Book 5: Vampires of Manhattan

Title and Author: Vampires of Manhattan, by Melissa De La Cruz

Illustrator: none
Publisher: Hachette Books
Expected Publication Date: September 9, 2014
Genre: Romantic fantasy
Target Audience/Age Group: Adult
Part of a Series? Probably
Will the Reviewer Keep It In His/Her Library? No
First line: The alarm went off like an air-raid siren at midnight, and the hand that shot out of the bed slammed the snooze button so hard the side table shook.

The subtitle "The New Blue Bloods Coven" implies this book is related to another series by this author. It is. Reading that other series is not essential to understanding this book but it probably helps a lot. The author writes enough about the characters so the reader can follow what is going on, but I bet subtle nuances of characters and their actions are lost without a knowledge of those previous books. 

Evidently those earlier books were written for young adults while this book is aimed at adults. That makes sense because the people who read and enjoyed them are older now, probably grown up, like the characters in this book.

There was a big war against Lucifer and this book takes place 10 years after it ended. I'm not sure how the world is structured, but there are vampires, werewolves, demons, angels and humans. I couldn't follow all the ins and outs of everything, but the characters kept my interest enough that I read the book all the way to the end.

At first I thought it was just another book where the women were all defined by the men they fell in love with, but that isn't quite the case. Two of them rebelled against their positions, one to the detriment of the whole society. I never did figure out exactly what the venators did; they aren't quite cops but act like them in some ways. 

Bottom line, anyone interested in this book should read Melissa De La Cruz's earlier books. If you like them, read this one to see what became of the characters.

By the way, GHPALS gives a shout out of support to Hachette in their fight with Amazon.