was just a group of people playing pretend. Luckily, his friend Leland happened to be at the gathering and stepped in to protect him. The world building was a bit thin there, and I didn't understand all the rules/paperwork for blood slaves, but it didn't bother me for long as I got caught up in the relationship dynamics between Leland and Keats.

Leland was a vampire who was attracted to Keats but, until that point, had been hesitating over making a move, concerned about Keats' reaction to Leland being a vampire.  Seeing the other vampires around Keats caused him to step up fast, though, and step up he did, in a very possessive manner.  He would have preferred a different way to reveal the truth, but Keats handled it well, only challenging Leland when he didn't appreciate certain aspects of vampire culture. Leland got a little flustered by those challenges, but managed to deal with Keats. I liked how he was also willing to listen to Keats and adjust to his expectations and limits, appreciating the difference from normal vampire/human relationships.

Their interactions were sweet, humorous, and hot. Even though I wanted more, I'm very happy with this addition to my Kim Dare collection.

Side notes:
Keats had very nice fantasies...about Leland, and about cages :)

While Keats didn't appreciate  some aspects of vampire culture, he definitely appreciated the biting, and so did I ;)

Note: A copy of this book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

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