What is there not to love about a creepy gothic mystery filled with characters that include princesses (so many princesses) and vampires and a setting that includes castles and plague? Oh, and then there's the fact that it's inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's The Masque of the Red Death. I enjoyed the fact that this story took place after the plague. It's easy to see how the plague itself would take an enormous toll as it was occurring, but often I think what happens next is even more interesting and sometimes gets less attention. This is the perfect book to get the Halloween season going, with fantastic descriptions of setting. It's got a million twists and turns--it's been a long time since I read a book as unpredictable as this one. I wouldn't have minded even more in the romance department, but that's just a testament to how much I enjoyed that storyline. Maybe this could be the first in a series?