the blue blood series consists of 7 books and 2 complementary books written by melissa de la cruz. In addition to that, there are two spin-off series: The Wolf Pact and The Beauchamp Family. this already series about vampires in new york city saw the publication of its first book in 2007 and its last in 2013. i discovered it through goodreads recommendations after adding the vampire diaries to my reading list (note to margin: no I didn’t read that series expecting something similar to the TV show, it’s very different but just as good).
the books are, in order:
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- blue bloods
- masquerade
- revelations
- van alen’s legacy
- wrong angel
- lost in time
- gates of paradise
I really liked the premise of the book: vampires can’t be made, either you’re a vampire or you’re not (they can’t have kids either) and they’re called blue bloods. their existence dates back to the fall from paradise: they are the angels who decided to follow lucifer, the fallen angels. It’s unclear if they were turned into vampires as punishment, or if that’s what angels are like. they need human blood to sustain themselves, but most of the other myths about vampires aren’t true (no problem with daylight, garlic, and crosses, for example). they live longer than humans, but still die at the end of their life. only difference: then they are reborn (as humans) to start over. in their teens, they slowly gain their powers (and past life memories). around this time, they set off in search of their true love, who is usually like their twin, their other half. the goal of it all? live long enough to earn your way back to paradise.
the main character schuyler van alen is actually only half vampire (the son of the vampire joy/gabrielle and the human stephen chase). his mother has been in a coma since he was 3 years old and is being raised by his maternal grandmother, cordelia van alen. She discovers that she is a blue blood in the first book, along with some of her classmates from New York’s posh private school Duchesne. She discusses it with Ella’s best friend Oliver, who is revealed to be Ella’s conduit (a human who knows the inner workings of the vampire world who is assigned to a specific blue blood to help them). he is clearly in love with her, but she has no idea of that fact. She falls in love with Jack Force, Mimi Force’s twin brother. Jack is later revealed to be Abbadon, the Angel of Destruction, bonded to his twin Mimi, or Azrael, the Angel of Death. The two sided with Lucifer, but ultimately won the war when they turned on Gabrielle and Michael.
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This is where the classic love triangle begins. although in this case it is more like a double triangle: schuyler loves oliver and jack while jack loves schuyler and mimi. Of course, Mimi is a beautiful blonde who rules the school and hates Schuyler for tempting Jack away from her. throughout the books, these two triangles continue to play an important role. Eventually, Oliver finds love with Schuyler’s half-sister (fully human), Mimi chooses Kingsley Martin (another vampire/fallen angel), and Schuyler and Jack end up together.
The problem with the world of blue blood is that there is also silver blood. these blue bloods turned bad by drinking only blue blood to sustain themselves. they follow lucifer and are willing to kill blue bloods. in the early books, many blue bloods still believe that all silver bloods were killed in the first war. later, it becomes clear that the silver bloods are looking for a specific blue blood to open a door that will lead them to both hell and paradise. they want to free all the silverbloods from hell, take over the earth and destroy the passage to paradise.
Throughout the books, Schuyler and his friends search for ways to fight the silver bloods and prevent them from taking over and killing the blue bloods. Eventually, it turns out that she is actually the key and she is forced to sacrifice her true love, Jack, to stop Lucifer from destroying the gate to paradise. She manages to do this (along with the help of another half-sister who used to be a blue blood but became a wolf), choosing to let Jack die and save the world. The blue bloods who want can return to paradise, others stay on earth and all silver bloods are sent to hell where they belong. in the final chapter, all the main characters are shown to be happy and in a relationship. the end.
Like I said before, I loved world building. the idea that vampires are actually fallen angels and only exist to reclaim their place in paradise is staggering. i loved schuyler’s character, she is the typical heroine already: beautiful even if she doesn’t realize it herself, with best friends and some love interests, a great destiny that only she can fulfill and a happy ending. however, I also had some problems with the series.
- no one ever talks about the angels who stayed behind, or really explains god’s role in all of this.
