(Cover picture courtesy of Confessions of a Book Addict.)

“When the Mayflower set sail in 1620, it carried on board the men and women who would shape America: Miles Standish; John Alden; Constance Hopkins. But some among the Pilgrims were not pure of heart; they were not escaping religious persecution. Indeed, they were not even human. They were vampires. The vampires assimilated quickly into the New World. Rising to levels of enormous power, wealth, and influence, they were the celebrated blue bloods of American society.  The Blue Bloods vowed that their immortal status would remain a closely guarded secret. And they kept that secret for centuries. But now, in New York City, the secret is seeping out. Schuyler Van Alen is a sophomore at a prestigious private school. She prefers baggy, vintage clothes instead of the Prada and pearls worn by her classmates, and she lives with her reclusive grandmother in a dilapated mansion. Schuyler is a loner…and happy that way. Suddenly, when she turns fifteen, there is a visible mosaic of blue veins on her arm. She starts to crave raw food and she is having flashbacks to ancient times. Then a popular girl from her school is found dead… drained of all her blood. Schuyler doesn’t know what to think, but she wants to find out the secrets the Blue Bloods are keeping. But is she herself in danger?  Could those vampire legends really be true?“

Where do I start with a book like this?

Since I usually gush about characters, let’s start with them, shall we?  I hated the characters in this book.  I didn’t just passively not care about them, I actively wished for their doom.  Schuyler is such a stereotypical Mary Sue that I almost stopped reading.  She’s the drop-dead gorgeous outcast who looks good in clothing that could be generously described as garbage.  She does everything perfectly, is never wrong and Melissa de la Cruz always harps on how good she looks in her awful clothes.  Bliss, the girl from Texas, is no less of a Mary Sue.  She’s the typical bouncy, happy-go-lucky southern girl who is transformed into a posh New York upperclass girl by the resident It-Girl, Mimi.  Don’t get me started on how awful Mimi is.  She’s just the typical mean girl with no depth and not even a single trait added to make her even mildly different from the stereotypical It Girl.

The plot is non-existent.  I felt like all of the characters were just wandering around aimlessly in their designer clothing (which is described in excruciating detail) waiting for something to happen in their vapid, meaningless lives.  When we finally get introduced to the vampire aspect the premise could have been good, but it got lost in the tedium of the first part of the book.  By the time Melissa de la Cruz actually got around to explaining anything I was already past caring.  Oh, and of course the main character is special.  She’s not only a vampire, but a special one at that.

It’s only due to my stubbornness that I finished this book at all.  The writing seemed to be that of a wish-fulfilling teenage girl, the characters were just stock characters with no depth and the plot didn’t exist until the book was almost over.  It sort of got interesting at the end of the novel, but not nearly enough to even make me consider picking up the next book.  If you’re looking to read this series my advice for you is don’t.  It’s a waste of paper and a waste of your time.

I give this book 0.5/5 stars.

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