Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin

Everything is in ruins.

A devastating plague has decimated the population, and those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles around them.

So what does Araby Worth have to live for?

Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery makeup . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all.

But in the depths of the club--in the depths of her own despair--Araby will find more than oblivion. She will find Will, the terribly handsome proprietor of the club, and Elliott, the wickedly smart aristocrat. Neither is what he seems. Both have secrets. Everyone does.

And Araby may find not just something to live for, but something to fight for--no matter what it costs her.

Rating: 3 stars

I am absolutely in love with this cover.

There are certain books where you love the story, love the characters and are absolutely die-hard fangirling until you read the next one, and even then it doesn't fade. This was not one of those books. It was a nice book, with nice (but stupid) characters, and a nice adaption to Edgar Allen Poe's Masque of the Red Death, but it wasn't what I was hoping for. That may be because I am a huge fan of Poe's work, and I felt a retelling of this story needed a bit more...character to it.

It just seemed that we didn't know enough about the characters. They weren't quite as developed as I had hoped they would be. They were all boring and dull and expected. The only minorly interesting one was Elliott, and even he was predictable (I know, it's a re-make so we kind of KNOW what's going to happen, but even with his dialogue and random actions that the author thinks is a twist or witty even, were fairly expected)

I don't know what else to say about this book. I liked it, and if the characters were just a bit more...more, then this could possibly be one of my favorites, or at least get a four star review.
I will be reading the second one, though.

xxAvalon