In Masks we follow 2 year old baby vampire Mircea before he became the uber elite vampire we know from the Cassie Palmer and Dorina Basarab series. I only made it through Cassie Palmer #3 before I called it quits on them but I love the Dorina books, so it's fun to see Mircea's inner thought processes. Frankly I think Masks ties in closer to the Dorina series as we explore Mircea's desire to find a reason to keep going. Political intrigue (to put it mildly), the highly sexual nature of vampires in general (he's basically a slave whore), and Mircea's ignorance of his new lifestyle make for an interesting time. We see some familiar faces but really you could read this ebook as a stand alone, though you may miss some of the poignancy.
There are some fun scenes, like when Mircea sees an elephant for the first time, and we get some flashbacks to happier days. As far as fleshing his character out more for the audience goes, I think this book does nicely. In the Cassie and Dorina series we often have a bit of a hard time fully understanding Mircea as he's a little bit of an ambivalent character frequently with ulterior or opportunistic motives. But, this is the first time we really get to see inside his head.
My absolute favorite scene is at the very end of the book when we get a very small glimpse of little Dorina interacting with her father from MIRCEA'S point of view (which is fabulous after reading the Dorina novels). I'd love an entire novel of Mircea and Little Dory.
My biggest complaint is the author's love of expositional and descriptive writing, which is a common complaint across her books, especially for me. It's in full swing in some places. For example, at one point the audience is treated to Mircea's inner thoughts on a matter. Then he turns around and we get a sentence explaining that he then voices those same thoughts to another person. Then we get a line or two of dialogue. All of the exchange could have been done via dialogue. All of it. Every last word. Nothing was gained by the descriptive writing. Not one thing. Unfortunately there isn't enough action to offset so much exposition so the book seems rather slow in some places.
If you love the Cassie or Dorina series and would like a little bit of insight into Mircea's character then I recommend this book. If you've read either of those series then you're probably already familiar with Karen Chance's writing style, although Masks struck me as being written most similarly to Cassie #1. But the plot may have had something to do with that.
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Top reviews from other countries
DDGwacott
Best yet of the Cassie Palmer series of books
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 7, 2014
Mrs Kaos
A great addition to the lore
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 22, 2014Miss C C Widocks
Worth the Money
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 23, 2014
