Must Read Authors - Day 10 - Colleen Gleason by Melanie

​Welcome to 30 Days of Must Read Authors! Every day throughout June one of our VIPers (Jenn, Susan Or Melanie) with occasional comments from the others will present one of their favorite authors and the series or series'  they recommend! Hopefully you will find some new books and new authors to love!

Day 10 - Colleen Gleason - From Melanie

Author name:​ Colleen Gleason
Genre(s) they write:  Historical Paranormal Romance, YA Steampunk, Paranormal Women's Fiction (She also writes various other things under Penn Names so check out Colleen Cambridge too) ​

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How I found the author:  Colleen was a random library find. I picked up the first in the Gardella series and was instantly in love .... and then had to wait as they released.  A couple of years later I had moved to reviewing and I saw A Clockwork Scarab in Barnes and Noble so reached out the Colleen for more info - and have pretty much read everything since!

Why people should read​: One of the great things is the variety in genres.  Want something like Buffy meets Bridgerton? - Gardella series. Looking for something vampy but darker? The Draculia series .... How about a bookstore where fictional characters pop out of books? Or relatives of the great Stoker and Holmes? Literally SO MANY OPTIONS! But I am going to break down my faves.

 Recommended Series 1. The Gardella Vampire Hunters.  This is another one where you can't let the hunter part put you off. Total regency romance here set in London so if you love Bridgerton this is perfect for you BUT our heroine has a secret. She is from a line of vampire hunters and just settling down to be a good wife is not on the cards for her. At one point the series was complete at 5 books (and that is personally where I tend to stop although I have read the others) - The first 5 for me just take the cake!

Recommended Series 2. The Draculia Vampire Trilogy.  This is, in my opinion, one of the most overlooked vampire series out there. There have been several changes to the book's official title and the cover but as I have the original set I tend to think of them by "The Vampire Voss" style titles (which is book 1).  Although about vampires, this is a different idea than the Gardella series and focuses on a special group that have actual ties to the Lucifer bloodline.  The stories are darker than the Gardella's and for me totally unique (even though I wasn't a fan of one of the endings - but that was a Melanie issue as authors should be able to tell the story they want - and the story is excellent).  If you like your vampires darker then this is a good trilogy for you, and as they are all wrapped up you can read them without worrying!

Recommended Series 3. Three Tomes Bookshop.  This is one of Colleen's newer series and at this time there are only 3 books released but each book wraps up its own story so although I suggest reading them in order because of the background stuff, you don't need to worry about cliffhangers.  Paranormal Women's Fiction has really taken off in the last few years and this is one of the great examples of it you can find. I mean you literally have a bookshop with FICTIONAL CHARACTERS "alive?" and working there, and some of the issues come when other characters find their way out of the pages and into the real world. It's hard not to give spoilers because this world opens the door to so many fabulous things - all in a bookshop. It is lighter on the romance than some of the other series though - think more cozy mystery with a big dash of paranormal mid life crisis .... and did I mention a magical bookstore? lol

Conclusion: If none of these sound like something for you there are plenty of other options from Colleen out there. the YA Stoker and Holmes series follows descendants of the illustrious families of the same name but with a Steampunk twist, or you can check out some of her penn names ..... Colleen Cambridge has a fabulous series about Agatha Christie's maid solving murders, or CM Gleason for some high stakes international mystery thrillers.  There are SO many options ... which one will you choose first?​

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