Blue Bloods

Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz

302 pages

Rating: 3/5

Goodreads description:

When the Mayflower set sail in 1620, it carried on board the men and women who would shape America: Miles Standish; John Alden; Constance Hopkins. But some among the Pilgrims were not pure of heart; they were not escaping religious persecution. Indeed, they were not even human. They were vampires.The vampires assimilated quickly into the New World. Rising to levels of enormous power, wealth, and influence, they were the celebrated blue bloods of American society.

The Blue Bloods vowed that their immortal status would remain a closely guarded secret. And they kept that secret for centuries. But now, in New York City, the secret is seeping out. Schuyler Van Alen is a sophomore at a prestigious private school. She prefers baggy, vintage clothes instead of the Prada and pearls worn by her classmates, and she lives with her reclusive grandmother in a dilapated mansion. Schuyler is a loner...and happy that way. Suddenly, when she turns fifteen, there is a visible mosaic of blue veins on her arm. She starts to crave raw food and she is having flashbacks to ancient times. Then a popular girl from her school is found dead... drained of all her blood. Schuyler doesn't know what to think, but she wants to find out the secrets the Blue Bloods are keeping. But is she herself in danger?

Could those vampire legends really be true? Steeped in vampire lore and set against the glittery backdrop of New York City, Blue Bloods will be devoured by Melissa de la Cruz's legion fans.

My Thoughts:

I cannot remember where I first found Blue Bloods, but I was quite excited when I received it in the mail yesterday.  I have to say that my excitement was both fulfilled and disappointed.  The storyline and concept of Blue Bloods fascinates me.  I, being a Twilight fan, love a good vampire/fantasy novel.  In the sense that vampire novels have become the fad, Blue Bloods had an original vampire concept behind it.  Melissa De La Cruz writes a plot in which vampires are immortal beings who inhabit human bodies for 100 years.  The humans then expire, and the souls are "recycled" to another human body in which the vampire's soul, memories, and thoughts are continued.  The humans grow into their vampire selves at age 15, at which time they can have flashback memories.  I love the idea of being connected to someone of old.  Having a history that spans generations speaks to the romantic in me.  (I had flashes of the music video from Taylor Swift's "Love Story.")  Plus, the danger in the novel reminds me of the Harry Potter novels.  It excited me to read the book in one evening.

However, the disappointment comes in the form of the less-than-poetic writing.  At the beginning of the novel, I found myself bored.  I wanted to keep reading, but I keep remembering that I was hungry.  I was thinking about ice cream and brownies while I was reading.  To me, a good book takes me out of this world and into the pages.  I can read for hours and look up to suddenly realize I've sat in the same spot without moving and completely missed lunch and dinner.  This novel did not do that for me.  I was intrigued by the plot, but the writing bored me.  It seemed to me that the author was attempting a Gossip Girl background, but she did not really create the facade completely.  I did not feel the New York City High Society backdrop.  Nor did I feel the urgency and danger which was supposed to underlie the plot until the last couple of chapters in the book.  By the time I was really into the book, it was over.

To the author's credit, she had me looking up to see when the sequel was coming out.  (For some reason, I thought this was a new series.  Guess it's proof that nursing school really has been the rock I've been living under.)  Thankfully, several books have already been published, so there's no waiting.

All in all, I enjoyed reading this novel.  I gave it a 3 out of 5 because I enjoyed it, and I want to read the next books in the series.  However, I was slightly disappointed in the writing, and I hope that the next books are written better.  I would recommend it for teenagers and young people who enjoy reading YA fiction.  It's perfectly clean and an enjoyable read.   I'm just not sure an adult used to well-written authors such as Jodi Piccoult and John Grisham would enjoy it.