Review: Rises the Night, Colleen Gleason

Title: Rises the Night
Author: Colleen Gleason
Begun: July 31, 2007
Completed: August 3, 2007

Rises the Night is the second book in the highly enjoyable Gardella Vampire Chronicles. Unusually for a second book in a trilogy (especially a fantasy trilogy), Rises the Night is better than the first novel, The Rest Falls Away. Gleason wisely takes Victoria out of her London society comfort zone and ships her off to Italy to deal with a new vampiric threat. The book is sprinkled with historical characters (and personally, I'm hoping for a run-in with Beau Brummell in the next one). I imagine Byron is quite miffed about his portrayal, but Byron is pretty much guaranteed hilarity. (My notes contain the phrase: "HAHA, BYRON" several times.)

At the core of Rises the Night is still Victoria, now widowed, her great-aunt and the two men who comprise the love triangle that qualifies this book as romance. The good news is that Sebastian Vioget (of course he's French) is much more appealing a love interest in this book - but Max Pesaro falls from focus. I like this approach, because it muddies the romantic waters considerably. During the first book I would have back Max as the winner in the race for Victoria's hand, their oft-professed reluctance for each other aside. But Sebastian really emerges in Rises the Night, becoming more interesting, charasmatic, attractive and, yes, sexier. He's a bit of a rake, and that's not unwelcome.

One of the things I truly appreciated was Victoria's new status. So often romance is about a young woman's sexual awakening. She may not actually be a virgin, but she is close enough. The novel is supposed to follow the first time she has ever falled in love. Victoria is a widow, but rather than the chaste and innocent widow that is as much a stereotype as the sexually unhinged hero, she is one fully aware of her sexual power. I enjoyed that angle very much. Victoria is far from innocent. Gleason acknolwedges that and incorporates it very well into the story.

Rises the Night is a well-plotted, suspensful mix of historical fiction, fantasy and romance. Victoria is as engaging a heroine as she was in the first book, and her continuing adventures will certainly be interesting. I do hope, for her sake, she gets some girl friends her own age sometime soon though.

Rises the Night at Amazon.com

Review: The Rest Falls Away, Colleen Gleason

Title: The Rest Falls Away
Author: Colleen Gleason
Date Begun: June 9, 2007
Date Completed: June 10, 2007

I read almost all of The Rest Falls Away during a criminally slow night at work. The situation was not ideal - I would much rather have read it sometime in January with hot chocolate in constant supply, because that's the sort of book it is. The winter version of a beach read. But, and this is important, it's a high-quality beach read.

Originally, I picked Gleason up on a recommendation from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. They enjoyed the novel - it got a B+ - and the review led me to believe that I would too. There are a lot of elements that push the exact right buttons for me. Vampires in an historical setting, a "good guy" character who would probably be played by James Marsden in the movie version, a spunky heroine (but not one of those irritating spunky heroines, you know?), illegal activity and an alluring underworld. These are all elements that I enjoy in my fantasy life. And Gleason delivers, even if she never really surpasses any of my expectations.

The biggest strength, beyond the heroine, is probably how well-plotted Gleason made everything. Though she stuck in several immediate plot arcs and a couple more over-arching ones, she keeps them all well-organized. I don't think I ever got confused if I wasn't supposed to be, and I had to answer phones and run credit cards in between chapters. The plot and the characters mesh well together, and I enjoyed Gleason's use of mythology and original ideas even if it sometimes tended towards info-dumping. (And as a sidenote, I didn't need Judas Iscariot's identity explained to me. I don't think there are many people who do.) The romantic side-plots are interesting. The Rest Falls Away is getting a lot of obvious comparisons to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but the romantic tension at least reminds me more of Michelle Sagara's Cast books (Cast in Shadow, Cast in Courtlight, and so on). That a dynamic I enjoy, and I recommend the Sagara books if you enjoyed TRFA, though they're a bit more hardcore fantasy.

For me, the reason Gleason is only getting a B, is that the quality of her prose never really distinguishes itself. What would have been interesting to read would be something along the lines of Georgette Heyer with added sex and vampires. Heyer's style can be recreated, and something along its lines would have served this storyline well. At no point does the simple beauty of Gleason's prose strike you. It is well-written, but there is nothing very poetic in it. There probably should be, when you consider the subject matter.

But I enjoyed it, and I'll certainly look out for the sequels.

The Rest Falls Away at Amazon.com