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Book 1: Blue Bloods
Publication Date: March 27, 2007
Within New York City’s most elite families, there lurks a secret society of celebrated Americans whose ancestors sailed on the Mayflower. They are the powerful and the wealthy—and in fact, they are not human. They are the Blue Bloods, an ancient group of vampires.
Schuyler Van Alen has never fit in at Duchesne, her prestigious New York City 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 dilapidated mansion. Schuyler is a loner—and happy that way.
But when she turns fifteen, Schuyler’s life changes dramatically. She has a mosaic of blue veins on her arms, and craves raw meat. The death of a popular girl from Duchesne is surrounded by a mystery that haunts her. And strangest off all, Jack Force, the most popular boy in school, is showing a sudden interest in her.
Schuyler wants to find out the secrets the Blue Bloods are keeping. But is she herself in danger?
Steeped in vampire lore and set against the glittery backdrop of New York City, Blue Bloods will be devoured by fans of Melissa de la Cruz.
Book 2: Masquerade
Publication Date: May 1, 2007
Schuyler Van Alen wants an explanation for the mysterious deaths of young Blue Bloods. Her search brings her to Venice, Italy, in the hopes of finding the one person who can help. Meanwhile, back in New York, preparations are feverishly underway for the famous Four Hundred Ball, an exclusive gala hosted by the city’s wealthy, powerful, and unhuman—a true Blue Blood affair. But it’s at the after-party masquerade that the true danger lurks. Hidden behind the masks is a revelation that will change the course of a young vampire’s destiny.
Rich with glamour, attitude, and vampire lore, this second installment in the Blue Bloods saga will leave readers thirsty for more.
Book 3: Revelations
Publication Date: October 31, 2008
Have you ever wondered what secrets lurk behind the closed doors of New York City’s wealthiest families? They’re powerful, they’re famous… they’re undead.
Schuyler Van Alen’s blood legacy has just been called into question—is the young vampire in fact a Blue Blood, or is it the sinister Silver Blood that runs through her veins? As controversy swirls, Schuyler is left stranded in the Force household, trapped under the same roof as her cunning nemesis, Mimi Force, and her forbidden crush, Jack Force.
When an ancient place of power is breached by Silver Bloods in Rio de Janeiro, however, the Blue Bloods will need Schuyler on their side. The stakes are high; the battle is bloody; and through it all, Schuyler is torn between love and passion, duty and freedom. And in the end, one vampire’s secret identity will be exposed in a revelation that shocks everyone.
Book 4: The Van Alen Legacy
Publication Date: October 6, 2009
With the stunning revelation surrounding Bliss’s true identity comes the growing threat of the sinister Silver Bloods. Once left to live the glamorous life in New York City, the Blue Bloods now find themselves in an epic battle for survival. Not to worry; love is still in the air for the young vampires of the Upper East Side. Or is it? Schuyler has made her choice. She has forsaken Jack for Oliver, choosing human over vampire. But old loves die hard...And even coldhearted Mimi seems to suffer from the ties that bind.
Young vampires unite in this highly anticipated fourth installment of the New York Timesbest-selling series.
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Some reasons why I love this series:
1.) This series is written by Filipina Melissa dela Cruz.
According to her website, Melissa de la Cruz is the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of many critically acclaimed and award-winning novels for teens including The Au Pairs series, the Blue Bloods series, the Ashleys series, the Angels on Sunset Boulevard series and the semi-autobiographical novel Fresh off the Boat.
Her books for adults include the novel Cat’s Meow, the anthology Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys and the tongue-in-chic handbooks How to Become Famous in Two Weeks or Less andThe Fashionista Files: Adventures in Four-inch heels and Faux-Pas.
She has worked as a fashion and beauty editor and has written for many publications includingThe New York Times, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Allure, The San Francisco Chronicle, McSweeney’s, Teen Vogue, CosmoGirl! and Seventeen. She has also appeared as an expert on fashion, trends and fame for CNN, E! and FoxNews.
Melissa grew up in Manila and moved to San Francisco with her family, where she graduated high school salutatorian from The Convent of the Sacred Heart. She majored in art history and English at Columbia University (and minored in nightclubs and shopping!).
