Azeline Arcenal

 Schuyler Van Alen and her conduit Oliver Hazard-Perry are on the run from the New York Coven, after being blamed for the death of Schuyler’s grandfather, Lawrence Van Alen.  They end up hiding in Paris, to seek protection from the European Coven while trying to discover more about the Van Alen Legacy.  Meanwhile, Mimi is back in Rio, trying to find Bliss’ younger sister Jordan while Bliss deals with becoming a Silver Blood and fighting the powerful evil inside herself.  A conduit is someone whose job is to protect the blue bloods.  Vampires are fallen angels also known as Blue Bloods.  Silver bloods are vampires who feed off of other vampires  Blue Bloods are born again and again, cursed to walk the Earth in a series of different lives, or "Cycles", which include three stages; Expression, Evolution and Expulsion.  The Venators are a group of people sent out to do a special mission.

 Schuyler Van Alen  She is a half blood and the first of her kind with no Heavenly past. She is believed to be the first true- born spirit in the history of Blue Bloods. She is 15 years old at the beginning of the series. Her mother,( Allegra Van Alen) is a vampire but her father, Stephen Chase, is a human. She is "startlingly pretty" and "painfully shy," but is determined to find the truth.

 Lucifer  He is the leader of the Fallen and king of the Silver Bloods. He was the most beautiful and powerful of the angels until he challenged the Almighty. He is Bliss's birth father, and takes over Bliss’s body from time to time to carry out his evil plans.

 Schuyler is desperately trying to seek the protection of the European coven, with the help of her human conduit, Oliver, but unexpected event occurs.  Her ex-boyfriend shows up and wants her to be his again.  Not only is she torn between Oliver and Jack, she has to run from the Venators and figure out what the Van Alen Legacy is.  In the previous book she chose Oliver over Jack, but after seeing Jack after a year, she doesn't know who to be with anymore.  Not only is she confused on her love life, she is also struggling between going back to New York where her death awaits her or stay away from New York and slowly die from her “disease”.  Not only will going back to New York heal her “disease’, but also give her the chance to save the world, and be with Jack again.

 Benjamin "Jack" Hamilton Force  He is the cycle son of Charles Force and Trinity Burden Force. His bondmate is Madeleine "Mimi" Force, his twin sister. But Jack falls in love with Schuyler despite the consequences he will face if he breaks his bond to Mimi.

 Madeleine "Mimi" Alexis Force  She is the cycle daughter of Charles Force and Trinity Burden Force, her bondmate is Jack Force, her twin brother. Mimi is in love with Jack, but Jack loves someone else. But when she was on a Venator mission, she was said to have conducted an intimate affair with Kingsley Martin.

 Bliss Llewellyn  (Cycle Daughter of Forsyth Llewellyn and BobbiAnn Llewellyn). She has no heavenly bond until she falls in love with Dylan Ward, who was later killed by a Silver Blood. She is Gabrielle's first trueborn daughter from a union with Lucifer.

 The author of the book review started to give up on these teen novels because they started to run together and everything was about a forbidden romance between a vampire (or other supernatural creature, usually male) and a human. When a friend suggested to read this novel, she was surprised to find out that the book is different from the flood of vampire romance novels out there since the romance is not the central element of the novel. The critic also stated that The Van Alen Legacy is the fourth book of a series, so reading this book for the first time will confuse you because it’s fast-paced and doesn’t give a lot of background information.

 The Van Alen Legacy is part of a series called Blue Bloods. It has a Gossip-girlish touch to it with a twist of supernatural intrigue. This book is more suited for girls because the main character is a girl. The book is for teen readers, but because of the fact that the Blue Bloods have been around for centuries, it appeals to older adults too. It has a mix of drama, romance and fantasy action with sacrifice and loss, and is guaranteed to leave fans begging for more.

 This is one of the best books ever written, but it is the fourth book of the series, so I suggest reading the first book which is Blue Bloods.  If you decide to ignore me and read this book anyway, you are immediately thrown into the plot with very little backtracking so you will be lost.  Anyways, the story is told in multiple character perspectives, so you are always on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next.  The book has a lot of unexpected events, and the characters make it seems like you are part of the book.  As you continue to read, you realize that the book is not only about vampires and romance, but about the battle between good and evil, so there is more to it than meets the eye.