Review: Good but Not Great
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 24, 2014
I give this book 3.5 stars, but since most sites only allow whole numbers I'm stuck at a 3 star rating for those sites.<blockquote>Relieved that the Date Auction was a success for Nicky, Jill Wentworth already has a plan for the next event in the Coronation contest: The Rose Ransom.A strange ritual with a sordid history, The Rose Ransom sends the entire class on a hunt for a girl who has been kidnapped. Jill is certain she knows which girl will be taken and how she can locate her once she’s gone.But minutes after she sets her plan in motion, Jill gets an alert that something strange has happened at the Bloom mansion. Hacking into the mansion’s security cameras, she finds a horrible scene of carnage. Three agents and one vampire were murdered during the Date Auction.With Nicky on the other side of the world and the entire mission in jeopardy, Jill uncovers a conspiracy that could tear the Samarin clan apart, and learns that for this year’s class, The Rose Ransom is much more than a game.</blockquote>The plot thickens as the Network and it's agents race against the clock and various Immortals in an effort to obtain their ultimate goal - have Nicky Bloom win the Girl Wearing Black contest so that she can get close enough to über-reclusive Immortal, Sergio Alonzo. But it appears that the plan is unraveling faster than Jill and the other operatives can knit it back together.With Nicky and Ryan headed off on their week-long date, it's now up to Jill to handle all of the work. And she's added something to her agenda; Jill is determined to find some way to have her mother deprogrammed. Carolyn is a computer genius, which is where Jill inherited her phenomenal skills as a hacker. But Jill just wants a mother.While a Jill is juggling things to ensure that the Network knows who will be selected as the Rose Princess, she also needs to continue to manage Annika Fleming, and keep gathering data for the Network. On top of that she's recently begun dating a guy she really likes. No pressure for a girl who, until recently, was a social loner unless she was hacking. Especially now that Renata is onto their plans, or at least part of them.It seems that Renata has discovered Melissa's plan to take the reigns of the Samarin clan since it seemed painfully obvious that Daciana wasn't coming back.  So Renata is bust taking care of Melissa and her companions, getting the sabotaged Farm running smoothly again, planning for the Rose Ransom, and trying to finish the work she and another Immortal are doing that, once completed, will allow them to rule the entire world. Since she's also learned all about Nicky's plan, she turned the tables and now Nicky and Ryan are being held captive.The students have until Christmas break to decipher the three consecutive clues and rescue the kidnapped Princess, with the student that finds her first getting to determine which of the Girls Wearing Black will get the ransom money added to their account. But Renata doesn't want anyone to find the Princess this year, she wants to kill the un-rescued Princess and use the money to fund her secret project.Jill and her father were grilled by one of the Immortals, so she had very wisely hit the emergency broadcast to let everyone in the Network know she was in danger and listen in to the cross examination. Miraculously she is able to keep from spilling all her secrets, yet no one in the Network has responded to a single message she's sent out since then. But then she's heard nothing from anyone ever since she sent the Code Orange to let everyone know they'd all been compromised and had the disappear. Her frantic messages to Nicky went unanswered, but there was nothing she could do about it at the time. Since the Network's plan to determine who was selected as the Rose Princess failed its absolutely crucial that she solve the riddles. For she must win so that she can back Nicky with the ransom money.Suddenly Jill is approached by an agent that has infiltrated Renata's mansion as a Slave. She's so relieved to not be on her own again, to have another Network agent to rely upon for assistance. Though Tarin is odd he has a good new project for Jill, which is to hack into Renata's phone so they can find out exactly what she's up to. While doing that Tarin also helps Jill by solving the first two clues. But Tarin disappears for a good while and Jill panics over solving the final clue.These are just a few of the things going on in this densely packed story. The action is nonstop, the energy is high, and you can almost taste the suspense. Throughout both Jill and Annika do some growing up. Jill grows much more than Annika, but Annika remains true in the face of almost certain disaster and death, surviving thanks to Jill. And in turn Jill survives thanks to a surprise player that no one saw coming.Will Jill be able to solve the final clue to save the Rose Princess and be able to designate the ransom to Nicky? Will Nicky be rescued in time for the conclusion of the Rose Ransom and be at the party to discover who won? What is Renata's ultimate plan for Nicky? Much will be revealed in this book, along with new questions and answers in book four. Who knows, maybe everything will come full circle in book four, making it the final book in the series. Only Mr. Baum knows for sure, and he may not even know, yet. . .