reviewed by
LOLA SPARKS
Into every generation, a new slayer is born--though in this telling, they're called Venators. Victoria Gardella Grantworth has recently come into her own, ready to slay vampires, just as she's about to debut into proper English society. She's got gentlemen and vampires on her dance card. Where does one hide her pastel, gown-matching stakes?
It doesn't get any easier when Victoria is wooed by London's most eligible bachelor, the Marquess of Rockley. She falls hard for him, but is also seduced by the enticing and mysterious Sebastian. Victoria dearly loves Rockley, but how can she give herself entirely to him when she can't share her deepest secret? Sebastian seems to know all of her secrets and has even seen the precious all-knowing silver belly ring in the shape of a cross which gives her strength and ability beyond that of a normal human.
I wanted to like this book. Buffy the Vampire Slayer set in Regency times? C'mon! That screams for me to love it. And yet...
The thong on the cover was more than a little off-putting. (Dear Signet Eclipse, please research the Regency period a little more, thank you, love Lola.) When Victoria received her belly ring...I nearly threw the book across the room. (I decided the wall didn't really deserve that kind of torture.) And you know if female Venators have rings...the male Ventators do too (but theirs would be in a nipple, wouldn’t it....). I won't even go into detail about how Victoria's stakes are colored to match her gowns...
Small touches like this kept me from believing in Gleason's universe. Likewise, the book didn't seem to hold any surprises--especially if you're coming in with a Buffy background. I found Victoria to be somewhat absurd; I couldn't believe in her journey because I didn't see much of it. Gleason shows us her first vampire encounter, but then glosses over a few more, which could have been used to show us Vicky learning the Venator ropes. When it comes down to her confrontation with the biggest, baddest vampire in history, I couldn't believe in Victoria's actions
I suspect this book will hit big, because vampires and other beasties are the current hotness. But for me, this book fell short of what it could have been. If you're a romance reader, I doubt this one will satisfy you, either. It's not a spoiler to tell you this book does not follow the romance genre conventions; don't look for a happily ever after here.
