Review: Blue Bloods - Melissa de la Cruz

They're young, fabulous and fanged . . .

And they rule Manhattan from the trendy uptown clubs to the downtown boutiques.  Fifteen-year-old Schuyler Van Alen has never quite fit in at her exclusive prep school - she's more of a vintage than a Versace girl - but all that's about to change . . .

Because Schuyler has just found out she's a Blue Blood.  The Blue Bloods are the city's glamorous and secret vampire elite.  They're young, beautiful and powerful.  But now they're being murdered.  And Schuyler must find out who - or what - is behind it, before she's next.





Blue Bloods Series:
Blue Bloods
Masquerade
Revelations
The Van Alen Legacy
Keys to the Repository (series guide)
Misguided Angel
Bloody Valentine (novella)
Lost in Time (October 2011)

Visit Melissa de la Cruz's website for more information

Review:
As a massive fan of vampires and paranormal stories I was really looking forward to reading Blue Bloods but having finished reading it I'm still not quite sure what to make of it.  Melissa de la Cruz has come up with a unique take on vampire mythology but I don't really want to go into too much detail here in case of spoilers.  I did find that the mythology wasn't smoothly explained throughout the story though and was mainly told in one hard to follow chapter.  I found myself getting confused & having to re-read parts to make sure I'd understood it correctly and would have much preferred the information to be woven into the story in a different way.  That can be a problem with first books in a series though and by itself wouldn't put me off reading a sequel.

What is more likely to put me off is the fact that I didn't really like any of the main characters.  I found Schuyler OK to start with but she turned out to be a bit too much like so many other protagonists that I've read about more times than I care to mention.  She was an outsider at school, the poor girl amongst the rich kids who wore mainly second hand vintage clothing compared to the others who were obsessed with fashion labels and name dropping.  It is stated that she doesn't care what she looks like (even mentioning that she hasn't washed her hair for weeks) but out of nowhere she is offered a modeling contract and is suddenly shown how beautiful she really is which I found far too unrealistic.  It probably didn't help that I've never been a fan of reading about spoiled rich kids who spend ridiculous amounts of money on designer labels.  I'm not a Gossip Girls fan but this story would probably be much more appealing to those who are.  There was far too much description of what everyone was wearing and how much it cost them for me and I found myself skimming over these parts, I'd have much preferred this time being spent enriching the mythology of the story.

I also wasn't too impressed that the characters spend so much time clubbing, drinking and having casual sex.  Yes, I understand that this happens (I was a teen once even if it was a while ago!) but these characters are only 15 and it didn't seem to send a good message out to the teenage readers that the story is marketed too.  I would probably have found myself less worried by this if the characters were a few years older but as it was I felt uncomfortable reading the book at times.

Despite my complaints I will probably pick up the second book in the series because I have heard so many good things about it.  This may not be the strongest start but I'm going to reserve my judgement until I've read the next installment but I won't be in a rush to do so.  As I already mentioned if you're a Gossip Girls fan and are hugely interested in fashion you'll probably enjoy the story more than I did but if you're not then you might consider giving this one a miss.

Source: Received from Atom in exchange for an honest review

Other Reviews:
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