For people who fall in love with a series, and become invested in the characters, a companion novel is like giving a kid the key to a candy store. These novels offer the reader a special peek inside the author’s world. Melissa de la Cruz has written two different companion novels to her much loved Blue Bloods series, the first being The Keys to the Repository (set between The Van Alen Legacy and Misguided Angel), which was published by Hyperion.
In the introduction, Cruz explains that she’s taking a page from Stephen King’s book and writing a letter to her readers. She has gotten questions from her fans about the complex world in which Schuyler Van Alen lives. These ancient, powerful, and hauntingly beautiful teenagers are battling demons and death, as well as peer pressure and high school exams. As fallen angels, they work towards redemption, but nothing is ever that simple.
Cruz uses this book to show some of the back story doesn’t always make it into the final novel. For example, readers get to see what happens to Dylan after he’s attacked, the events that lead to the first night Schuyler spends with Jack in their apartment on Perry street, Bliss’s first encounter with the Hounds of Hell, and Kingsley’s point of view in the conversation he had in a bar with Mimi in The Van Alen Legacy.
Cruz also breaks down each of the main and peripheral characters, listing their aliases, character descriptions, and their angelic counterparts. And just in case you’ve forgotten, she summarizes everything that has happened just before Misguided Angel. At the end of the book, she gives a sneak peek at the first two chapters of that novel.
If you’ve ever been interested in what goes on behind the scenes of the Blue Bloods world, this is great book to read. And because this world is so complex, it also serves as a quick guide, in case you’re ever confused about a character or a previous storyline.
You can find Keys to the Repository at any of Tulsa’s local book stores: Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, and Gardners.
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