Masquerade by Melissa De La Cruz

Genre: Young Adult

Hardcover: 320 Pages

Publisher: Hyperion Book CH

ISBN: 978-078683893-6

My rating: 4/5

Schuyler Van Alen wants an explanation for the mysterious deaths of young vampires. With her best friend, Olive, Schuyler travels to Italy in the hope of finding the one man who can help-her grandfather. Meanwhile, back in New York, preparations are feverishly under way for the Four Hundred Ball, an exclusive gala hosted by the city's wealthy, powerful, and unhuman-a true Blue Blood affair.
But it's at the after-party, a masquerade ball thrown be the cunning Mimi Force, that the real danger lurks. Hidden behind the masks is a revelation that will forever change the course of a young vampire's destiny.
Rich with glamour, attitude, and vampire lore, this second installment in the Blue Bloods saga will leave readers thirsting for more.

Masquerade is the second book in the Blue Bloods series. The story starts out with Schuyler and Oliver in Venice looking for Schuyler's grandfather. It more or less starts off exactly where 'Blue Bloods' ended but it jumped a little bit. We do find out what happens between the 'Blue Bloods' book and the 'Masquerade' book that gets us to that point. Although I found 'Masquerade' to be slightly less interesting to the first book, it was still a good read with lots of plot twists and even further character development.

The story is told mainly through Schuyler Van Alen, Mimi Force, and Bliss Llewellyn. There are certain points where the story is told through Jack or Oliver but those parts are very small and it quickly jumps back to one of the three main girls. Schuyler is still her normal self. She doesn't change much from the first book to the second, personality wise. But in 'Masquerade' she develops more as a vampire and her powers grow and become more pronounced. But, if it is at all possible, Mimi Force became even more obnoxious then she was in the first book! She can get a little irritating at times by being so self-conceited and narrow minded. I feel the need to quote an entire paragraph to get across just how self-conceited Mimi really is.

Mimi Force didn't need a herald with a trumpet to tell her who she was, or whom she had been. She was Mimi Force-the most beautiful girl in the history of New York City and the only daughter of Charles Force, the Regis, a.k.a. head of the coven and superior badass, known to the world as a merciless media magnate whose Force News Network spanned the globe from Singapore to Addis Ababa. Mimi Force-the girl with hair the color of woven flax, skin like fresh buttercream, full pouty lips that rivaled Angelina Jolie's. She was the underage sexpot with a reputation for cutting a reckless swath through the city's most eligible young heirs: hot red-blooded boyfriends otherwise known as her human familiars.

So you can see from that paragraph how high and mighty she thinks of herself and of her family. That is just one example from the dozens throughout the book.

One thing about 'Masquerade' is that there is a lot of character jumping within chapters. So, the chapter could start out with Bliss, jump to Jack, then to Mimi, and back to Bliss. With that said, you usually know who you are reading through within a sentence or two as all the characters have their own, very distinct, personalities and thoughts. And if you couldn't figure it out by that, it usually says who it is within a few sentences. I didn't have any trouble following the character jumps. For a while through the book, there wasn't a lot going on but I still never found myself bored. Melissa De La Cruz still does an awesome job of drawing your attention and keeping it, even through some of the filler parts that aren't so action packed.

For a while, when I first started reading, I thought the book was totally predictable, so I was a little disappointed. Especially with the new character that is introduced, Kingsley Martin. But there are a few plot twists that took me away from my original assumptions about him and some other characters. I was happily mistaken because I hate predictable books, movies, anything! But, there were some incidents when I did think, I saw that coming. But it could just be that the books are good enough that you get a feel for the characters and just know what they are going to do. Overall, excellent book and definitely worth the read! Make sure you check out the Blue Bloods series if you haven't already!