Colleen Gleason, Rises the Night

Rises the Night

Colleen Gleason

Signet, Jun 2007, $14.00

ISBN: 045122146X

In England as a Venator vampire hunter Lady Victoria Gardella Grantworth de Lacy has fought the undead for what seems like eternity although it has only been a year. She lost her spouse Phillip thirteen months ago to the vampires and though she still grieves his death, she knows she must continue the fight against these evil beings.

Victoria learns that the son of Lilith the Vampire Queen has begun to implement a strategic plan to become the dominant species with humans as their cattle. She travels to Italy to engage the undead minion in their denizen in hopes of destroying something even more dangerous to both races. However, a monster betrayal leaves her in peril of becoming that she has fought against; only the help of someone she is not sure she should trust, Sebastian Vioget, keeps her alive.

Placing a slightly older Buffy inside Regency England makes for a delightful romantic suspense fantasy that is refreshed by the historical tidbits as Victoria is both a lady of the Ton and a Gardella Venator. The story line is fast-paced filled with twists of intrigue as friends betray and enemies help the heroine. Fans of supernatural thrillers will appreciate the first Gardella Vampire Chronicle due to its early nineteenth century setting that refreshes a recently overly used theme.

Harriet Klausner