Touch of Twilight was released today. I finished my advanced copy late last week and have had a chance to contemplate it. I'd classify this as dark urban fantasy with a touch of romantic angst. I hadn't read the prior books, so it took a while to piece together the rules, but along the way there was quite a bit to keep my interest.

Pettersson takes a bunch of the standard tropes you find in super hero comic books and weaves them into the real world, making comic books themselves an integral part of the mix. I would VERY much recommend starting the series from the first book, as the rules are rather complex. Don't read too much into the astrology, be open to ANYTHING that you could see in a comic book and hang on for the ride.

I used the phrase "romantic angst" because almost every decision the main character makes is weighed against her feelings for the men in her life. This humanizes an otherwise drastically superhuman character, and may very well offer plenty for the reader that's more into the romance genre.

As far as the action goes, there's a ton and it's written well, but many sequence just seem to end. Much of this feeling comes from the average bad guy being a bit less expendable than you'd expect in this genre. The violence is high, the body count is low, but every character, shadow and light, that enters the spotlight gets fleshed out well.

This is not quite my genre of choice, but I seriously admire the risks that Pettersson takes creating such a unique world. I wish more of the grit and flash of Vegas made its way into the book, but otherwise I quite enjoyed the book. On the strength of this book alone, I'd consider reading one of the first two before passing judgement on the series. If you've read and enjoyed the previous books, there's a lot here that should keep you interested.