The Van Alen Legacy: A Blue Bloods Novelby 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 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!
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