I think Cassandra Palmer is Anita Blake's fairer, gentler cousin. Touch the Dark isn't what I would call a copy of the Anita Blake series, but the tone and feeling were a LOT like Anita, except Cassie isn't a raging tough girl bitch. 
 I love information about the fictional worlds I play/read/watch, so the more information dumps, the better. However, this book has shown that there needs to be appropriate times, places, and pacing for information. In the middle of a fight scene? No! How about after every line of dialogue in a conversation? Also no! I was fine with all the information given, but it needed to be conveyed differently so I wasn't left thinking "Whatever. So did the vampire rip your throat out or not?" or "Is this conversation still going on? Didn't it start last chapter?" 
 I don't understand why Cassie had to have sex with Mircea (or any other vampire) to gain protection from the Circle. Maybe it was explained, but I was distracted by the Longest Foreplay Ever (TM) and how not sexy Mircea is. 
 The time travel is shoddy, at best. They're worried that Louis-Cesar could at any moment be killed in the past... except if he was, he wouldn't exist and they wouldn't be worrying about it. It's not like a certain point hits and BAM! he ceases to exist. There are three major theories about time travel: fixed, dynamic, and multiverse. I'm a fan of the multiverse, since I love the idea of alternate universes (Fringe, anyone?), but it looks like Chance is using the idea of dynamic time travel without paradoxes happening and I don't like it. 
 The story didn't grab me at all. I don't need action sequence after action sequence, but most of them time they're just talking about what needs to be done or what could happen or what's for breakfast and I just zone out. I love dialogue, but having the majority of the book take place in one spot with two little side trips? No thanks. 
 Pritkin is annoying, he's like the 'new guy' they use in video games so they have an excuse to explain everything to the player, but the dude is a major douchebag. He's like that person in a group of friends that butts in on everyone's business and starts moaning and complaining and just making a bigger mess. 
 (view spoiler)[What was the point of making Tomas evil, besides getting him out of the way since he's apparently a potential romantic rival to Mircea? There must be some rule in paranormal romance that all opposed to the TRUE LOVE of the heroine and hero must be either killed, evil, or both. (hide spoiler)] 
 I'll be reading Claimed by Shadow, but only because I own it and I'll see if this gets any better before I give the series the heave-ho.