Book Review: Misguided Angel by Melissa de la Cruz

Title: Misguided Angel
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Series: Blue Bloods #5
Publisher: Disney/Hyperion
Release Date: October 26, 2010
Other Books In Series:
Blue Bloods
Masquerade
Revelations
The Van Alen Legacy

Warning: Summary may contain mild spoilers for books 1-4 of the Blue Bloods series.

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Goodreads Summary:
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.

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My Review:
Misguided Angel is one of my two favorites of the series so far (along with Revelations). I think I'm alone in saying this- all the other reviews I've read have regarded it as a plotless "filler book". The format changes from the previous books- instead of a rotating perspective between the three female leads, the book is divided into 3 sections. Part 1: Jack and Schuyler in Florence. Part 2: Mimi in New York. Park 3: A new character- Deming Chen, also in New York. Bliss is completely gone from this book, but will be reappearing later in a spin off series.

If you're a fan of the Schuyler-Jack romance, you might me a bit disappointed by this book because they aren't mentioned after the first part. I was never hugely invested in their romance, and I found the first part easily the most dull section of the book.

In part 2, we see Mimi, who has been elected Regis (leader) of the New York Coven (a choice I LOVE!). Mimi is one of those characters I used to hate, then I loved-to-hate, and now I think I just love. She's powerful and manipulative, but not as shallow as she used to be either.

But the reason this book is one of my favorites of the series was because of the new character Deming Chen. She's a 17 year old venator from Shanghai, and she's seriously awesome and talented. Deming's part of the book is a huge murder mystery. A blue blood student has been murdered, and the video of her burning was posted on the internet for the red bloods (humans) to see. Deming goes undercover at Duchesne and using awesome detective skills to solve it. The twists in the murder mystery are crazy! It reminded me of a TV show episode- right when the crime was solved, it wasn't! I hope we see more of Deming Chen in the next books in the series.

I don't know if a lot happened to advance the overall plot of the series, but I still think this was a good addition to the series. One other little thing I've noticed a couple times throughout the series that has bugged me are nods to pop culture references, without actually saying the title of the Movie/TV Show being referenced. For example, Deming observes there are no "slushie facials" in American high school, like in "American TV shows". An obvious reference to "Glee", if you've seen the show, but Deming doesn't actually say the show name. A really small thing, but I noticed it nonetheless.

The worst part of the book was the length- it was too short. Only 265 pages and felt even shorter. I think if it would've been a longer book, the plot could've been a lot more developed and clearer. This was one of those books I had to pay very close attention to the plot so I wouldn't get confused.

I've been tearing through this series... I'm very sad I've come to the last one that's currently out. (With the exception of the novella Bloody Valentine). I can't wait for the sixth one Lost In Time to be released!

4 out of 5 stars

Edit: I forgot to mention- there is no random modeling plot tangent!!! This is probably why this was one of my favorites in the series. That part really bugged me....