Bloody Valentine (Blue Bloods #5.5) by Melissa de la Cruz.

Title: Bloody Valentine
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Genre: YA, Paranormal, Romance
Publisher: Atom
Publication Date: 28th December 2010
Goodreads Summary: The Blue Bloods have powers beyond human comprehension: strength that defies logic, speed that cannot be captured on film, the ability to shape-shift, and more. But in matters of the heart, no one, not even those immortal vampires, has total control. In Bloody Valentine, part of the best-selling Blue Bloods series, author Melissa de la Cruz offers three tantalizing stories that delve deep into the love lives of the all-powerful vamps (and their Red Blood friends) from New York's Upper East Side. Might a witchy new girl help cure Oliver's broken heart? How did Allegra fall in love with a human? Will Schuyler and Jack finally be bonded?

Romantic and sensual, Bloody Valentine reveals the undying love, the hope and devastation, and the lust and longing that have defined the Blue Bloods throughout history. Prepare to be swept off your feet.



{ Review }

Having read 'The Keys in the Repository' (review here), the previous Blue Bloods novella, and being throughly disappointed by it, I was not keen to read Bloody Valentine. The paperback blurb did not really give any indication as to what this book was about (again). I really don't understand how the blurb of every. single. book. in this series could be so bad. They are absolutely awful and giving you any sort of indication as to what really goes on in this series and this book was no exception - in fact, it was so much worse. The Goodreads summary tells you what's contained in this novella, but the blurb does not, so I was thoroughly confused as to what this book was about when I started it.

This book contains three short stories. One follows Oliver, Schuyler's best friend come conduit come familiar, as he tries to resist the power of the mark that was placed on him when they shared the 'sacred kiss'. In simple terms, Schuyler sucked Oliver's blood and now he's irrevocably in love with her (well, even more so than before). We've never really heard much about Oliver in the previous books. He always seems to be around but he's not usually the focus of the story. I've actually found him to be quite irritating with all his pining for Schuyler, but I really loved this short story about him. You get a real sense of Oliver's pain as he tries to carry on without Schuyler and it's quite touching. This is also the first, I think, story told from the perspective of a human and it was interesting to see the devastating effects that a vampire could accidentally have upon a human. This section surprised me as it made my heart flutter a little and there's a rather sexy scene.

The second short story was my favourite by far. It was about Allegra Van Allen and her time at Endiscott Academy where she meets Steven Chase. I was a little perplexed at first because she was dating a guy named 'Bendix', not Steven, and I assumed they were the same person, but I'm still not 100% sure. Either way, Bendix is a human (an uber hot human), who catches the eye of 'Gabrielle'. Her brother, Charles, is less than pleased about this given that they are bond mates but he assumes it is little more than a fleeting romance and leaves them to it. Charles is an incredibly irritating character throughout the series but especially in this novella. You do feel a small sense of sympathy for him but he comes across as a really pompous and clingy character. I loved the character of Allegra Van Alen. She's so feisty and sure of herself, I kind of wish I could be her. The romance that plays out between her and Bendix is really cute and romantic (even a bit saucy at times). I think one of the reasons I preferred this short story to the others was because it was a story with new and unexplored characters in an unfamiliar place. Instead of being at Duchesne, it's set at Endiscott and although Allegra and Charles are frequently mentioned throughout the series, we never really get to find out who they really are.

The third short story follows Jack and Schuyler as they're about to be bonded. This was probably my least favourite section, though I'm not really sure why because I thought it would be my favourite. I think perhaps I've heard too much about Jack and Schuyler's relationship and I'm slightly bored by it now because nothing new or exciting seems to be happening in it.

All in all, I really enjoyed this novella and I'd highly recommend it to any fans of the Blue Blood series. If you haven't read it yet then you'll probably find this book a bit confusing but the stories really are good. All the stories are romances, but none of them are sappy. These short stories are a refreshing break from the Blue Bloods series still using the basic outline set out in the main series.

