ok so to start, this book holds a very special place in my heart because its the whole reason i bought the series. the cover was so pretty that i had to buy it, but i might as well buy the whole thing xD!

this book was not as good as the second one shall i say, for a few reasons. from what i remember, 'masquerade' was much more climactic. the last half of 'masquerade' was all rising action, and showed that the ending would be worth reading. whereas with this book, i was not feeling inclined to pick it up and read more, i was just bored.

yes, the whole thing in rio was happening, but i was sure that the climax just was not going to happen as it was portrayed to be something boring, even though schuyler was suspicious. if melissa had written about schuylers suspicion more i would've been so much happier to read, and overall much more intrigued with the whole story.

i feel that there are many parts of the story that melissa couldve used more in the plot, such as the 'mind sending,' while I'm very happy its playing more into the story than the previous books, i wish lawrence would've used them more since we don't get his perspective at all.

another part i wish she wrote about more is the way jack and mimi's relationship is behind doors. we find out in the epilogue that he is abusive and has, throughout many lifetimes, shown more love to allegra and schuyler. this isn't obvious at all through the book and would've been a great side story to see mimi deal with. from a reader's perspective, mimi is seen to me mean and rude because she is jealous of schuyler for receiving some side attention from jack. while in reality, it was thousands of years of infatuation.

i really liked reading that jack doesn't hide his hatred for mimi (when around her), but i was upset to hear how he shows it.

i really enjoyed the surprises i got throughout the book, however many of them weren't backed up by any previous storyline. near the end we are thrown two semi-major plot points (kingsley suspected the "royal" vamp family and the "earthquake" that tried to free the demon). i wish these had been previously mentioned because i was left thinking that i had skimmed the wrong paragraphs and missed something huge.

i think melissa tends to do this a lot. she throws major plot points in one sentence and doesn't acknowledge them ever again.

right after jordan asked bliss if she was still blacking out, i knew that bliss was a silver blood. i was having trouble accepting it because i love her. but what broke my heart was at the end when schuyler said "its just bliss" !!!!! LIKE NOOOO/ :( !!!

also.. are bliss and schuyler sisters??? v confused on that.

over all this is a 4/5. i wish it had more exciting events leading up to the climax.

hopes/predictions for the next book: schuyler will use her newfound human form shapeshifting to sneak around with jack more often!! i really hope so.