The Van Alen Legacy: Number 4 in series (Blue Bloods, #4)

by Melissa de la Cruz

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? Jack and Schuyler are over. Oliver's brokenhearted. And only the cunning Mimi seems to be happily engaged. Young, fabulous and fanged, Melissa de la Cruz's vampires unite in this highly anticipated fourth instalment of the Blue Bloods series.

• ISBN10: 1905654790
• ISBN13: 9781905654796
• Publish Date: 1 April 2010 (first published 1 October 2009)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Imprint: ATOM
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[Baroness Book Trove]

CAUTION! THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK ALREADY!!!!!!!


Okay so I am sooooo sorry to everyone for not being on for like a long time since my last review/post. I have been busy but I finished the book!!!!!! And oh my god it was such a turn pager that kept me on my toes. The reason that I haven't been on is because I have been playing with my cat and doing other things that kept me away from reading this book and finishing it.


Well that is until today obviously. But yeah I finished it and it was sooo good. This book takes place two years after the first book, Blue Bloods, and a year after the last book. I'm not going to say anything about this book that could give anything away to anyone but this book also has three point of views. One from our heroine Schuyler, then Mimi, and then Bliss. I feel so bad though for Bliss and Mimi. Bliss because of Dylan and how she will never see him again which sucks for the two of them. They are bonded and won't be able to do anything about it anymore..Mimi because she started to realize that maybe she does have feelings for Kingsley but can't do anything about that anymore either. And Schuyler is able to be with Jack but with the New York Coven after them again...Well mostly Mimi and it just plain sucks for these poor teenage kids. But at least her mom is awake now and yeah.


Okay so I am now spoiling most of this for you and I will just shut up. Okay so I won't shut up until this review is done. But this book is sooo good that I couldn't get it out of my head. If anyone asked me about this book I would recommend it to them especially if they read the first three books.

To read my other reviews please go here: http://baronessbooktrove.blogspot.com/

[wyvernfriend]

The end made me want to get the next one but the overall feeling from this was meh. Lots of politics, lots of background of the vampires, but really I didn't get drawn in and really think this may be the last of the series that I read, at least for a while.

Told from the point of view of a few of the characters this shows how they're starting to come to terms with their various legacies and powers and trying their damndest to survive in some instances. Relationships are complicated by modern and past issues and the characters are well drawn. I just didn't feel the love.

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The fourth book in this series has made me a little tired. I think that happens when you realise you’re thinking about another book that is not the book you are currently reading but you wish you were reading the book you were thinking about. It feels like “Really? This is only book four? I have three more to go?” -_-

This book wasn’t as good as the others before it. That had to do with the fact it was set a year after the last book. At some points of the story you felt like it hadn’t been a year at all, only a few weeks, then at others you really felt that stretch of a year, like you missed out on so much. That was annoying. I didn’t like how it kept jumping back to past scenes, that felt like it slowed the book down a lot, even if it explained current circumstances. And in this book it felt like you never really got to be invested in the storyline because it kept jumping back and forth between point of views every chapter, it felt dis-connected because the characters weren’t in the same situation. It was three stories told in one book. I felt like I started to get into Bliss’s story or Mimi’s story and then suddenly I had to get used to another character’s story already. So I did not enjoy it as much as the other books.

The beginning was slow to start off with but the ending made up for it. It took me a few days to get into the book then I read the whole end half of the book in a night.

I actually loved Mimi in this book, she is now my favourite character. She is so strong and interesting and the most humanely developed character of this series yet. She actually grows in this book and that is so interesting to see! Schuyler is the most annoying character in my opinion. I suddenly find I can’t stand the way she pines after Jack and Ollie at the same time. We all know she only loves Ollie as a friend yet she so very gallantly tries to convince others, but mostly herself, that she is in love with Ollie when really she is in love with the forbidden Jack. But I don’t like Jack. Not after the ending of the second book, that changed my opinion very fast and I can’t forget it. Even if it ties in with the story and is true to the nature of his character. Which is a shame because I cringe every time Jack appears in the story, even if he is the ‘hero’ at that point in time. I guess it goes to say that there are two sides to every story, two sides to every person and two sides to every reason, action and decision. We see both of those sides with Jack and I can’t stand either now.

In Bliss’s chapters is when I found that time was weird, it felt like it had only been a few weeks since the last book. Which is probably the idea that De La Cruz wants us to think because that is really what Bliss feels like. Still, we’ve just come from reading a chapter on Mimi or Schuyler so we know that so much time has passed, so coming to Bliss just feels like time has gone backwards and the story starts dragging again.

The way the history of this story works just gets more interesting and complicated as the books go on. It’s intriguing but at the same time it is tedious to keep up with who everyone is, well was, or is actually? See, confusing.

Overall, it’s still interesting and still keeps you on the tips of your toes but with this one it takes a bit longer, just like the first book did.

Miss J
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