The Van Alen Legacy

The Van Alen Legacy: A Blue Bloods Novel

by Melissa De La Cruz

Blue Bloods was a series I came into contact with fairly recently. Around the time the third book, Revelations, came out I was browsing for Christmas presents for my friends. For one I was looking for a vampire book since Twilight was such a huge hit for her. I saw the covers of Blue Bloods and thought, hum, why not? Eventually I became a fan of the book and she, I believe, never really got into the stories. I have all four books now with The Van Alen Legacy being my most recent addition. (Copied from an earlier entry of mine. To continue reading it and learn more about the Blue Bloods series click here.) The rest of this review will spoil earlier volumes so tread carefully.

The Van Alen Legacy picks up directly where the third book, Revelations, left off. Lawrence Van Alen, Schuyler's grandfather, is dead, and the Conclave believes that Schuyler played a part in his death. They do not believe her when she says that Lawrence was killed by Leviathan. So Schuyler and her best friend Oliver do the only thing they can think of; they run. Legacy starts one year after Lawrence's death, and continues to cover, at best, a few months of time and is narrated by the three girls; Schulyer, Bliss and Mimi.

Some good things about this book:

A lot was answered. Schuyler's true feelings towards Oliver and Jack, Mimi's feelings about Jack and Schuyler, what has taken over Bliss, and what the Visitor is planning to do. The fact that it starts off almost a year after the last books gives the characters a chance to get past the utter shock that they may be feeling. I even believe that narrating with three different characters allowed De La Cruz to successfully tell the reader about events happening that still moves the story forward at a quick pace.

The way that De La Cruz (seemingly) gave the love triangle between Oliver, Jack and Schuyler a very realistic (supposed) ending. I say 'seemingly' and 'supposed' because this series is still on-going and has plenty of time for this love triangle ending to change. I know that many people are tired of love triangles, and there is only so far you can go with one before fans become bored of it. Thankfully De La Cruz has (apparently) realized this and ended it. I won't tell you which way either. You have to read it for yourself.

Somethings I didn't like: Quite simply De La Cruz's story is becoming very big. She did very will with the Van Alen Legacy and managed to continue to make the reader enjoy and become sucked into the story. I was disappointed at the explanation of what the Van Alen Legacy was. It was done so quickly and some what forced that I had to re-read the page it was explained on to get it. My first reaction was "what?" and then after re-reading the page "oh that's it?". This is one of the reasons why I didn't enjoy the fourth books as much as I did the first three. So much was tied up and so much was started that this book felt more like a filler then a real addition to a great series.

I'm definitely looking forward to the next two books slated to come out in 2010 and 2011, but I can tell you I'm pretty sure werewolves will make a debut into the Blue Bloods world by the next book. I hope De La Cruz treads carefully. If she tried to over-extend herself too much with Angels, Vampires, and now the entire Rome story by adding in werewolves she might just end up jumping the shark! I really hope she doesn't!

The Blue Bloods Series

The Van Alen Legacy: A Blue Bloods Novel

by Melissa De La Cruz

Blue Bloods was a series I came into contact with fairly recently. Around the time the third book, Revelations, came out I was browsing for Christmas presents for my friends. For one I was looking for a vampire book since Twilight was such a huge hit for her. I saw the covers of Blue Bloods and thought, hum, why not? Eventually I became a fan of the book and she, I believe, never really got into the stories. I have all four books now with The Van Alen Legacy being my most recent addition.

To be completely honest, with this series it took a bit for me to really get into it. Blue Bloods starts off with Schuyler Van Alen a loner who attends an elite school in Manhattan. She is a part of an ancient family line that helped found Manhattan, and, in effect, makes her completely wealthy. (Side note: It took me forever to realize that her name is pronounced like Skylar. The odd spelling kept throwing me off.) Although Schuylar is an outcast in her school she has more in common with the popular, beautiful crowd than just her human ancestry: they are all also blue bloods.

Now here is where it gets a bit tricky and confusing. Once the young blue bloods reach the age of fifteen they start to change. They begin to crave raw meat, have nightmares set in different times in history, and prominent blue veins begin to appear. The blue bloods act like vampires and they walk like vampires, and even De La Cruz calls them vampires. Schuyler, and the reader, soon learn that these changes are because she, and all blue bloods alike, are fallen angels living on Earth as part of their punishment for trying to overthrow heaven. But honestly can you be both a vampire and a fallen angel? It's a confusing element of the story.

The mixing of two fantasy-type elements into one hybrid monster made me almost check out of this book. Add into that the whole, to me, unnecessary fashion elements of this series. ( To De La Cruz's credit fashion is her thing. She is very much apart of the fashion world and all the famous designers that exist in it.) However, I was never someone that into fashion, and to be honest I believe fashion in teen reads is becoming overdone. When I sat down to read this book I did not expect the fashion shows, but it is one thing I can at least overlook. It's a part of the story, of the characters, so my personal preferences need to take a back seat here. Besides I'm sure there are plenty of teen girls who love fashion much more than I.

One thing I find very odd though is the love triangle between Jack Force, a very popular and handsome boy, his twin sister Mimi Force, and Schuyler....well it gets pretty hairy. They are all immortal fallen angels. They are all reborn into human bodies, and none of them are really related to one another, but it's still damn creepy when a twin brother and sister are actually ancient lovers. It's almost on the same level of creepy as Twilight's imprinting.

All of that aside I really enjoyed a lot of what Blue Bloods had to offer which was a story about a girl who falls for the popular, handsome boy and learns so much more about herself than she ever thought possible. The most interesting parts of the book are when Schuyler learns about her fallen angel heritage, and how many of the seemingly random elements of her life are all actually intertwined with what she is. The romance and mystery deepens with each new volume, and if I am this far into the series and still grabbing the hardcover De La Cruz is doing something right.

Look for my review in the near future. For now I leave you with the official book trailer for The Van Alen Legacy.