I know I have mentioned the Blue Bloods books before. They’re probably my favorite vampire series next to The Vampire Academy books. They sort of blend in all the necessary ingredients for YA success: vampires, fallen angels, snip bits of important history, forbidden love, unrequited love, sizzling romance, NYC, school drama, family mystery, strength, friendship, and of course the war of good versus evil.
This book takes place right where Bloody Valentine finishes. Schuyler convinces her newly bonded Jack Force to stay with her and research ways around having to battle his twin sister (the law for breaking his bond with his sister, Mimi, in order to be with his true love, Schuyler). In these books, it’s normal for twins to actually be mates because technically they’re not twins. Okay, that’s confusing and gross sounding. I will step back for a second. Vampires here are actually fallen angels that get recycled. They are sort of reincarnated with each generation. So, there are actually only a select amount of vampires in existence. And none of them are actually related; they just live as though they are to appear normal to most humans/red bloods. And Schuyler is the only one known to be born from a vampire and a human. Many of the vampires call her an abomination.
Schuler’s mission, as the daughter of Gabrielle, one of the most powerful angels/vampires, is to guard the remaining gates from Lucifer and to protect the world. She convinces Jack in this book to help her in her search for the gates, but as always trouble finds them everywhere they go. For starters, Mimi who is hell-bent on having the blood trial (fight to the death) with Jack just happens to be in same place (Egypt) at the same time as Jack and Schuyler. Except she, along with Schuyler’s best friend, Oliver, is there to go into hell to look for Kingsley, the man she truly loves.
Mimi and Oliver seem to be great friends now. Jack and Schuyler come across a very shady group of demons who are stealing young girls (helping the church), and taking them into hell to become demon brides. Apparently demons want babies…and girls usually don’t survive demon pregnancies. Schuyler comes across a whole new dilemma involving the gates. We get to see the many layers of hell on Mimi and Oliver’s journey. Oh, and Lucifer has something up his sleeve, and for once things finally all start to fall into place. The vampire covens across the world are going into hiding, afraid of the silver bloods (working for Lucifer). There’s fight scenes with other vampires, there’s under cover missions, very passionate true love scenes, Mimi’s and Jack’s blood trial, and of course a super, crazy twist at the end that will make the final book in the series’ release date (2013) seem way too far away.
I’m sorry if my description seems complicated. These books have so many different elements, character point of view shifts, and smaller plot lines, that it’s a little harder to summarize everything into one piece. But really, this just means the books are good, and maybe not quite as shallow as other vampire/angle themed YA books. Or at least, the stories aren’t as simple.
I ate this one up in one sitting. I loved the ending. I love where I think it all is headed. And I love the characters, and how they interact with each other. I loved to finally get Schuyler’s mother’s story. At first I was a little confused because I was reading Allegra’s story (which took place over a decade ago), and I wasn’t sure on when it was all happening. It eventually became clear that I was learning about what happened before the dreadful coma. And I loved every second of her story. It really allowed for me to understand things better, and to actually like Allegra.
The only thing that ever seemed a little too much for me was some of the romance. I actually love the vampire romance in these books; I really do. It works. It’s just that I’m not sure it makes sense that every character knows who their soul mate is. There is a lot of the sappy “I’ll go in his/her place,” kind of sacrifices. Everyone is willing to die for the one they love. And I kind of want someone not to be in love. Even Oliver is in love, granted his true love doesn’t love him back. I mean can someone just be normal? They are all still rather young. And I was kind of hoping for a little more realistic teen selfishness, like not giving up everything to save your true love. But oh well; I can’t really complain because I did enjoy the steamy romance scenes.
All in all, I am extremely excited for the final book. I really loved this one. I truly believe this to be a series that has held together well over time. It’s a series I have re-read, and plan to keep re-reading in the future. I give this one a 9/10. And I have no idea how I will hold out till 2013.
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