B
Title: Rises the Night
Author: Colleen Gleason
Publication Info: Signet Eclipse June 5, 2007
ISBN: 045122146X
Genre: Paranormal
Total aside: What’s with all the vampire queens named Lillith? Does she know she had a roving fair of chick music named after her, too? I mean, dang. Eve must be pretty pissed that all the evil queens and music fairs are being named after her predecessor – can you imagine that press conference? “Y’aaaaaaaalll! I totally gave Adam that apple and got everyone tossed out of the garden of Eden! *stamps foot, tosses hair* How is that not evil enough for you?! SRSLY!”
So anyway, evil vampire Lillith has run away to hide, and Victoria’s facing a new set of enemies, a vampire named Nedas, son of Lillith, who has acquired an evil obelisk that can summon and harness many levels of evil undead to run amok, wreak havoc, and vanquish humanity. To say the least, this is a bad idea from Victoria’s perspective, so she and her aunt Eustacia, who is the leader of the Venators as Illa Gardella, the matriarch of the Gardella family, pack up and head to Italy. Victoria runs into her duo of men, Max and Sebastian, and both are as ambiguous and uncertain as ever, despite Victoria’s growing and complicated regard for both of them. Add to that the larger understanding of her role as the granddaughter of The Gardella, and the responsibilities that will one day fall on her shoulders, and Victoria has a lot to deal with once again.
Like the first book, the second offers seriously nonstop action. The pace is so quick and so fast that it’s stimulating reading instead of relaxing reading. This isn’t a book you ruminate over each passage. This is high octane move-your-ass reading that draws the reader in immediately.
Most notably, Gleason – and I won’t give away the plot twist no matter what fancy things I can do with font colors – managed to shock the hell out of me AND the heroine at the same time. I didn’t believe what was going to happen would actually happen and my reaction mirrored the heroine’s at each paragraph. I won’t say more because I feel guilty for potentially revealing the Big Secret but, damn, this was not good for my blood pressure.
Oddly, one continuing theme to the story has me baffled. As the series progresses, the tendency to keep Victoria in the dark by most of the senior and experienced characters drives me more and more batty. Victoria goes to Italy with her grandmother, and her grandmother takes care of setting everything up for their households, including Victoria’s identity as she investigates undercover, and all manner of secret details – and involves Victoria in none of it. Later, they go to the center of Venator headquarters, where her grandmother is treated akin to royalty. She is The Gardella, the matriarch of the Venators, with Victoria as her heir. Despite being the heir to such a huge mantle of responsibility, her grandmother and other characters still keep her largely in the dark as to the details and logistics of being a Ventator, to the point where I want to smack them all upside the head. On one hand Victoria is moving from a role as a newbie innocent Venator into one with more experience killing Guardians and Imperials in sets of two and three, but on the other, she’s coddled and cared for even as she’s told by those same people doing the coddling that she needs to grow up and face her difficult future.
However many times Victoria is thrown into the deep end of the bloody Venator pool, she manages to tread water and kickass at the same time, which is reassuring to say the least. Her strength and resilience is impressive, and makes for a compelling heroine. Add to that the men of mystery, Max and Sebastian, neither one of whom she is sure she can completely trust, and the book ends with half the questions answered and even more created.
Among my questions:
1. Why does Sebastian forever take his damn jacket off? Every scene: he’s taking his jacket off, or he left his jacket in the carriage, or he tosses it over a chair. The man lives in shirtsleeves. At some point this is either going to be a clue of some sort, like he’s signaling faraway observers with his white sleeves and manly arms, or it’s a peculiar affectation. But either way, it’s like David Caruso’s sunglasses: On! Off! On! Off! WTF?
2. Why does Victoria dismiss as coincidence the repeated surprise arrivals of people she knows in locations she shouldn’t likely see them? Surely this would make her suspicious, as it did me.
3. What happens next?
Like any series worth keeping track of, the Gardella Vampire Chronicles leaves as much unanswered as it does solved in the first two volumes, and the larger story arcs, from which man Victoria will choose to how she’ll face the final showdown with the Big Bad that lurks in the background, are intriguing. My patience with series books is thin, as I’ve said often on this site, but in Gleason’s hands, the mix of action, emotional punch and intrigue serve to keep me interested in books three through five. For example, I can go back and forth about which man she’s likely to choose, and why each is better, and that kind of well-wrought triangle is hard to find. I almost dread the final answer since the balance between them is so well maintained.
I really liked THE REST FALLS AWAY. But I absolutely loved RISES THE NIGHT. I can’t wait for the next book. (I think I’m becoming a Colleen Gleason groupie. I even have the tee shirt!)
I love the Lillith thing. She is the first wife of Adam according to Jewish myth, and she is kicked out because she wants to have sex on top! I love it. Totally makes sense those evil mean sexy vampire bitches are Lillith.
Yes, yes, and yes. I usually dislike series unless I can see a clear “end”, but I am really into this world of Gleason’s… It is surprising, action-packed, and I like the way she is spinning out the “bigger” mysteries—both the romantic arc as well as the plot arc. Good stuff, this.
I say this a little hesitantly because I know Colleen hangs around these parts, but I didn’t like Rises the Night nearly as much as The Rest Falls Away. The whole book I was waiting for something to happen; it really felt like a bridge between two stories more than a story in its own right. I continue to find Sebastian incredibly slimy (does anyone else picture him as short, bald, and sneering despite the glowing descriptions?) and waited impatiently practically the whole book for Max to show up. (Also agreed with Sarah that the various Powers That Be ought to have shared more with Victoria; combined with my waiting for something to happen, it felt like she spent most of the book lurching around blindly.)
