Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz

Blue Bloods is the story of 15 year old Schuylar’s coming of age in New York City’s affluent Upper East Side. The descendent of the city’s benefactors and builders, she uncomfortably claims her place at the exclusive prep school, Duchesne, amongst the wealthiest and best dressed teens of the city, led by teen socialite Mimi Force.

Schuylar has never fit it in. Schuylar’s family no longer is moneyed and she dresses from vintage eBay and Salvation Army finds, preferably black. Anchored by her only and best friend Oliver, she finds herself thrown into this world in a way she never could have imagined. She finds that she is a part of this exclusive group through the blood coursing through her veins, vampire blood, Blue Blood. Only the vampires are being hunted, and Schuylar most of all.

Mystery mixes with romance and fantasy as Schuylar tries to find out more about her coma-ridden mother, how one of her classmates has died, drained of blood, and how to find her grandfather, who may hold the keys to saving her life and the lives of other Blue Bloods. She also is trying to figure out what her relationship is with the gorgeous Jack Force, Mimi Force’s twin brother.

The world de la Cruz takes you to in Blue Bloods is rich with “Chic Lit” appeal, dropping designer names like candy, full of sexual coming of age and charged with high school drama. It’s also takes you for a history trip back to the founding of Plymouth Plantation where her vampire ancestors traveled; trying to escape from those that hunted them. It is those Silver Bloods who are now hunting them again.

The characters are allusions to the high school clique set, rich kids, jocks, and goth, that teens will be able to identify with yet which is fantastically out of reach in it’s excess that some will drool over.

This read is a good recommendation for Twilight fans, vampire book fans and also for some who prefer books like Gossip Girl. Though, if recommending to Twilight fans, the disclaimer that while Twilight is a teen coming of age book that happens to have vampires in it, Blue Bloods is the story of a girl finding her way. And oh, by the way, she finds out she’s a vampire, reborn and coming of age. This will also appeal to some boys who read fantasy but will not find a broad audience in that gender. Also a recommended read for teens that liked City of Bones