Book: Masquerade by Cambia Hebert

Published by Otherworld Publications

Purchased for my Nook (392 pages)

Genre: YA: Paranormal

Find out more: Goodreads~Barnes And Noble~Amazon~Cambria Hebert

Goodreads Summary: Before. Everything was so much better Before. I wasn’t haunted by nightmares, my place at school was secure and my face was flawless. Now, I’m a freak and everything has changed. The worst part is that I can’t remember the night I was sentenced to the shadows. The memory has been stolen from me and I just can’t shake the feeling that someone, something is out there -watching.

Just when I think I have my life handled, Sam, with his intimidating golden stare and shiver inducing voice, makes me realize that I don’t know anything. He makes me see that my scars don’t matter. That they never mattered. I can’t help but fall for him, completely unknowing that he knows exactly how I got this way. Not knowing he was involved.

Heven has no idea how closely death stalks her. She has no idea what I have done to keep her alive. I fear the day she learns my secrets, finds out what I really am. But even then I cannot stop, I vow to make things right. Finally her hunter will be hunted, Heaven and Hell, faith and sin will battle, and we will be victorious. But first, Heven must learn to be what she never imagined. I know her strength is there – I feel it. If we are to overcome all odds, she must push past her flaws – her frailties – to become much more.

I really liked Masquerade.  There’s a sense of mystery for most of the book, and I really liked that.  We know that Heven has an accident, which left her with some pretty nasty scars, but what no one knows is what happened.  Until the end, of course, when we learn about who attacked and why they did it.

I loved the chapters where we see “the hate” and “the hope.”  You know they’re the one’s who know about what happened to Cambria, and while the hope, who turns out to be Sam, is totally obvious, it worked really well.

One of the things I loved was that Sam is a hellhound.  Definitely cool, and I liked that Heven is a Supernatural Treasure.  Of course, Sam has to protect her, and they are given a mission that they’ll complete in the books to come, which isn’t a big surprise.  But it’s also a pretty original idea, and I can’t wait to see if they complete the task that’s been given to them.

I wish we had more glimpses of Heven’s life before.  It’s referred to, but we don’t actually see it.  Still, we do get just enough to see how things play out.

I thought the characters were interesting, although I don’t particularly care for Heven’s mom or her friend Kimbra.  Her grandma is pretty awesome.  As for Sam and Cole’s dislike of each other…I think there’s more to this, and I’m not sure why.

No story is complete without romance, and I really liked it.  More than I expected, considering that it was fairly predictable.  But I still really liked it, and they are cute together.

Masquerade gets a 4 out of 5.  It is predictable but I really enjoyed it because I loved Sam as a hellhound and Heven as a Supernatural Treasure.