Author:  Melissa de la Cruz
ISBN:  978-142310226-7

Click Here To Purchase The Van Alen Legacy (Blue Bloods, Book 4) 

I want to begin this review with a warning.  I have never read the first three books in this series, so I was immediately "bewildered and befuddled" when I began this fourth book.  The upside is that the author does a wonderful job of "shortening" the introductions for each character to give you the background that you missed in the previous books.  Therefore, right away I understood that I was dealing with an overlap of vampires and angels.  The Van Alen family tree is composed of a plethora of characters that most readers will know.  (The Angel of Song; Michael, the Pure of Heart - which is the Archangel Michael; Azrael, the Angel of Death, etc.)  So, suffice to say, with my background, I went into this book extremely eager to get to "the bottom" of the story.
 
We begin right after the Inquisitor has put Lawrence Van Alen's granddaughter through pain and agony at her "trial." Her name is Schuyler and she regales the committe (called, The Conclave) with how her grandfather died, and how she had used a sword that was her mother's - that's been missing for centuries - to save the day.  She talks about how Leviathan (Lucifer, to us) has been released into the world through that awful battle, walking through a door that her grandad had opened by harming an innocent.  The Conclave - and the Inquisitor - did not believe her story and have branded her a killer.  Schuyler, with her beloved Oliver by her side, takes off in the middle of the night trying to find a place to hide where they will not be found and brought to justice.  So, they travel from place to place waiting for the European sect to hold their annual meeting to see if they can find a place to hide within their Conclave.
 
We are then taken to Bliss.  Bliss is a young woman who used to be Schuyler's friend, who now has the Visitor lurking inside of her body.  She can't really control her words, her sight, her movements - nothing.  Leviathan has taken her over and is using her to get what he needs and get where he most wants to go.  Using her form, the snake in the garden is doing all he can to bring down the rest of the world.  Bliss tries with all her might to remember who she is and that her sister, Jordan, is missing, and she needs to find her before its too late.  Of course, how can she find her sister when the devil lurks within ready to take her out?
 
Mimi Force is another character.  She is a venator (a kind of psychic policeman) who can go into witnesses' minds and "see" what they've seen.  She can interrogate them to get to the truth; hence why she and her crew are often referred to as the truth-tellers.  They can interpret dreams and access memories within a person, and right now Mimi is trying desperately to track own the sister of Bliss.  The young Jordan Llewellyn was kidnapped when the Conclave was killed by the Silver Bloods.  And, more importanly, Jordan is called the Watcher...and she is nothing like a young girl.  Kingsley is Mimi Force's partner.  He is an angel who carries dark and light inside of him - ready for the next battle to begin.  And we also have Michael, supreme leader of the angels, tracking Leviathan.  ...Confused yet?
 
A battle to the end, this book is.  I'm sure the readers of the first three will be astounded and excited that the new book in the series has hit their libraries' shelves.  Unfortunately, for me, the story between Red, Blue and Silver bloods was a learning experience in confusion.  On one page, I'm in the Bible; the next in Dracula; and the third in Harry Potter and Twilight.  To be fair, I am running to the library to get the first three so I can better relate to the characters and find out their stories from the beginning.  Any fan of this series should run out and get this fourth installment to see how their favorites reach their goals, no matter how confusing it was for this reviewer.