Red Light by JD Glass

Publisher:             Bold Strokes Books


If you like romance rough and raw, Red Light by J.D. Glass is the book for you.

Victoria Scotts, AKA Tori, is training to be an EMT in New York City and looking for some direction in her life. She is surrounded by loyal friends and a supportive family, including her cousin Nina, a famous music star, but Tori struggles to establish a relationship with the right woman. One relationship ends in betrayal and leaves her open to a series of meaningless flings until she meets the frightening and bewitching Trace Cayden. Tori and Trace have tremendous passion between them and both like their sex rough; perhaps too rough because Tori is left with bloody markings on her body after each session. Nina and her partner Samantha, who have taken Tori into their home, fear for her safety, not only on the streets of New York after she receives her EMT license, but from this woman she seems to be infatuated with.

Everyone is relieved when Tori finally establishes herself in a partnership with Jean Scanlon, a medic she worked with who is able to show Tori the love she so desperately wants. Tori's job still has a dangerous aspect to it, but Jean and her large friendly family appear to provide her with the warm and comforting stability that she has been searching for. There will be a final encounter with Trace however that has the potential to destroy the life that Tori has found. The test will be to see if her love for Jean is strong enough to save her from the fate that Trace intends for her.
 
The most interesting part of this book is when Tori works in the field as an EMT. It gives an insight into the training required of these people and the situations they find themselves in. There is a harrowing scene that shows how dangerous life can be even for those who are trying to help other people. 

Bold Strokes Books labels this book a romance, but it might fit more appropriately in the erotica category. Tori's language is as rough as her sex practices and she appears to show little discrimination in her partners. She's young, she's free and, if the other woman is hot, why not? This alone will appeal to some readers. There are certainly plenty of places in the book that will raise your breathing and heart rates.

Otherwise, it's a rather mundane story of a woman moving through her life and trying to get things in the proper order, except for those encounters with Trace. And the reader should wonder why Tori keeps going back to her. One episode of coming home bloody and marked would be enough for most people.

The oddest aspect is the very last chapter. The tale is finished, everything has been resolved and suddenly this chapter is inserted that twists the story in a way that was never implied anywhere in the book. There is no need for this chapter and it serves no purpose other than to promote questions for which the reader can't get any answers. There hasn't been a book with as perplexing an ending since John Fowles released The French Lieutenant's Woman with two endings and told the readers to pick the one they liked. Some readers will enjoy Red Light for various reasons, but be ready to be puzzled at the end.