Sunday, May 9, 2010

30. The Van Alen Legacy - Melissa de la Cruz

#4 Blue Bloods series
(after Blue Bloods, Masquerade, and Revelations)
Disney/Hyperion, 2009
$16.99
Young Adult
369 pages
(the cover is misleading - I thought it was Schuyler, but it's Mimi)

This fourth installment has its highs and lows, goods and bads, just as the previous threee did. This one is told in short chapters from three points-of-view - Schuyler, Bliss, and Mimi. Mimi has become softer, more likeable, some of the snooty hard edges are gone. They start to reappear at the end, and I think that's a good thing.

Spoilers to follow:
A year has passed since the end of Revelations. Many are not what they appear to be, souls are hiding within other bodies - Lucifer, who is also Bliss' father, is hiding within her. But she's trying to outwit him when he "leaves" her. Schuyler is running from the coven because they do not believe she had nothing to do with her grandfather, Lawrence's death. She and Oliver spend three or four days in a different city in the world before taking off to another. Mimi and Jack have each joined a different Venator team - and she is falling for the handsome Silver-Blood-now-on-the-Blue-Blood's-side Kingsley Martin. Schuyler is still pining for Jack but cannot leave Ollie. And poor Bliss...she's one messed up young lady with so many dark souls lurking inside her.

A good question: When every important person in NYC goes to St. John the Divine for the "bonding" of Mimi and Jack...who are BROTHER and SISTER in the eyes of the Red Bloods.....and she's in an unbelievable wedding gown, so this is apparently a fancy wedding....what does the rest of the Red Blood world think? This is never explained, although de la Cruz tries to explain how things appear to Red Bloods in other places throughout the series. Maybe I missed it.

A fast read with some good adventure in middle. It will be interesting what twists and turns de la Cruz inserts into the next installment.

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