Watermark's Cool Summer Reads #8:
Another great series for "Twilight" fans
Watch News & Notes each week this summer for a featured book pick for young
readers ages 7 to 17. We'll help you find the smartest, funniest, most
exciting summer-blockbusters-on-the-page, books guaranteed to keep a
youngster reading.
“Blue Bloods” and “Masquerade” by Melissa de la Cruz (Hyperion,
9781423101260 and 9781423101277, $8.99 each, for ages 14 and older)
This series is a beach read with fangs. In New York City, the teenage
children of the rich and the powerful are beautiful, glamorous, and maybe
just a bit *too* perfect. Schuyler Van Alen was born into this world, but
she doesn’t fit there, and now that she’s turned fifteen, everything is
going strange around her. She’s been invited to join the most
prestigious--and secret--charity group in the city, the New York Blood Bank
Committee, and once inside, she learns the twisted truth: it’s made up of
vampires, and she *is* one of them.
The Blue Bloods, as they call themselves, have odd and incredible abilities,
and they’ve moved behind the scenes for centuries. As the first book
unfolds, Schuyler has to navigate their chic and glitzy world, trying to
decide whether she can still have a red-blooded human best friend, and
attempting to learn the truth about her mysterious family tree (which seems
to have had most of its branches lopped off). Most important of all, she has
to choose who to trust and who to fear when other young Blue Bloods begin to
turn up drained and, surprisingly, dead.
In book two, “Masquerade,” Schuyler sets off to Italy intent on tracking
down a long-lost relative who might be the only person able to shed light on
the Blue Blood’s shadowy mortal enemies. She looks for answers in the
streets and canals of Venice while back in Manhattan, the Blue Bloods are
preparing for their crowning annual event, the ultra-exclusive Four Hundred
Ball. It will be a night that no one, assuming they survive it, will ever
forget.
This is a fun, fashion-conscious series that mixes Gossip Girl and The
Clique with the supernatural suspense of
Twilight
and City of
Bones. It's Gothic chick lit, perfect reading for sunny summer days
and stormy summer nights. This series contains depictions of underage
drinking (blood and alcohol, in fact) and is recommended for teenaged and
older readers.
Review by
Mark David Bradshaw, June 26, 2008
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