Blue Bloods 5: Misguided Angels by Melissa De La Cruz
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Chelsea PerryDecember 28th, 2009 |
I remember the day I discovered the Blue Bloods series. It was 2007 and I was walking through Barnes and Noble, probably looking for some unnecessary self help book when I stumbled upon a side display of Blue Bloods. The cover showed nothing but a neck of a young girl with two small bite marks on the side of her neck. Being a fan of vampire fiction, I never pass up a vampire novel.
I have been a reader of the series ever since. I would not call myself a fan but I read the series because I cannot stand not knowing how a story ends and also because there has been (before Twilight was the latest tween phenomenon) a lack of decent vampire fiction during previous years. Given the fact that Melissa De La Cruz, the author of the novels, is now making spin off series, I doubt this is a story that will end anytime soon.
The problem I have with this series is that it is not about vampires at all. The 5th Blue Bloods book is titled Misguided Angels and that accurately describes the content of what you are reading. The vampires in De La Cruz’s story are not vampires at all but angels, cast out of heaven after the downfall of Lucifer, trying to earn their way back into Heaven. Throughout the books we are occasionally reminded that they are vampires with about a teaspoon helping of biting/feeding here and there but other than that, they don’t exactly have any “vampire characteristics,” well, none that an angel wouldn’t already have. They aren’t immortal, which I always thought was the whole point to being a vampire, but semi-immortal and age just like normal humans until they die at the age of 100 only to be reincarnated over and over again.
Ultimately, you are reading a novel about the ongoing battle between Heaven and Hell, Lucifer and God, angels and demons. In addition to remembering who is who and what is what we are also introduced into every characters past lives as well as their angel names and memories which also ties into actual events in history. It can get rather exhausting.
Albeit, the story is well written and De La Cruz has done a good job at keeping the readers interest as well as developing each character thoroughly. She mixes just the right amount of action, suspense, drama and romance into just 400 pages. I rather enjoy the way chapters alternate narrators between our main heroin, her best friend and her worst enemy. By the end of the fourth novel I was no longer jeering the enemy, I was cheering for her because I could finally see where she was coming from and how it all looked through her eyes; she was in love and just trying to keep what was hers and had always been hers, ever since creation. I appreciate that about De La Cruz’s writing.
In the end, the story is highly enjoyable by all ages even though it is labeled as young adult; I am still reading it in my early twenties. The novels are quite popular amongst the Twilight-ers of the world and will gain even more popularity when the new spinoff is released which is about werewolves. Yes, werewolves. Although, in De La Cruz’s style, werewolves are not werewolves at all but hell hounds.
According to De La Cruzs twitter, the 5th book of the Blue Bloods series titled Misguided Angels will be likely be released sometime in the Fall of 2010. The sister book in which we learn more about Allegra Van Allen titled Keys to the Repository will be released in May of 2010. And the spinoff werewolf series titled Wolf Pack starring our good friend Bliss Llewellyn will be released sometime in 2011.
