Blue Bloods: Keys to the Repository by Melissa De La Cruz

There are some reviews that contain spoilers...while this one, does not.  This book would be hard to review really if I did give away spoilers in this review.

And how can you spoil a companion book anyway?  Probably the easiest book for me to review because of the non-spoilerage (is that even a word?  Well, if it isn't, it is now.)

Okay, well as I began this book, I really didn't know what to expect from it.  I mean, it's Blue Bloods: Keys to the Repository.  You would think it was a new book for the series when in fact it is more like the encyclopedia that accompanies the first four books of the series by Melissa De La Cruz.  I loved that she did this part way through the series.  It will make the other stories afterwards make a lot more sense.

Like I said, this is a companion book.  Some authors have these to accompany their series, and the author, Melissa De La Cruz, cites one in this book.  Stephen King.  I didn't even know that Stephen King would do something like this for his books.  Then again, I don't read Stephen King because he is a brilliant author, but he also scares me to death if I did read his works.  Melissa begins the book with a letter to the reader which I found fabulous because it is really her telling the reader why she did this for the series.

Throughout the book you read more on the information that the Blue Blood coven in New York has on all the main characters and their family and what their previous lives were, whose blood they would suck on once in a while and who their bondmate would be.  I LOVED THIS!  It also gave a more defined description with simple, blunt, to the point descriptions of what the characters would look like.

Everything with this book is fabulous and actually helps me understand the author herself as well.  What's even better with this book is that she added some other character's point of views during certain scenes that happened through books 1-4 of the series that aren't in the actual books.  You get a better sense at who these characters are and what will or won't happen later on in the series.

And then she has the glossary in the back and definitions and descriptions of things that don't need a large explanation, but should be in there anyway.  If you read the Blue Bloods series, add this to your list to read after The Van Alen Legacy because then things will make more sense as you go on with Misguided Angel that will be released in October this year.  Happy Reading!

Oh and aren't the covers for this series AMAZING?  I think so.  They make my shelf look so mysterious and beautiful at the same time.

An Announcement!

Okay, so I was curious to find out when the next book for the Blue Bloods Series by Melissa De La Cruz would come out.

I found out!  The author did an interview with Entertainment Weekly which also features the cover for the new book, Misguided Angel, which will be released on October 5, 2010. If you have read these books and find them intriguing as I do, then you will love this article.

Melissa De La Cruz Interview

My own opinion, this is my favorite cover of them all.  The most beautifully crafted anyway.  And she is one author that I want to walk up to and say, "Where did these ideas come from?"

Enjoy!

The Van Alen Legacy by Melissa De La Cruz

The Van Alen Legacy is the book that was lately published in the Blue Bloods series.  I expect at least one or two more to come of it.  I have really enjoyed them.  And just to warn you--to give a summary, there will be spoilers!  I really try not to, but this one cannot be helped.

This story continues straight on from the end of Revelations, a year later.  There are new wardens--all mostly old and raggedy--to replace the ones that have been killed when the demon, Leviathan, was released in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Schuyler and Oliver are on the run from the Wardens and Venators (truth finding vampires--much like their own FBI), all over the world they have fled them.

Bliss isn't herself, and her little sister, Jordan is missing.  What is mysterious is how Bliss can't really remember the last part of her trip to Brazil.  Or how she got home.  Or whatever happened to the last year of her life?

Mimi is on one of the Venator teams with Kingsley Martin as lead.  They are on the search for Bliss's missing sister who can lead them to what is really going on in their world.

Everything is amiss and everyone is scrambling to find truth in everything else.  But as Revelations seemed to be more of a "character building" story, The Van Alen Legacy is more of the "plot building" story.  I had a harder time reading through this one, possibly since it wasn't as character driven as the last one.  However, there were times when I wanted to know what happened next.  But not like the last book where I read it in a day.  This one took me about three weeks to complete.

Sorry, this is a short review.  I don't want to spoil more of this story, but this one does leave its' mark on the whole of the storyline of the Blue Bloods.  I suspect the next one will be character driven once again and I'm thoroughly excited for it.  Melissa really did a number on this story leaving a cliffhanger in her epilogue.  Squeeze every ounce of yourself to get through this story, but really, just remember it is not going to be as great as the last book.  Moreover, it is important to the whole of the storyline.

Revelations by Melissa De La Cruz

I've reviewed the first two books of the series already, Blue Bloods and Masquerade.  But here comes Revelations.

This continues the story of Mimi Force, Schuyler Van Alen, and Bliss Llewellyn in their socialite society and learning more and more who they were in their past lives and fighting those who seek to destroy the New York Coven of Blue Bloods.

The search for the Silver Blood is on as a new boy shows up at school, Kingsley Martin.  He's a knockout, a competitor for Mimi's twin brother and soulmate, Jack Force.  Unlike the blond, respectful, Jack, Kingsley likes to play on the wild side.  His dark looks give him away as possibly the one who is behind all the attacks on young Blue Bloods at Duschesne.

What I love is the character development in this book.  This one has shown us more into Schuyler and her learning the ways of the vampire life, although she is just a half blood.  Half human/half vampire.  Her grandfather teaches her quickly and efficiently because he knows something she doesn't.  Her feelings get in the way of everything as she is conflicted between loving her best friend and conduit, Oliver, more than she ought to, and having a relationship with the forbidden one, Jack Force.  When I read Schuyler's point of views, I really feel sorry for her that she is stuck in the middle of everything and the weight is all on her to live up to her family name.  But I also feel like she doesn't really care much for what is going on and who she is.  She just doesn't want any part in it and that part makes me angry at her character.  But we are all like that in some way aren't we?

