Getting Started With Melissa de La Cruz's Blue Bloods Series
If you're coming from the CBS police drama, you're in the wrong place. Melissa de La Cruz has nothing to do with that show. Her Blue Bloods is a YA vampire series that ran for seven novels between 2010 and 2014, centered on the Van Alen family, an old-money Manhattan vampire clan. The tone is lighter than most vampire fiction — more romance and social intrigue than horror. I ran into this series by accident after a friend recommended it, and I ended up binging through all the books in about three weeks. It's the kind of thing that just pulls you along. That said, there are a few things I wish I'd known before diving in.
Blue Bloods Series Melissa De La Cruz: What You're Actually Getting
The protagonist is Esmé Van Alen, a seventeen-year-old vampire navigating high school, family politics, and a complicated love triangle. The series has a clear beginning, middle, and end — it's not one of those franchises that gets stretched thin across too many books. By book six and seven, the major plot threads are actually wrapped up, which is more than I can say about a lot of long-running series in this genre. The world-building is consistent but not especially deep. You get the basics of vampire society, the rules of transformation, the family hierarchy, and that's pretty much it. If you're looking for extensive lore or a fully realized supernatural ecosystem, this isn't it. It's character-driven with a light supernatural backdrop.
Where to Find the Books
All seven main books are published by Simon & Schuster. They're available as physical copies, e-books, and audiobooks. If you want the absolute cheapest route, the paperbacks sometimes go for around five to eight dollars each at thrift stores or on Amazon Marketplace from third-party sellers. The e-book versions usually run between three and six dollars depending on the retailer. The series is also available on Kindle Unlimited and Scribd if you have a subscription. I personally prefer the physical editions because the e-book formatting can be inconsistent between publishers and re-releases. I've seen at least two different editions of the same book with slightly different cover art and marginal formatting differences in the body text.
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Reading Order Matters More Than You'd Think
The seven main novels are: Blue Bloods (2010), Darkly Dreams the Loved One (2011), Till Death Do Us Part (2011), Dance Until Midnight (2012), Never Trust a Pretty Face (2013), Until Forever (2013), and Death Everlasting (2014). There are also two short story collections: The Last Kiss and Forever. These fill in gaps between the main books but aren't essential to the core plot. I read them after finishing the main series, and they were nice but not necessary. Some readers prefer to read them in publication order alongside the main books, but that approach can blunt the emotional impact of certain reveals in the later novels.
Common Mistakes Beginners Make
The biggest one I see people make is jumping into the series without realizing it's a complete arc. There's no book eight. No ongoing installments. When I told people I was reading Blue Bloods, several assumed it was still active and asked me to track updates. It's not. The story concludes definitively in Death Everlasting, and that conclusion is fairly satisfying for what the series sets out to do. Another issue: a lot of the early chapters move slow. Book one spends a significant amount of time establishing Esmé's normal life before the supernatural elements kick in properly. If you're the type who bails on a book within the first fifty pages, you might want to give it at least one hundred and fifty before deciding. The pacing accelerates noticeably after that point.
The Audiobook Option
If you prefer audiobooks, the full series is narrated by Jennifer Ikeda. Her performance is solid but not flashy. She does distinct voices for the major characters, which helps, but it's not the kind of production that makes you forget you're listening to an audiobook. Still, it's a reasonable way to go through the series if reading isn't your thing, and it cuts the total time down considerably. The complete series runs roughly eight to nine hours across all seven books. The strength of this series is the character work. Esmé feels like a real teenager dealing with impossible circumstances, and the supporting cast — particularly her sister Genevieve and the love interests — are drawn with enough depth to matter. The romantic tension carries most of the later books effectively. The weakness is the plotting in the middle section. Books three through five meander a bit. There are chapters that could have been cut without hurting the story, and some subplots get introduced and then abandoned. It's not deal-breaking, but if you're tracking every detail, you'll notice the loose ends. The final two books tighten things up significantly and tie most of them together.
Final Note on Availability
As of my last check, all seven books remain in print in paperback and e-book format. They haven't gone out of print, which is something I can't say for a lot of mid-2010s YA titles. If you're buying used, check the publication date on the copyright page — earlier printings sometimes have minor typos that were corrected in later runs. Nothing major, but it can be annoying if you're particular about that kind of thing. I'd recommend starting with the first book and going straight through. Don't dip in and out. This series benefits from continuous reading because the character arcs build cumulatively across all seven volumes. Pause too long between books and you'll forget the subtle details that pay off later.
