Melissa, thank you for getting these to us in such a timely manner!

The Rest Falls Away (TRFA) and Rises the Night (RTN)
Books 1 and 2 of the Gardella Vampire Chronicles
by Colleen Gleason
Signet Eclipse

I am not one to read vampire books. Never have been. But then someone shoved Stephenie Meyer’s books in my hands and I’m hooked. I’m not hooked on vampire books, per se — I’m still not sure if I’ll read Bram Stoker’s Dracula, or the Anne Rice novels — but rather, I’m hooked on vampire romances. Those, I like.

And as far as vampire romances go, Colleen Gleason has written a couple of good ones.

In my humble opinion, a vampire romance must have:

Many dark situations where Our Heroine gets into and out of trouble. Check. I liked Victoria. Especially in TRFA She is headstrong, impetuous, devoted, and not willing to take no for an answer. In short, not exactly your typical Victorian girl. I liked the training passages, I liked when she went hunting the vampires (more on that later). I was impatient with her by the end of RTN, when she just had to stick around and be the uber-heroine. I was a little put off that a man had to generally come to her aid… but she is a new Venator, and learning, and probably would have ended up dead on more than one occasion. In the end, I was more than satisfied by the ratio of Victoria saving herself to someone coming and helping her out of situations. Which brings me to…

Swarthy Leading Men who help said Heroines out of (and sometimes into) said trouble. Check. I loved the leading men in these books. Philip was okay, as far as leading men go… loyal, honest, true, devoted (shoot, he sounds like a scout), good in bed… (well, maybe not). He lack a certain chemistry, though. He was nice enough, and I could see what drew Victoria to him, but he wasn’t…. Sebastian Vioget. Ah, Sebastian. (There’s a literary crush for you.) He was the best part of both books. The chemistry between him and Victoria was more than palpable; you could cut the air with a knife whenever they were together. I liked that you never knew whose side he was on. It amplified his mysterious nature, made him more alluring… possibly because he was more dangerous. I have to admit there was a small part of me that hoped he would turn out to be a vampire. I wasn’t too far wrong, and so I was pretty much mollified that he was just a mere human.

Loyal sidekicks and/or mentors who add interest to the story. Check. We do have to discuss Max. I liked him, generally, in TRFA. Yeah, he was the seasoned Venator, generally very dismissive of Victoria, but I think for the most part it was understandable. I actually missed Max for most of RTN (is that supposed to be him on the cover? If so, he’s quite ripped.). I missed his sardonic comments, his appearing just at the right moment. (Yeah, I wanted something to develop between him and Victoria, too.) And when he did appear in RTN, he wasn’t quite what I wanted him to be. He did redeem himself in the end, but… I just hope he’s back in full force in the next one.

Lots of vampire slaying. Check. Let’s just say that I dug the vampire slaying. I found it very exciting — Gleason does know how to write a fight scene — and intense and thrilling. What does this say about me?

Humor. Check. I loved that the vampires go “poof!” when you stake them. I giggled every time. I loved the chapter titles. (My favorite: “Our Heroes Commence with Much Poofing and Slicing”) There were possibly too many chapter titles that began “In which…” in RTN, but overall, there was just enough information to tantalize you at the beginning of each chapter. And they were generally very witty. As was the text. (Though it descended into the maudlin at several points, especially, again, in RTN; I read some out loud to my husband who just stared before bursting out laughing. But, obviously, award-winning writing isn’t the point of a vampire romance, is it?) My absolute favorite line: “It would be interesting to converse with Dr. Polidori. She wondered if he’d ever met a vampire. Quite unlikely, for he wouldn’t be writing romantic novels about it if he had.”

Something different than the average vampire book. Possibly check. I’m not exactly sure about this one, since I’m not well-versed on vampire lore. I am coming to realize that Meyer’s idea of an actual romance with a vampire is a very unique one. I missed actual interaction with the vampires in these books (maybe I’m more of an Edward fan than I claim to be). I did like how Gleason brought religion into the Gardella books, though. I don’t know if that’s unusual, but I haven’t come across it in the four other vampire books I’ve read (see? limited.). I liked that Victoria looked on her vampire slayings as a religious duty, a calling to rid the world of evil. I liked that the vampires were descended from Judas the Betrayer. I liked the religious overtones, the references to Biblical events. No, it didn’t add anything to the romance, but I thought it made the role of Venator more compelling. I also mostly liked the Victorian setting. I liked the challenges that Victoria had to deal with in being both a Victorian lady and a Venator: dealing with the skirts, the hairdos ( that was brilliant!), the propriety. I thought it added a unique and interesting angle to the vampire lore; all the other books I’ve read have been more modern. I did find it hard, though, to actually believe that Victoria was a Victorian lady. She was much too, well, modern for the time period. Not that it got in the way all that much. So Victoria would rather kill vampires than go to tea and worry about who to marry. Whatever.

And, yes, I’ll be picking up The Bleeding Dusk when it’s released on February 5. I’m dying to know what happens to Victoria next.