Book Review: Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz

Title: Blue Bloods
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Series: Blue Bloods #1
Publisher: Hyperion
Release Date: May 1 2006
My Source: Bought


My Rating: 3/5


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. 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 girl from her school is found dead... drained of all her blood. Schuyler doesn't know what to think.
Could those vampire legends really be true? Steeped in vampire lore and set against the heady backdrop of the rich, young, and powerful in the heart of New York City, Blue Bloods will be devoured by Melissa de la Cruz's legion fans.


This book is a combination of vampires meets rich new yorkers, which in the premise sounded really intriging to me, and that's why I picked it up. I really wanted to like this book, and it was entertaining, even if it wasn't best book I've ever read. Schuyler Van Alen, along with many other teens her age, found out she was a vampire when she turned fifteen, but not only that, they learned that they had lived many past lives and were reincarnated over and over again. I'm sorry, but every time I read a book with the whole reincarnation thing it usually drags the book down for me (...like Evermore, a book I really didn't enjoy). I'm not sure why, but it's like if they'd had so many past lives I hardly care about this one. Fortunately, without giving away any spoilers, I'll just say that this book had enough differences, twists in the whole reincarnation thing that I was able to deal with it. It was definitely interesting enough, a new take on the vampire thing by having them be immortal angels, you'd have to read it to really understand it.
One thing I did like about this book was that it was told in third person, and not just focused on romance where there's one perfect mysterious guy. Actually, I didn't really like any of the guys in this book, which was a little bit of a let down, but it was okay.
I have to say the writing in this book was pretty horrible. I absolutely do not get the point of having the Schulyer/Bliss photoshoot, it completely didn't relate to the plot and totally got me confused about Schuyler's character. The books started out like this: Mimi is the fashion obsessed, rich girl, Schuyler is the goth girl who don't care about that, and then suddenly she's this vampire and model. What? No character development. I'm so confused! That wasn't exactly the only thing in this book that totally didn't make sense. It was really unrealistic, but I still kept reading because even though it was lame at times, it certainly wasn't boring. You might be dragged down by all the designer labels, clothing descriptions, etc, but I was reading it fast enough that I didn't care, though there was a point where it started to get ridiculous.

I'm going to continue reading the next one, but if it starts getting worse (more ridiculous and unbelievable characters) than I don't know if I'll stick with the series.
*content warning: some completely uneccesary (in my opinion) sexual content!