Author: Melissa De La Cruz
Publisher: Hyperion
Published Date: April 2006
Source: Library
Why You're Reading This Book:
- You want a fun vampire read rooted in a little bit of history
What's The Story?:
From Goodreads.com: "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. She prefers baggy, vintage clothes instead of the Prada and pearls worn by her classmates, and she lives with her reclusive grandmother in a dilapated mansion. Schuyler is a loner...and happy that way. 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 popular girl from her school is found dead... drained of all her blood. Schuyler doesn't know what to think, but she wants to find out the secrets the Blue Bloods are keeping. But is she herself in danger?"
My Two Cents:
Okay, I know that I've personally been grumbling about the excess of books with teenaged vampires (full disclosure: I did like the Twilight series even though it was a little cheesy) but I really, really liked Blue Bloods. This book has a little more of a historical twist to it. It's based around the story of the colony in Roanoke, VA that just sort of disappeared. Settlers from the Plymouth settlement went down to bring medicine to the settlers in Roanoke only to find that the settlement was totally decimated. The only hint of what happened to the settlers was a word carved into a tree, Croatan. Exactly what happened to those settlers remains a mystery to this day. De La Cruz tries to answer the mystery in a supernatural way.
Place is always a big thing for me in books. New York City is one of my favorite cities and I really thought the author did a good job of capturing the flavor of the city. Hearing about all the gorgeous buildings and the dark corners really gave the book a sense of reality and life.
I don't want to give too much away about the book but I'm definitely excited to read the rest of this series.
My Review:
4 out of 5 stars
Hmm...interesting. I didn't know this book was so heavy on the historical aspects...you've convinced me to give Blue Bloods a chance! :)
ReplyDeleteI've been wanting to pick this one up to see about the hype but I haven't been able to find the first book in the series at the library. I too didn't realize it was so heavy on the history, which makes it sound a little more appealing to me than the millions of other vampire books. (I like vampires-don't get me wrong-but there are a bunch of them out there.)
ReplyDeleteAbout the colony/settlers...Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith also dabs a little on this...if you haven't read that one, you might like it.
~Asheley
I'll be curious what you think of the series as it goes on. In some ways I like it better now and in some ways I like it worse. The characters aren't as shallow but some of the romance and couples annoy me. The plot is quite silly but also addicting. Once you start the series, you have to keep going.
ReplyDelete@Kat @ NoPageLeftBehind Yeah, I had no idea that it had the historical element in it. I was just looking for something light to read!
ReplyDelete@SweetestLittleBookworm I have to say that I'm intrigued by Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter but I'm a little not sure about having a former POTUS hunting vampires. It seems like a stretch. Is it really a good book?
ReplyDelete@Alison Can Read I already have the next couple books on my shelf from the library waiting for me to get to them!
ReplyDelete