Review: The Van Alen Legacy (Blue Bloods #4) by Melissa de la Cruz

First, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who stopped by for the Virtual Advent Tour. There have been some great posts over there from many great bloggers who have shared their traditions, great holiday activities, wonderful memories, and fabulous recipes. Stop by to see who's up each day until Christmas!

As for getting back to what I love to do, read and review, I've had the fourth book in the Blue Blood series to review for about a month. To be honest, books in a series always kind of stump me. In fact, because of the wait in between books, I find that I forget a lot of important details that perhaps slow my reading down. This is why I've decided to switch things up slightly for this review, and I'd like to highlight the series first, and then review the book.

Review: The Van Alen, Blue Blood series centers on a character by the name of Schulyer Van Alen. Her mother has been in a coma for much of her life, and she is being raised by her grandmother. Through the course of the series, Schulyer learns of her part in the dangerous, and fascinating world of the "Blue Bloods" as vampires. Living the lives of upperclass, New York City teens, Schulyer and her schoolmates actually live very double lives, of which Schulyer has only begun to learn. Some of her classmates are powerful vampires, greedily feeding and disposing of humans as nothing more than mere playthings, while other vampires have learned how to manage their thirst and deal with humans. To this mix, Schulyer comes to learn where she plays a part in this society, and how she came to be a vampire as well.

In book four, we pick up with Schulyer and her best friend Oliver running from the coven of vampires in NYC for wrongs they believe she has commited. In the meantime, although Schulyer runs from one group, another eagerly seeks her out, to anihilate her for other reasons altogether.

Synopsis: To be honest, I was a bit lost for about a third of the book, as I tried to remember what I'd read in previous books. Not only could I not exactly remember the details from previous books in the series, but I also mixed up the details of these vampire laws to that of other books I'd read. I think that the series has interesting, very "Gossip Girls" sort of appeal in its action and plot, and can see that it would be an exciting series for many readers. My one suggestion might be to pick them up as a whole, after they have all been published (or I should have revisited previous novels...but who has time for that). Overall, I found them to be entertaining, interesting in the composition of the vampire society and the relationships between characters. While there are scenes of sensuality between some vampires, I think that this is an easy series to get into, especially for teen readers. For more information see: The Van Alen Legacy .

(*This was a library book copy.)

I love series, but does anyone else struggle to remember previous books when reading them as they come out? In some cases I've gone back to revisit previous novels, but often I have to just do a cold read and hope for the best. Are there any series where this has been especially tricky for you to remember what happened before?