I don't know why, but I always love reading Bliss's point of view.  It's more mysterious than the rest of them.  She can't remember who her real mother is, she can't focus on who she was in the past.  So she really is searching and wanting to learn who she is.  I love the self discoveries that characters go through.

For this book, I really suggest you start at the beginning to get the full throttle of this storyline.  But this one, really gets you sitting on the edge of your seat.  I read it in a day.  I couldn't put it down.  This is just one part of the climactic point of the story.  There is more.  That's in another review.

Masquerade (A Blue Bloods Novel)

I can't believe it has been so long since I've written a review.  However, this book is what has taken me so long to get to.  Masquerade by Melissa De La Cruz haunted my nightstand until I finished it.  I would stare at it and realize that if I picked it up, I would have to sit down and finish it.  Every time I looked at it while reading it, I would have this problem.

Usually, that's the best sign a book is addicting.

I'm hooked.  I thought Blue Bloods, the first in the series, reeled me in but this book hooked me.  I think the worm is the cover of this book.  Just very mysterious with the eyes behind the beautiful mask. 

Here's a quick synopsis of what the story is about and I promise to try and not give too much away.

Masquerade, begins where Blue Bloods left off.  Doesn't every sequel do this somehow?  Anyway, we've met the characters, Bliss Llewellyn, Schuyler Van Alen, Mimi Force, Jack Force, and many others who come into more play. 

As many teenagers do, they all have social problems with themselves and with others around them.  Mimi is jealous of Jack paying more attention to Schuyler than to her even though they are "bonded" which means in their past lives, they were together as husband and wife, etc.  You get the drift.  Mimi decides early on that Schulyer needs to go away some how.  But how?

And Bliss is frightened by red eyes in her sleep giving her nightmares, and with her many different places she is going in the middle of the night in sleepwalker mode.  And who was her real mother?  The one her father never talked about.  Where did Dylan go?  What happened to him?

Then there is Schuyler, the half blood, the outcast of all the socialie scene in the Blue Blood world.  Although she is one of the top teen models in New York now, she is attracted to Jack more than ever and really looking for answers about Croatan or also known as, Silver Bloods.  Going to Venice with her best friend, Oliver, to find her grandfather, she learns throughout the story--as well as everyone else does--that she is more like her mother, Allegra Van Alen, than ever before.  She is, or may possibly be the strongest of the Blue Bloods and also, the only one that could defeat the Silver Bloods if they ever rose up and took to war.

Of course, these three mini storylines all mingle together and weave in and out of each throughout the book.  Every page is a turner, and I know I had to look ahead always and read the last paragraphs of certain chapters to see if they may leave me hanging or they would let me be.

As always in gripping stories, I could only find maybe one or two spots that I was comfortable putting the book down and waiting for the perfect day to sit down and read some more.

Even if you read, Blue Bloods, and like it in a mediocre way the way I did, go and pick up Masquerade, and just try to not read this in one sitting.  Luckily, I did it that way, but then again, it also took me weeks to get through it since I feared I would leave my motherly duties in order to read this book.

Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz

I never thought I would read another vampire book after reading, The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer.  However, I had heard so much about the Blue Bloods books by Melissa De La Cruz that I had to get the first two books.   First there is Blue Bloods and second there is Masquerade.  I will have to review the second later as I have just started to read it.

In Blue Bloods, Melissa does a great job bringing a society of vampires to life.  These vampires are not your typical vampires.  They can go out in the sun, they're not as pale as we think vampires to be, they don't glitter in the sun like diamonds, and their fangs aren't in the front of their mouth like traditional Dracula.  However, these are the creme de la creme of the vampire world.  These vampires own most of Manhattan, New York. 

The story is in third person and follows first and foremost, Schuyler Van Alen as she learns about being a Blue Blood and tries to figure out her life as a teenager with her best friend, Oliver, who is human.  But Melissa also shows us the story in other character views such as the new Texas transfer, Bliss Llewellyn who is also the daughter of a New York senator and Mimi Force, the most popular girl on private school, Duschesne's campus.

Along the way, we learn that vampires are fallen angels with Michael and Gabriel (the archangels) as their leaders to help them through their lives on earth.  Also, these vampires that Melissa has created always save a bit of their blue blood in order for them to reincarnate and return to life later on.  And they learn about Croatan or the thing that wiped out the Roanoke colony back when Plymouth was first established.

I have to say that I did enjoy the story Melissa De La Cruz has come up with.  However, I'm not into all the talk of Gossip Girl like stories.  Probably the best character this author has come up with in this story is Bliss.  Bliss is very down to earth and reminds me very much of how girls really react to their surroundings when they are in their teen years.  Mimi Force is way on the popular side with really no worries except how to plan the next big party and then there is Schuyler who is our main character, but on the opposite end of Mimi, being the most unpopular girl at school and dressing like a goth.  Nothing wrong with goths, I have nothing against them, but I see that I like Bliss because we see the conflict in her as she tries to choose which side to be on, Schuyler's or Mimi's.

I really do like the innovative take on vampires.  They are definitely new and the story really wasn't as predictable as I thought it would be.  She even ends it on a climactic point.  I think what could have made this story more interesting is smoother scene changes and more on the feelings on how these girls feel about being who they are.  I believe it would have added more depth to the story and to the characters themselves.  I'm not saying the story is really dry, I'm just saying that it has its high points but a lot of it is low points.  I have started the second book, Masquerade, and hope to enjoy it far more than I how I somewhat enjoyed Blue Bloods.

P.S. Sorry for the layout of this review...for some reason I can't get it to go the way I want it to look.