Book Review: Blue Bloods (Blue Bloods #1)

Title: Blue Bloods (Blue Bloods #1)
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Publisher: Hyperion, 2007
Page total: 336
Date read: March 4th, 2010
Genre(s): Young Adult; Urban Fantasy

Reviewed by Ginny

The Bank was a decrepit stone building at the tail end of Houston Street, on the last divide between the gritty East Village and the wilds of the Lower East Side.


Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz was unlike other vampire books I’ve read so far. It has its own, unique explanation for the existence of vampires. And I quote, "When God cast out Lucifer and his angels from heaven, as punishment for their sins, we [the Blue Bloods] were cursed to live our immortal lives on Earth, where we became vampires, dependent on human blood to survive."

Nothing can kill the Blue Bloods - they can be crushed by a driving car, jump off a cliff, cut their veins, they simply don’t die. Of course, their physical shell expires after a hundred years, but their blood lives forever, and when they are called for the next cycle, it happens all over again. That’s their way of living forever. When they are born, they live like humans - they don’t know vampires exist. At age of fifteen, they start having memory flashbacks - memories from their former selves. Their veins turn blue; they start to crave raw meat; they glow in the dark…
Of course, our heroine Schuyler Van Alen doesn’t know any of this when the book starts. In the first book of this series, she starts to learn more about herself and her past. I can’t say much about the plot without spoiling it. Basically, the book explores the world of Blue Bloods, and their ancient enemies, the Silver Bloods, whom they believe they had defeated long time ago. But they’re back, and the Blue Bloods are running out of time…

It was a really good book, but with two downsides.
1. It was really hard to get into the book. The author loves describing lots of things like buildings and outfits (but then again, it’s all about designer clothes so I have no clue what the author’s talking about) , and it bored to me no end. The plot is rather reluctant at first, but after 50 pages -give or take a chapter or two- it picks up speed, and before you know it, you have finished the book.
2. The world is fascinating - but as much as complicated. There are many things I’ve never heard before, such as blood-bound twins and the immortal vow and Caerimonia Osculor -the Sacred Kiss- among other things. So, at first it can be very confusing - I had to re-read the book to fully get the whole thing. There is also a romance or two blooming in this book, and while it made the book easier to read, it was also heartbreaking. Especially Schuyler and Jack’s romance, for Jack is blood-bound to his twin sister (who is not really his twin, of course - family titles mean very little to Blue Bloods) Mimi for eternity, yet he’s drawn to Schuyler. Without Mimi, he’ll never be whole, yet he cannot deny the feelings he has for Schuyler.

All in all, it was a good start into a new series! And I assure you: It gets better…


4 Kisses!

Quotes:

"When their lips met, and their tongues touched, it was like they were kissing in a hundred different places, and her senses were flooded with new sensations and old memories. He kissed her, and their souls melted into each other in a melody older than time."

"Mimi remembered how freaked out she’d been when her marks first appeared. They’d formed an intricate, almost paisley-like pattern up and down from her shoulder to her wrist. Jack had shown her his, and it was another of those things that looked like a coincidence but weren’t really - if they held up their arms next to each other’s, the patterns matched perfectly."