She now divides her time between New York and Los Angeles, where she lives in the Hollywood Hills with her husband and daughter.
2.) This is way better than the Twilight series.
Characters
In Twilight, the lead heroine (and she doesn't seem like it) Bella, is spineless, dependent and uninteresting loner/high school student. She doesn't have ambitions and a bitch to her human friends. I actually don't understand how two hot guys (albeit weird - werewolf and vampire) are fighting over her. I don't see anything nice about her. In Blue Bloods, Schuyler is everything that Bella isn't. She's a fighter, independent, fiercely loyal to her "few" friends. She has her own mind and she's adventurous. Add that she's so pretty, you understand why her best friend Oliver and the most popular guy in school, Jack, are fighting (silently) over her.
How about the four guys? Jacob vs Oliver and Edward vs Jack. Here, the 4 four guys are about the equal. Jacob and Oliver are from the same stereotype - best friends to Bella/Oliver. Both of them will do anything for them. While Jacob is a werewolf and can protect Bella from vampires, Oliver is plain human but very rich and smart and always finds a way to help and protect Sky from fellow bad Blue/Silver Bloods. Edward vs Jack - now this is harder. I've always been Team Edward, he's so perfect and beautiful and he can do anything. He's even willing to die when he thought Bella died (how emo!). On the other hand, Jack is like that hot, popular guy you always see in movies and tv shows - he's so dreamy and unattainable (esp since he already has an equally beautiful and perfect girlfriend/sister Mimi). Jack is a bit more restrained than Edward, while Edward is powerful enough to get what he wants, Jack is morally and dutifully bound to Mimi, but his undeniable attraction and love for Sky is making him violate the code (which is going to be hard to do since he might be punished and will be facing major consequences for his actions).
Other characters - The human friends in Twilight are just fillers and though Bella interacts with the Cullens and the author tries to give a background about them, I feel like they're not deep enough for the readers to understand them. Blue Bloods is written in a way that you read the personal feelings or thoughts of even the other (but major) characters - Mimi, Bliss, Oliver (sometimes the chapters are written from their pov). While Mimi at the start was a bit like Queen Bee Blair Waldorf and the "other woman" between Jack and Sky, you would realize in the 2nd and 3rd book that she's not as manipulative, vain and evil as she looked like. While i love Jack/Sky, i can't help feel sad about Mimi and want to root for her- good thing i heard that in the 4th book, she might have some love connection with Kingsley. There are also a lot of other characters, like Bliss' sister Jordan, her ex-bf Dylan and the older Blue Bloods.
Plot / Story
Twilight focused on two things: teenage romance (with love triangle between Bella/Jacob/Edward) and the long outstanding feud between werewolf/vampires (and throw in some humans). I felt that the story was a bit shallow. Because Edward killed Victoria's boyfriend in the first book, the next 2 books talked about how she will avenge her boyfriend's death by killing Bella (yawn!). For a bunch of 100 something year old vampires, that's a bit high school-ish isnt it? I loved Twilight and Eclipse, but New Moon was soo boring. Half of the time when Bella was emoting and feeling depressed and suicidal, i wanted to go inside the book and slap her until she wakes up from her foolish I-can't-live-without-Edward crap. The 4th book was more about vampires vs humans (I read until half but was so disgusted and disappointed i stopped and havent bothered finishing the book).
On the other hand, Blue Bloods tackles more than just teenage romance. No werewolves this time, instead, it's vampires (Blue Bloods) vs vampires (Silver Bloods). The theory is that they were all angels before but when Lucifer (who was also an angel) left Heaven, the other angels (like Gabriel and Michael) came down and they all became vampires living in Earth. Since this is a young adult fiction, of course there's several Gossip Girl types of storylines (teenage angst, girlfights, love triangle - with no sex) but mainly it's an adventure/mystery story (who is killing the other vampires? is Lucifer back? will Gabriel ever wake up?), with the ultimate question: who will win? good or evil?
I've read the first 3 books and I already have a copy of the 4th book (still havent read though). I read somewhere that this series was intended to only be a trilogy but then Melissa had so many interesting plots and twists to tell that she ended up writing Part 1 into 4 books. And she plans on continuing to the next part of the series as another trilogy. So if you guys are bored with Twilight, read this series instead!
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