3. Masquerade - Mellissa de la Cruz

Bk #2 Blue Blood Series
For: Middle School/YA
Hyperion Paperbacks, 2007
$8.99
308 pgs.
Rating: 4

I would have never read this book (or the first one, Blue Bloods), if I wasn't preparing for my next TARC book club meeting. However, I did enjoy this one - so much more than the first. I like all the mysterious angles and the interesting way that de la Cruz takes vampire lore and twists and turns it to fashion a new vampire philosophy. The reader feels frustration, happiness, sleuthing, and lots and lots of questionning, right along with the characters. Love and hate. Blood ties. Fascinating relationships. Mystery. Romance.

In this story, our heroine, Schuyler VanAlen finds her grandfather, who has been self-exiled for many years. He comes home to the family mansion on the westside of NYC and begins to repair its crumbling decor and facade. He also answers a lot of Schuyler's questions, and guides her through the new, awakening feelings she has as a fledgling vampire. And because she is a half-blood, no one is sure what her powers and strengths, if any, will be.

There are three female characters that de la Cruz has chosen to show the reader glimpses into their thinking. Three very different characters. Mimi Force, who you naturally want to hate. Glamorous, selfish, snobby. Bliss Llewellyn, tormented, friendly, and somewhat clueless. And Schuyler Van Alen, who is just trying to figure out her world.

This second book takes us through the planning and manipulations of the year's biggest soiree and the teenage masked ball afterwards. Schuyler meets her grandfather, and learns to read minds and move faster than the speed of light. She discovers that to stay healthy she must take a human "familiar," she needs more red blood, because the blue blood in her half-breed veins are taking over the red blood, which is still needed. They are still trying to discover who the Silver Bloods in their midst are, before the Silver Bloods destroy them all. A new character is introduced, Kingsley Martin....suave, debonair, knock-dead gorgeous, and dangerous. New things to think about, new angles to look at. I really enjoyed the story and looked forward to returning to it every time I put it down.

I had NO plans to read the sequel, but...guess what....off I go to find it!