Keys to the Repository (Blue Bloods #4.5) by Melissa de la Cruz.

Title: Keys to the Repository

Author: Melissa de la Cruz

Genre: YA, Paranormal, Romance

Publisher: Atom

Publication date: 29th June 2010

Goodreads summary: Lavish parties. Passionate meetings in the night. Bone-chilling murders. Midterms. The day-to-day life of Schuyler Van Allen and her Blue Bloods friends (and enemies) is never boring. But there's oh-so-much more to know about these beautiful and powerful teens. Below the streets of Manhattan, within the walls of the Repository, exists a wealth of revealing information about the vampire elite that dates back before the Mayflower. In a series of short stories, journal entries, and never-before-seen letters, New York Times bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz gives her hungry fans the keys to the Repository and an even more in-depth look into the secret world of the Blue Bloods. Won't you come inside?

{ Review }

I wasn't really sure what to expect of this book. I find that novellas are usually very hit and miss and as I find the first three of Melissa de la Cruz's books to be fairly average I was convinced that this was going to be a miss. Then, I read book four in the Blue Bloods series, The Van Allen Legacy (click here for review) and my hope was restored. Unfortunately, my high spirits were short lived as I found this novella to be a disappointment.

As with the previous four synopses, I felt that the blurb missed telling the reader what the book was actually about. The Goodreads summary is much better than the blurb on the paperback because it actually tells you what is included in this book: a series of short stories, journal entries, and never-before-seen letters. I was quite excited about this because I thought it would be a nice quick read that would clarify the blank spots in my memory about who was who and who was related to whom - the what, why, how etc., which in some ways it was, but the way that it was presented bothered me.

This book starts off with a recap of the previous four books, which I found to be a little boring and useless given that I have just read the previous books. Then there are a series of records on each Blue Blood family stating who a character is, who they used to be, how that character is linked to other characters and other relevant details about their lives. I say relevant, though in my opinion some of them were completely random and irrelevant. It was a little boring, but it was a useful recap. Then, suddenly, we're thrown into a short story about Jack and Schuyler's first meeting in their secret apartment. Talk about random. It was an interesting little snippet into their lives and I enjoyed it, but I was puzzled by its strange placement in this novella. Immediately after this short story, it went back to more character records. After a few more records, we were right back into another short story, this time about Mimi and Kingsley. The book continued in this way with short stories randomly slotted in to break up the character records. There's also a sneak peak at 'Wolf Pact', another book by Melissa de la Cruz, which was really interesting, but again, random. I had no idea that this series was linked to the Blue Bloods (it's about Bliss and her hunt to find the hounds of hell) so i'll be adding that to my TBR pile.

At the end of the book there are three appendices, one about the secondary characters in the series, one about -- and one about ---. I found these appendices to be long and boring, especially the one that went on for pages and pages listing all the secondary characters in the series, who, in my opinion, have no real relevance. I found this part extremely boring and skimmed through the list of names of people I could barely remember.

All in all, i was incredibly disappointed by this novella. the only parts that I really enjoyed were the short stories, but I just don't understand why they were slotted in so randomly. I felt that book was really disorganised and a bit all over the place. The majority of the records contain in uninteresting details about characters or repeat information that the readers already know. This is also my least favourite cover in the series. It was so black and more glam, less vampire.

As you can tell I was very unimpressed by this novella; however, I think this was partly because I read it straight after The Van Allen Legacy (Blue Bloods #4) which was really good and because I've read the previous books really recently. I think this novella will appeal to those who are getting back into this series after a long pause and have forgotten who some of the characters are. The short stories are cute and give a few more details about Dylan, Bliss, Schuyler and Jack, and Mimi and Kingsley, but I'm not sure whether its worth reading through all the Repository's records just for these stories. On the plus side its a really quick read so I didn't waste too much time on it.