Misguided Angel by Melissa de la Cruz

After inheriting the dark Van Alen Legacy, Schuyler fled to Florence with her forbidden love, Jack. Now the two of them must embark on the mission Schuyler was destined to complete: to find and protect the five remaining gates that guard the earth from Lucifer, lord of the Silver Bloods. 

Back in New York, Mimi has been elected Regent of a crumbling coven. Struggling with her heartache over the loss of Kingsley and with her overwhelming desire to destroy Jack, she must focus all of her energy on a perilous new threat. Vampires are being abducted and their captors are planning to burn them alive online…for all the world to see. Help arrives in the form of Deming Chen, a Venator from Shanghai, who must untangle the web of deceptions before the killers strike again. 

As the young vampires struggle for the survival of the coven, they uncover a deadly secret, a truth first discovered by Schuyler’s mother during the Renaissance but kept buried for centuries. And as the Blue Blood enclave weakens yet further, fate leads Schuyler to a terrible choice that will ultimately map the destiny of her heart.

MY REVIEW

I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to get into this book.  It’s been a while since I read “Van Alen Legacy” and honestly, the details were a little fuzzy.  However, once I just dove into the book, everything started coming back to me and I totally enjoyed the read!

I have found that lately, I’m not really liking these series that seem to go on and on and I was worried that this one was going to get bogged down in pointless detail.  I stopped reading the House of Night series because I just couldn’t take any more of the same old stuff.  The Blue Bloods series, however, is not lots of the same old stuff!  I am still loving this story.

One of the things that I like about this series is the way that the past and the present are brought together.  In this book, the flashbacks to the 15^th century were intriguing and I kept wondering just who those people are in present day Blue Bloods society.  I also find myself starting to really like Mimi Force, which is just unbelievable.  Now, I am still a total Jack/Schuyler shipper, but I really admire Mimi.  She’s not the vapid fashionista that she once was and it’s been nice to see her growth as a person…..well, vampire!

The plot in this book was action-packed, complete with a mystery, murdered vampires and a twist that was totally shocking!  Which is to say that it’s my idea of a perfect read!  I am anxiously awaiting the next installment to see what happens next and how this can all work out in the end. 

I wish that there had been more of Jack and Schuyler in this book and Bliss Llewelyn was totally absent.  It seems like the books are almost too short.  In these days of 400+ page books, these seem to read way too fast!  My guess?  The publishers want them short so that they can sell more books with the same amount of story.  But I could be wrong.  Ms. De la Cruz is a very prolific author and perhaps she just thinks in small segments.  But I still would have liked to see all the main players in the story in this installment.

Overall, this was an excellent book with a plot that moved along nicely and characters who keep growing and developing.  All the ingredients for a darn good read!

I give this book an A-.  And then I’m running out to purchase “Bloody Valentine” just to get another fix of these characters. (and read about the bonding of Jack and Schuyler!)