What's Hot? Books.

Masquerade (Blue Bloods #2) by Melissa de la Cruz.
Title: Masquerade (Blue Bloods #2)
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Atom
Publication Date: 1st May 2007
Goodreads Summary: Schuyler Van Alen is starting to get more comfortable with her newfound vampire powers, but she still has many unanswered questions. A trip to Italy in search of her grandfather only serves to make things more confusing. What secrets are the leaders of The Committee hiding? Meanwhile, back in New York, preparations are feverishly underway for the famous Four Hundred Ball. In true Blue Blood fashion, the ball is totally fab, complete with masks--and hidden behind this masquerade is a revelation that will change the course of a young vampire's destiny.

The thrilling sequel in Melissa de la Cruz's vampire mythology has all the glamour, attitude, and vampire lore that made the first book a hit.


{ Review }

I have finally taken it upon myself to tackle my massive TBR pile which has just about hit the ceiling. I was lucky enough to receive Blue Bloods for review a few years ago but being tight on money I didn't buy the rest of the (long) series. Then, to my surprise, and extreme happiness, I found the entire series at a carboot sale for just 50p per book and they were all in really good condition! Woohoo. Anyways, that was at least a year ago and I still haven't got around to them until now. *Dips head in shame* I know this series is old now, but I refuse to leave these books on my shelves unread so here goes.

It's been around two years since I read Blue Bloods so I was a little worried about taking up this series again at book two, but I found that I didn't really need to know anything that happened in Blue Bloods. Everything important is explained clearly in Masquerade so if you've forgotten some of the details from the first book it doesn't matter - in fact, you could probably dive in at book two and not find yourself struggling to understand at all. I love the narrative style of this series. They're written from a third person perspective but you still get to see right inside each and every character with different passages written from each character's point of view. In this way, we're stuck right in the middle of story but still dangling a few feet away so that we can see the bigger picture.

If you're staying away from this series because you think it's 'just another vampire series', then you're wrong. The 'Blue Bloods' in this series are an elite race of vampires whose lives are 'recycled' so to speak. This means that when Blue Blood teens turn 16, the memories from their past lives start to resurface and they remember who they used to be which helps them figure out who to become. There are characters such a Lucifer, Michael, Gabrielle, the angel of Death etc. who are all immortal but live their lives in different 'cycles'. It's sort of like hibernating every time you get bored of your current cycle or something happens to your body and then waking up in a new body many years later and carrying on with life. If you're wondering what sort of vampires these are, think Gossip Girl, and add fangs. Blue Bloods are the social elite of New York City with the most cash to splash and the parties with the most sought after tickets. The children attend the best, and most expensive, private school where girls crave designer labels and the likes.

I did feel that the characters were a little disconnected from each other in this book and there wasn't that much interaction between many of them. The most prominent relationship is that between Oliver and Schuyler and whilst you do get a look at those between Jack and both Mimi and Schuyler, they aren't very prominent. I was a little disappointed at this lack of interaction, but this is a long series and the book wasn't very long so I suppose there wasn't much space to develop everything about everyone. In this book we see Oliver and Schuyler's relationship take a new level. They're best friends, but now that Schuyler's Blue Blood ancestry has been revealed and Oliver has been made her 'familiar', things are about to get messy. We also see Mimi and Jack's relationship develop as their past memories surface and they see who they used to be to each other - much messier (and weirder) than Oliver and Schuyler's relationship given that they're twin brother and sister. We also see a little bit more of Jack and Schuyler, but not as much as I would've liked and to be honest I have absolutely no idea where their relationship is headed. Bliss was quite solitary character in this novel for some reason I don't seem to be able to remember her being featured that much even though she was integral to this book's storyline  Bliss is going through some pretty big stuff with creepy dreams that feel a bit too real, not to mention there's a new hottie on the scene whilst she's trying to grieve for Dylan. I still find the family relationships in this novel absolutely bizarre. In fact, with the whole 'recycling' of the Blue Blood lives it's a little bit incestuous but I think it'll make things a lot more interesting later on. (By that I didn't mean that I like reading about incestuous relationships - Incest is not okay guys).

Since we were officially introduced to everyone in book one, book two could really get going with the issue of the rise of the Silver Bloods. The Silver Bloods are a race of vampires that feed off Blue Bloods instead of humans, sucking their entire life force out so they are unable to 'recycle' themselves and so are dead forever. There were some glimpses of Silver Bloods in the first book, but the story behind them develops a lot more in Masquerade and you get a bit closer to finding out exactly who the Silver Bloods are, what they want, and why they're back. You don't get that much detail about them, but enough to make you want to read book three so I suppose that's good enough. There isn't much romance in this book, I think it's much more about Schuyler's quest to find her 'exiled' grandfather as she believes he is the key to unlocking the 'Silver Blood' mystery.

These books don't have a very complicated plot line, nor a simplified one, which makes this series quick and easy to read, but it's still fast paced and full of action. I'd highly recommend this to fans of paranormal books and maybe even fans of historical fiction because those two elements are drawn together. As I said before, this is a sort of Gossip Girl world with vampires thrown in, so if that sounds like something you'd like then get started on this series! Although I would compare the story line to Gossip Girl, it is by no means a superficial tale, there is plenty of action and mystery as well.

[Also, I finally figured out how to pronounce 'Schuyler'! I have always struggled whilst reading it so I just glanced over it or referred to her as 'Shoe-ler', then I realised that it would make a lot more sense if her name was pronounced 'Sky-ler', especially since her nickname is 'Sky'. (Please God say I've finally figured out how to pronounce it)]