The Van Alen Legacy

The third book that I read for the RIP IV Challenge is the newest installment of the vampire series, The Blue Bloods Saga, The Van Alen Legacy, by Melissa De La Cruz. Since this book is the fourth book in the series, its hard to write a review without spoiling the previous books.

The Blue Bloods are a group of vampires who live and rule modern day New York City and their group of rulers, the Conclave is like every other type governement who keeps things hidden and unacknowledged simply out of their own fear. The Silver Bloods, the evil vampires who hunt other vampires have come back and are attacking again, but the Conclave acts like its something else. These vampires live out their mortality by living in human bodies for cycles of life.

Again, this story revolves mostly around Schyuler but we also see part of the story from Bliss and Mimi’s perspective. Schyuler and Oliver are on the run from the Conclave. Bliss finds out more about who she is and struggles to remain true to herself. Mimi finds herself working for the Venetors and wanting to complete a higher destiny as she had back in Rome. The fight for truth continues on whether its for the community, relationship or to one’s self. Can love and goodness survive where evil, heartbreak and fear seem to rule all? The story ends with some questions answered, but more asked and new journeys to embark upon to bring peace back to their world. Their only hope is that they can somehow find the courage to follow their hearts.

I really enjoyed this book and am excited for the next book, which the inside flap says the author is working on. There is also a secret ending chapter, which you can read online, but as the author an publisher teamed up with Target, you can only get the code from books purchased there. Seeing as I bought mine from Borders and then found out about the chapter later, I went to Target to see how the code was distributed, and luckily for us, it was printed on a sticker on the cover. To read the secret ENDING chapter, go to www.bluebloodsbooks.com/target and enter the password as LEGACY. I have yet to read it as I am currently living without internet as Eli’s grandparent, who we are now living with, have yet to get it installed. I’m praying its soon! I am so behind in my reviews and have so many things I want to look at! Lol.

Well, I hope you liked this review and I hope that it will make you want to start the series from book one, which is called Blue Bloods. The second is Masquerade, and the third is Revelations. Also, I know that there was a secret chapter for Revelations, if anyone knows where you can read that one, please let me know!

Thanks for reading everyone! Again, please feel free to comment if you’ve read the book, but please stay away from spoilers and let us know what you are reading for the challenge, if anything!

Happy Reading!

~Sarah

Impossible

The second book that I chose to read for the RIP IV challenge was Impossible, by Nancy Werlin. This book is a supernatural, fantiful one about a girl named Lucy, who finds out that the women in her family have been cursed by an evil Elfin Knight so that after they give birth at the age of 18 to a baby girl and fail to complete their tasks, they go crazy. The story is based around the song, “Scarborough Fair,” by Simon and Garfunkle. And in the song, there are 3 impossible tasks that she must perform or else the curse will fall to her unborn daughter. The first one is that she has to make a shirt without any seams, the second is she has to find an acre of lane in-between the seastrand and the ocean and the third is to plow the land with a goats horn and sow it with 1 kernel of corn.

The thing that differentiates Lucy from her mother and grandmothers is that she has a loving foster family as well as the love and devotion of a boy. As Lucy and her team prepare for the tasks, she learns more about herself, her family, responsibility, love and that sometimes we do things that others might not understand because we know it’s the right thing to do. As Lucy’s due date approaches, she fears for her sanity and for her daughter and the visits from the Elfin Knight do nothing to help put her at ease and she feels more alone than ever, knowing if she confides in anyone, they will think her mad.

It was a very interesting book and story line and the addition of the folk song brings a new way at looking at song lyrics. Its also interesting, because it seems like a lot of authors these days are listing music playlists on their websites or at the back of their books as music that influenced them in writing or songs that fit certain scenes. So it was interesting to actually read a book inspired by a single song.

Please feel free to comment if you’ve read this book or to let us know what you are reading for the challenge, if you decided to join!

Happy Reading everyone!

~Sarah

Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception

Last night, I finished the first book that I decided to read for the RIP IV reading challenge, Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception by Maggie Stiefvater.  And as part of the challenge is to  post reviews on what you read, here is my first one!

The book is about a talented sixteen-year-old harpist named Deirdre and how she learns that she is a cloverhand, someone who can see faeries.  It reminded me a little bit of Wicked Lovely, but its nice to read more about the fey!  Dee meets a mysteriously handsome and charming young man named Luke Dillion who turns out to be the Faerie Queen’s gallowglass, a soulless assassin, who has been ordered to kill her.   Even though everything in her being tells her she should run away from him and that he’s trouble, she is utterly drawn to him.  She also finds out that her and her best friend, James, also a talented musician have extraordinary powers that apparently have been linked with musical genius, Dee’s being telekinetic and James being able to see the future.  Amongst all that is changing around her, she finds herself thrown into Faerie, with James and Luke right there with her.  And you know that at some point she will fall in love, but lets just hope its with the right guy.  The story ends with an obvious link to a sequel, which is supposedly supposed to come out later this Fall, and I hope it will be good.  There were a few loose ends that weren’t tied up at the end and too many unanswered questions.  Needless to say, I’m excited for the next installment!

Today I started my next book for the challenge called, Impossible, by Nancy Werlin.  Stay tuned for my review on that one!

Happy reading everyone!

Please comment on what you are reading!

~Sarah