The Rest Falls Away

Author: Colleen Gleason
Published: January 2, 2007 (Signet)
Category: Paranormal Romance
Series: Gardella Vampire Chronicles #1
Quote of Choice: How does one address... the master of the vampire executioners? My lord? Your grace? Your Stakeness?
Rating: 6/10

The promotional literature for The Rest Falls Away said it was Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Pride and Prejudice and that was enough to make me want this book.

Victoria Gardella is about to make her debut to London society at the age of nineteen, two years later than scheduled due to mourning her father and grandfather. While her mother is prattling on about snaring the elusive Marquess of Rockley, Victoria is training to be a venator (vampire slayer) under her great aunt Eustacia's guidance. Apparently, a member of each generation of the Gardella family is called to service as a venator, and Victoria is the only one of hers. Oh, and the queen of the vampires can be slain only by a Gardella venator. No pressure!

There are some very interesting ideas at work here. For example, a person can choose not to follow their slaying path and their memories will be altered so they never knew about the legacy. With each generation that chooses to ignore the call, the one who eventually accepts will inherit the combined powers of those who declined before her. Since two Gardellas rejected before Victoria's turn, she's got the abilities of three slayers. However, it seems that her strength gets evened out to that of any other venator (Victoria is not the only one) by this amulet of sorts given at an induction ceremony. It's a small silver cross piercing and it enhances the venator's strength and innate abilities.

The romance was a bit lacking. The Marquess of Rockley does choose Victoria for his bride and they have a very sweet back story, since they knew each other in their childhoods. After that, the romance fades away into the background and Rockley turns out to be a tool, demanding that Victoria give up her profession because she is a marchioness. There are two other men involved. One is Maximilian Pesaro, another venator who resents Victoria's desire to marry and have a normal life in addition to slaying the undead at night. The other is Sebastian Vioget, a weird double agent (but not a vampire) who owns a tavern where the living and undead can mingle in peace. He seems to trade information for personal liberties upon Victoria's person. Their relationship is one more of lust than actual romance. I'm still not sure about Max though. Perhaps something will develop in later books.

This was a promising first novel. It wasn't great, but I'm hoping that Gleason's later books will improve with experience. There's great potential for the series because there are great ideas, but the characters definitely need work. Victoria was rather robotic, accepting her destiny without a fight. I understand that regency romance heroines are usually ahead of their time, but there was no fits or fears at all. Victoria was all business and it would've been better to see her more human. The characters need to connect to each other more. They felt very distant to me, but maybe that's the true solitary nature of a venator? I saw the likeness to Buffy, but there's no Pride and Prejudice here. It's more Buffy meets a random regency romance.

The next in the series, Rises the Night, comes out this June and I will give that one a try as well.