Review – Misguided Angel (Blue Bloods, Book 5) by Melissa De La Cruz (3/5 stars)

ISBN-13:  978-1423121282
Stand Alone or Series: 5th book in the Blue Bloods series
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 3/5 stars

This is the fifth book in the Blue Bloods series by Cruz.  There is a novella due out for this series in December 2010 called, Bloody Valentine; the sixth book is going to be titled, Lost in Time, and is planned for an October 2011 release.  This was the weakest book in this series by far.  The story doesn’t progress much and we are only given painfully short glimpses into what is happening to Schuyler and Jack.  Many of the major players from previous books are not even mentioned.

The book starts with Jack and Schuyler and we get a brief glimpse of them escaping captivity and taking off to try and find the last gate.  We don’t spend much time with them before Cruz switches to telling the story from Mimi Force’s perspective.  Mimi is now leading the Conclave and trying to solve a crime involving an internet video that shows a vampire being burned alive; if she can’t figure out where the information is being leaked she is in trouble.  The Conclave is threatening to take the vampires back underground.  After hearing about this for a while we switch to another perspective, this time from a new character named Deming Chen.  Deming is a Venator from Shanghai that is trying to help Mimi solve this case.

Jack and Schuyler don’t get much page space and this is disappointing.  Blyss is left out of the story completely, leaving me puzzled as to what has happened to her.  It does look like Cruz is trying to expand the storyline by telling more of it from Mimi’s perspective and by adding in the new character of Deming.  Mimi is quickly becoming a favorite character of mine; as a reader you begin to sympathize with her in this book and learn more about why she is who she it.  Deming looks to be a promising character and brings some interesting background to this story.

As with all of Cruz’s book this book was well-written and easy to read.  I just felt like Cruz is either running out of ideas for this series or confused about where she wants to take the story.  This was such a short book and briefly touched on a number of things without really advancing the story.  Very much a transition novel.

Overall I have really enjoyed this series, but this book left me somewhat disappointed.  I don’t feel like much happened, it was kind of boring, and I felt like this was more of a transition book or a book where Cruz was confused on where to take this series.  So, it was okay but not great.  Hopefully the sixth book is better because if the sixth book is like this book…well then I am not sure I will keep reading this series.

This book goes to the following reading challenges:
– The Young Adult Reading Challenge
– The 100+ Book Reading Challenge