Misguided Angel by Melissa de la Cruz

Misguided Angel
(Van Alen Legacy Book #6)
by Melissa de la Cruz

Genre: Young Adult | Paranormal Romance

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.

I had another long ride home last week for Thanksgiving and listened to the audio-book version of Misguided Angel during the drive. I was excited to catch up with Schuyler & Jack, but I was surprised to enjoy the interactions between Oliver and Mimi even more. Mimi came out of her glamour shell to step up into her new role of elected Regent quite well (even though her vamp society is crumbling around her; it was nice to see the inter-workings of her group) and it was bitter-sweet to see her and Oliver lean on each other while in their heart-broken state. Almost foreshadowing to something "more" in the future of the series . . . IF she doesn't find a way to bring Kingsley back.

I was a little lost about 1/3 into the story since the reader is closely following Jack & Schuyler's mission in pursuing her Grandfather Lawrence's study of the guards & gates of Hell . . . and then the story cuts to Mimi, back in New York, with new characters joining in to discover the truth behind the missing vampires. It was like two major stories going on at the same time, which did eventually intertwine in the end, but threw me out of the loop for a bit. Overall, I highly enjoyed getting back into the Upper East-Side richy high school scene again after the last couple of books had us traveling the world and dealing with family deaths & disappearances.

Likes: I cracked up listening to the audio book voice actor doing a human conduit's voice (Jemma) . . . since it sounds IDENTICAL to a friend of mine! Too Fun!

Dislikes: I just wish we would have gotten more of one story instead of having it split into two.

Words of Wisdom: "The way to female friendship is through flattery" - by Deming Chen

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