Liviania’s Review of When Twilight Burns (Gardella Vampire Chronicles, Book 4) by Colleen Gleason
Historical Paranormal Romance published by Signet 5 Aug 08

Colleen Gleason’s series first caught my eye when The Rest Falls Away won the DA BWAHA award.  I saw it in the library and picked it up for a road trip.  It reminded me very, very strongly of Buffy but I still enjoyed it – enough that I picked up the next two on a trip to Half-Price.  Of course, some other shiny caught my eye and they languished on my shelf until I received a review copy of When Twilight Burns.  I quickly caught myself up to speed, so this review may be a little confused on which events happen in which books.

The sequels move away from reminding me strongly of Buffy as the mythos becomes more developed.  Since I like Buffy, what I really care about is that the Gardella Vampire Chronicles deliver on what they promise: action and romance.  On the romance side, Victoria Gardella is caught between pretty and untrustworthy Sebastian Vioget and uptight prig dashing Max Pesaro.  When the fourth novel starts, I’m not sure I want her to end up with either of these men.  Both of them have a thing for her, even if one doesn’t admit it, but by this point both have done some pretty crappy things to her.  (Plus, I could tell she wasn’t going to end up with my favorite from book one which just makes it hard for me to root for the decided couple.  This is the trouble with love triangles.)

On the action side of things, I want more Lilith.  She’s managed to get her hands on the daywalker recipe and has some minions out and about, framing Victoria for murder.  It’s hard to be an innocuous vampire hunter when you keep stumbling on dead bodies and the inspector has it out for you, as Victoria finds out.  It doesn’t help that a bite she received in the third book has her battling vampire instincts, hoping the Venator side will win in the end.  But the daywalker characters are pretty thin, which really shows as Lilith sizzles off the page.

Lilith’s twisted, obsessive love of/lust for Max gets me every time it shows up.  They even have a Big Misunderstanding.  The few times Gleason explores Lilith’s point of view make me want to go read horribly non-canon Max/Lilith fanfiction.  (No, it can’t happen.  But it would be intense.)  I think a lack of intensity would be my biggest complaint with this one.  It was still a fun book, and I do like that the triangle was resolved.  Victoria’s wavering between the two men in her life was getting dull.   But Beauregard made an excellent nemesis and was sprinkled throughout The Bleeding Dusk. Lilith hasn’t shown up since the first book, and now she’s restricted to the beginning and end.  It makes sense to build up to that confrontation, but the villains in When Twilight Burns just seem too bumbling.  The inspector is cheesy and the returning human minions Sara and George haven’t been killed off earlier since they’re human and that might reflect badly on the heroine.

I’ll read the next book since I find the series fun, but there are other paranormals I like better.  I’m too ambivalent about the hero and I like the villain better than the heroine.  I do like Victoria’s continued attempts to balance her calling with society’s expectations of a young widow.

Grade: B-

Summary:
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Vampire hunter Lady Victoria Gardella Grantworth de Lacy “stakes the undead with the best of them”*. After narrowly escaping from Rome, she returns to London, where not even sunrise can stop a vampire’s carnage…
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Ruining Victoria’s homecoming, a vampire stalks the streets of London – during the daylight. Not only is Victoria unable to detect the vampire with her heightened senses, but she’s being framed as the prime suspect behind the killings.
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Meanwhile, her heart is still divided between the enigmatic Sebastian Vioget and her fellow slayer Max Pesaro. The battle is made even more difficult by the legacy of a vampire’s touch – a vampire who left in Victoria’s veins boiling blood that forces her to fight evil on two fronts: against the new breed of undead threatening London, and against the darkness within herself.
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Read an excerpt.

Other books in the series: