Blue Bloods Quickie

The Blue Bloods Series;
Revelations and
The Van Alen Legacy
by Melissa de la Cruz

Genre; Young Adult/Contemporary/Science-Fiction
Publisher; Atom/2010/Great Britain
Pages; 264 and 369
ISBN; 978-1-905654-78-9 and
978-1-905654-79-6

After having read and reviewed the first two books of this series I am not going to go into too much detail about the third and forth installments, for two reasons. Firstly, I do not want to give away too much to those who have not been lucky enough to read the first two books yet and secondly, I don't want to harp on about this series post-after-post if there are readers who have read them and didn't find them as enjoyable as I did.

However, for those who are interested, I am going to tell you a few thoughts about Revelations and The Van Alen Legacy.

If you enjoyed the first two books in this series, you are going to continue to love these next installments.

I do have one little issue with The Van Alen Legacy and that is the, truly missed, lamp posts of information. As you may remember, in my previous Blue Bloods reviews, I talked about the effective use of diary entries and newspaper clippings as tools which not only created mystery but added to the rich back story. In Revelations Melissa de la Cruz has continued with this writing tool and has intorduced the use of Repository Archives, but sadly these little snippets have been omitted from The Van Alen Legacy, and I did miss having these juicy bits to mull over.

Having said this, I am as addicted as ever to this series and I am waiting with baited breath for the next book.

What I am really enjoying about this series is the character development. In the first book we are introudced to your typical group of high school students; the prima donna, the socialite, The jock, the ditz, the social outcast. But as each book continues we see new and more interesting sides of each character.

I hope that you are enjoying this series as much as I am and I cannot wait to share the next one with you!

Happy Reading!

The Truth is in the Blood

Masquerade
A Blue Bloods Novel
by Melissa de la Cruz

Genre; Young Adult/Contemporary/Science-Fiction
Publisher; Atom/2010/Great Britain
Pages; 304
ISBN; 978-1-905654-77-2

Plot; In the first book of this series we meet Schyler Van Alen and the Blue Blood crew of Duchesne who are fighting to find the identity of the Silver Blood among them, slowly killing these immortal creatures one-by-one.

Masquerade is the second of this series and while planning the ball of the year, the annual Four Hundred Ball, Schyler thinks she may be onto the secret Silver Blood in their ranks. This knowledge takes her on a hunt to Venice to find her grandfather, Lawrence, who she has been told will know how to defeat this foe.

Will she find her grandfather before it is too late? And, will he be able to offer her the help she needs?

My Thoughts; Yet abother great book in this series! After reading the first Blue Bloods novel I was hoping that Melissa de la Cruz would keep up the suspense and intrigue, and she most definitely has.

I don't want to say too much through fear of giving away the surprises for those who have not read the first book, but I must say that I think this book is an improvement on the first, which I didn't think was possible.

Again Melissa de la Cruz has used some very effective writing techniques throughout this story. In the first book she used regular diary entries as kind of lamp posts to move the reader forward in terms of knowledge of the history of the Blue Bloods. In Masquerade she has used a similar format, only she has exchanged the diary entries for newspaper clippings. This is a wondeful tool for not only marking inportant events in the plot timeline, but it also adds to the mystery because, if you have read the first book you will know, that each diary entry or newspaper clipping is relevant to the modern day Blue Bloods. At every clipping I enjoyed sitting back and trying to reason who the clipping may be referring to.

As much as I love the New York setting for this series, it was nice to take a trip to Venice in this installment. There is something so lucious about seeing this ancient line of Blue Bloods against the historical backdrop of Venice; riding in gondolas, slipping through the maze of alleys, walking over cobbled bridges.

As I have said before, I do not want to say too much, because I do not want to give away too much to those who have not read the first book, so I will end my review here. But I will say this, if you see these books sitting on the shelves of your library or corner store, you should definitely reach out and grab a copy, because, if you are anything like me, you will become quickly addicted to them.

Happy Reading!

Blue Blooded Creatures

Hello Everyone!
I know it has been a while since I have reviewed anything, but with a bunch of assessments out of the way and a few days child-free you can expect a few reviews over the next week!

Blue Bloods
Part 1 of the Blue Bloods series
by Melissa de la Cruz

Genre; Young Adult/Contemporary/Science-Fiction
Publisher; Atom/2010/Great Britain
Pages; 302
ISBN; 978-1-905654-74-1

Plot; Schuyler Van Alen is part of the New York aristocracy, but she has never felt as though she fits in to her high-brow Manhattan school, Duchesne.

Clad in layers of black, Schuyler didn't think she was anything like the typical blonde, Versace wearing Duchesne student until she discovers the one characteristic that ties her to them; the blue blood coursing through their veins.

Only the most exclusive of students at Duchesne are vampires and, unbeknownst to them, there is someone, or something, hunting each one down and killing them.

With their powers developing and their bewitching pasts coming to light, will the young vampires discover who or what is draining the blue blood from them one-by-one?

My Thoughts; After writing this review I am going to rush out and buy the next installment of this addictive and intoxicatingly enjoyable series.

I have never been one to get into the current trends. I have seen the Twilight and Harry Potter films, I even own the DVDs, but I never raced to buy the books. Having said this, I am definitely going to get my hands on the books of this series.

Blue Bloods is like Twilight meets Gossip Girl. However, the one aspect of this series which leads me to enjoy it more than the Twilight series is the depth and intrigue of history. As well as the depictions of modern day, young vampires bustling about New York in their designer garbs there is also a rich historical aspect, going as far back as Ancient Egypt, and it adds so much more juice to this story.

I will be honest, when I first saw this book on the shelf at the store I though, "not another teen vampire book..." but I am now glad I picked it up. What this book has that the others don't is the vibrant and engrossing back story.

The characters in this story are very likable and there is something so wonderful about watching how each character handles the news of their new identity; some using it as a new way to enforce their power, some laughing it off as the talk of crazy people, some fearful of what their new life will bring. I think, however, that the way in which Schuyler handles it is the way I would like to think I would handle it. She takes it in her stride and delves into understanding it more.

This book has been well written. The sparatic inserts of old diary entries really adds to the intrigue and works as a great tool for creating mystery, even if at times I had to really take my time to be able to understand the old hand-writing.

Another aspect of the writing which works extremely well is the bouncing back and forth between perpectives, from Schuyler to Mimi to Bliss. This adds another dimension to the reader's understanding of this huge change the characters are going through and how it effects them.

This may be classified as Young Adult but, unless Melissa de la Cruz makes some dire mistake, this is quite a good series for anyone to get hooked on.

Want to read my review of the next installment?

Happy Reading!