- for some unknown reason, after book 4, the werewolves are taken to the mixture. Bliss (Schuyler’s half-sister who is the daughter of Lucifer, born a vampire but later turned human) goes to the underworld to find the wolves because they will be needed to win the war. she disappears from the books until right at the end, when she returns to earth, now apparently a wolf herself, and goes to kill lucifer and the silverbloods. I hate the fact that almost every vampire book has to include werewolves, and it especially doesn’t work in this case. vampires are fallen angels, so what does that mean for wolves? i guess it’s explained in the wolf pact spinoff series, but i didn’t feel like reading it as it’s mostly about happiness, and she was one of my least favorite characters.
- the ending felt very good. too rushed for me. The author takes 6 books to build this great all-out war between the Blue Bloods led by Schuyler and the Silver Bloods led by Lucifer. but when they actually meet, it takes like an hour and it’s all over. schuyler decides to let jack die to kill lucifer and then the wolves come in to kill the remaining bad guys. the end. it all went too fast in my opinion and it didn’t take long for schuyler to decide that he was going to fulfill his destiny and kill lucifer.
- the epilogue: yes it’s a novel and yes i’m a fan of happy endings. but the way this was handled did not sit well with me. after the big fight, a quick chapter is all we have to tie everything together. schuyler takes the blue bloods who want to go back to paradise and then goes to college far away. we see all his friends who ended up in happy relationships and then there is a boy and it is revealed that he is jack: he has come back to life as a reward for choosing the right thing. there were so many possibilities here to give the series an interesting and worthy ending. the author could probably have put out a whole book, in my opinion. but no, just a chapter to end everything.
- I didn’t like the character of mimi. she, of course, is portrayed as the classic high school queen bee that she attacks when she feels threatened. but even towards the end, when she displays what are supposed to be redeeming qualities, she didn’t believe in them. she hates jack for wanting to be with schuyler but she never questions wanting to be with kingsley in the same way. she also openly admits that she had no reason to hate schuyler at first, but that she did anyway because she annoyed her.
- overall, the whole relationship between mimi and jack me scared so mimi knew that she and jack were meant to be together since she was very young. Jack, however, only finds out later; however, they always act like lovers to each other, even before jack finds out.
- the concept of blue bloods being twins and, at the same time, lovers not sitting well with me and this for Two main reasons actually. either everyone has a twin who is their true love, or no one does. however, in blue bloods they are not always twins, and their true love can be blue blood, human or another. either your true love is forever and destined, or it isn’t. When Jack and Mimi part ways, it becomes clear that their bond was forged by Lucifer. so yes they are bonded but only because lucifer made them that way. It doesn’t mean they can’t fall in love with each other, and it doesn’t mean they can only love each other. This is further confirmed when both Jack and Mimi bond with others who happen to be their true love. I can endorse both concepts, either together or separately, but then you have to stick to them. I felt that the author wanted the link to be mysterious and complicated, but for the sake of her story, she needs to change the whole town. therefore, it is never entirely clear what the rules are, how the link works. and this makes the series even more confusing.
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Of course, I won’t talk about the fact that no one believes Schuyler at first, that she needs to hide her love, that she’s a teenager who needs to save the whole world, and the fact that she seems all-powerful – because that’s what I know. treat the genre now. and this didn’t bother me much either, I’m used to books like this.
Don’t get me wrong, overall I liked the series. the world building was so good and the idea so original, it really made up for a lot for me. Additionally, Schuyler is shown making mistakes, doubting herself, and generally acting like a normal teenage girl at times. And I also loved the relationship between Schuyler and Jack, which sometimes feels like puppy love and a serious, committed relationship. I also appreciated the writing style and the fact that each chapter switches between different characters’ points of view.
there, that’s my review of the blue bloods series. If you have the time to invest in reading these 6 books, I suggest you do so. did you read it? that you thought? let me know in the comments!
as always, happy reading,
loes m.
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