From Amazon.com...
"De la Cruz has revamped traditional vampire lore in this story featuring a group of attractive, privileged Manhattan teens who attend a prestigious private school. Schuyler Van Alen, 15, the last of the line in a distinguished family, is being raised by her distant and forbidding grandmother. Schuyler, her friend Oliver, and their new friend Dylan are treated like outsiders by the clique of popular, athletic, and beautiful teens made up of Mimi Force, her twin brother, and her best friend. What they have in common is the fact that they are all Blue Bloods, or vampires. They don't realize that they aren't normal until they reach age 15. Then the symptoms manifest themselves and they begin to crave raw meat, have nightmares about events in history, and get prominent blue veins in their arms. Their immortality and way of life are threatened after Blue Blood teens start getting murdered by a splinter group called the Silver Bloods."
The cover persuaded me to pick up this book and the fact that I wanted to slow down my Twilight Rush. It worked. I really enjoyed reading Blue Bloods and can't wait to start Masquerade tomorrow. The exposition was extremely long and took up most of the book, but the constant hints of climatic plot kept me intrigued. Despite this insane amount of exposition, major parts of the book seemed to be rushed — for instance, it took all of one page for Schuyler to accept she was a vampire — page 152 to be exact. I also wasn't feeling the connection between Schuyler and Jack Frost — er, Force.
The climax — I'm not really sure I could pick it out for you. The last ten chapters were amazing. I couldn't put it down and my mind was racing and I couldn't read fast enough. But it was a sour case of 'show don't tell'. Some (SOME!) of those climatic hints I mentioned were explained, but whole new cans of hints were opened and never addressed. Hopefully these 'hints' will all be addressed in Masquerade. The rush of information was very intense — probably due to the 'telling'. In a paragraph of dialog huge 'hints' emerged. I don't really know how to describe it better than this. It was annoying — I felt like I was constantly missing something. And I was continually trying to map out a 'family tree' and it just wasn't happening.
But I did say I loved it right? Right! I couldn't put it down. I found the characters strong, independent, and different! Yes, Mimi was a little like Aphrodite from House of Night. But I ended up LOVING Aphrodite! Schuyler is a great protagonist — much better than Zoey, in my opinion. I loved how all the characters had a strong voice in the book — Schuyler, Mimi, Jack, Bliss, and even Oliver towards the end. The descriptions of high society were more than believable — I could see it all! Especially in Mimi's presence.
And the story line! So intricate and detailed — I mentioned my struggle (in vain) to piece it all together! Melissa De la Cruz thought this out very well! It's such a nice relief to read a well though out book/series. Good stories can come out from writers who start and don't know where they will end up. But it's very refreshing to see that a lot of thought went into a book. That's why it's so easy for me to push aside all of the above reasons why I should not like the book — to say that I cannot wait to start the second book Masquerade.
Also worth mentioning — I really liked how she brought in the archangels and Lucifer and all that jazz (all that jazz!!). While I am still extremely confused, it brought a different aspect to this Vampiric novel that I haven't seen before. Plus, I loved that the familiars for Vamps are canines — much different than in the HON novels. Refreshing details to another series about vampires. It's the small things that make the difference anyway.
Funny Fact: Throughout the whole book I pronounced Schuyler in my head like [sh — u — ler] Sh — like shark. u — like ugly. ler — like learn without the n. I was wondering about it on Twitter and Debbie from Debbie's World of Books googled it! It is pronounced Skyler — learn why Melissa De la Cruz spelt it so 'funny' here. I will, undoubtedly, continue to prounounce Schuyler like Shuler in my head throughout the rest of the series — but that's just me.