It was still fun, but has been demoted from “buy the next book ZOMG!!1” to “reserve it at the library.”
Son of Lillith. Doesn’t that sound like a good title?
My god, that ManTitty on the cover could knock a bitch out if not careful.
I loved Rises the Night. Liked it even better than the first one.
Like you, the plot twist totally threw me for a loop. I was thinking “Did that really just happen?” and still couldn’t believe it even once we got past that point.
All I can say is that the next three MUST be as good if not better. Just sayin’. 😀
I have a heroine named Lilith coming up next month if it makes anyone feel better.
Thanks for the review…I have the book on my TBR, along with the first. Will read right away. I’ve heard nothing but amazing buzz on these books.
Lilith was the first wife of Adam, whom he rejected because she refused to take the inferior position during sex (i.e. she insisted on riding cowgirl instead of doing it missionary).
Her punishment was to give birth to a horde of demons, and she’s said to be the mother of incubus and succubus, and by extension, vampires.
Wikipedia has an extensive article about how Lilith’s mythology extends back into the Mesopotamian era, if you’re interested 🙂
—Vaughan
Sounds like you found a great way to cleanse your brain from the *other* book that shall not be mentioned again. Not really into vampire books myself but you make this one sound pretty good. You bitches just might broaden my horizons yet..
You know, Nedas backwards is Saden, which to me looks an awful lot like Satan. Coincidence?
Lilith does seem to be THE name to have. I mean, I get the whole evil connection, but I think authors are really overdoing it.
Thanks for the review, Sarah. I’d been on the fence about picking this one up.
I hadn’t really thought about how Victoria isn’t getting enough information until you pointed it out. That’s why I like these reviews. They make me think about a more at a deeper level than “OMG I love it!!!”
Jepad, thing is…authors don’t talk to each other about character names. I doubt the others knew that it was popular…in fact, when I sold the original idea to this story, it was nearly two years ago and the book comes out next month. Once I name a character, it’s very hard for me to change it just because someone else has used it because the character and the name are often one and the same. Just this year, I finished a book that I originally conceived many years ago. In the interim, I’d used a close variation of the heroine’s name in another unrelated book. When I took up the old book again, I decided I’d better change her name…it was pretty distinctive and I didn’t want my readers to get confused. Even today, I wrote an email to someone about this book and used the heroine’s original name rather than her new name. Silly. Maybe. I don’t argue much with my muse.
So you guys aren’t sick of vamps yet?
They really have staying power.
I’m wondering if paranormal is ever going to hit the the same splash in my genre.
I am. I haven’t read vampires since Anne Rice, and I’m not about to start now. In my mind, vampires were done by the early 90s.
When I was half way through this book I had to convince myself to keep going. I was bugged by the same thing you were Sarah – I didn’t get why Victoria was kept in the dark and left to blunder along on her own risking her life. She’s a slayer for Gods sake, she’s not going to sit at home knitting. When will people learn that if you don’t include the main character in your plans they will invariably f-them up!?! *end rant*
In saying that, the ending was awesome so I’m glad I kept going! I’m pretty sure I’ll read the next one, I’m hoping we might actually find out a bit more of the Gardella’s secrets so I don’t feel quite so in the dark.
Seems this book has provoked widely divergent opinions—at least according to Amazon. So far, I’m not impressed enough to read it. (Never been into “Buffy”, never been into Regency romance. Guess that makes me a commie…or g-woman…or something far more nefarious than the old hippie broad I am.)
I haven’t read these books yet, but as somone who loves the Regency era and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I obviously need to try them. Your review definitely encouraged me to take a trip to the bookstore!
Never been into “Buffyâ€, never been into Regency romance.
Wry Hag, I’m not crazy about these books. I’m not into Buffy, but I do like Regency. Buffy is by far the stronger influence in the books. IMO Gleason has a very fanfic, made-for-TV style and pacing. And she telegraphs events very heavy-handedly, to the point that I lose the motivation to keep reading because I know exactly what’s coming. Obviously others disagree!
Jepad, thing is…authors don’t talk to each other about character names. I doubt the others knew that it was popular…
I accept that authors don’t discuss their characters name, and I’m sure that if several vampires all show up with the name David, it’s probably a coincidence. However, in this case, they’re all taking the name from the same source, namely the legend of Adam’s first wife. The name Lilith being linked to underworld beings isn’t something new that they might’ve missed. At this point, the name choice is a little lazy.
It’s as if authors writing about angels keep using the names Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael over and over again. Eventually, the readers will start rolling their eyes at the lack of originality.
Overall, it’s a very minor point about the book, but I understand Sarah’s point about it being overdone.
Iffygenia, I read the first one and while I enjoyed it for the most part, I didn’t have a strong compulsion to continue with the series. I had a hard time pinning down what didn’t work for me. I thought the writing and characterization was excellent, perhaps the world-building just didn’t interest me. Also I just couldn’t swallow the whole belly-button ring as power boost concept.
Squee! I have the t-shirt, too!
I love this series. And with the Buffy meets Jane Austen twist, they are a very fresh read for this not-a-historical-romance reader.