The Golden Lily (Bloodlines #2) By Richelle Mead

The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets—and human lives.

Sydney would love to go to college, but instead, she’s been sent into hiding at a posh boarding school in Palm Springs, California–tasked with protecting Moroi princess Jill Dragomir from assassins who want to throw the Moroi court into civil war. Formerly in disgrace, Sydney is now praised for her loyalty and obedience, and held up as the model of an exemplary Alchemist.

But the closer she grows to Jill, Eddie, and especially Adrian, the more she finds herself questioning her age–old Alchemist beliefs, her idea of family, and the sense of what it means to truly belong. Her world becomes even more complicated when magical experiments show Sydney may hold the key to prevent becoming Strigoi—the fiercest vampires, the ones who don’t die. But it’s her fear of being just that—special, magical, powerful—that scares her more than anything. Equally daunting is her new romance with Brayden, a cute, brainy guy who seems to be her match in every way. Yet, as perfect as he seems, Sydney finds herself being drawn to someone else—someone forbidden to her.

When a shocking secret threatens to tear the vampire world apart, Sydney’s loyalties are suddenly tested more than ever before. She wonders how she's supposed to strike a balance between the principles and dogmas she's been taught, and what her instincts are now telling her.

Should she trust the Alchemists—or her heart?"

I was a little disappointed with the first book of this series BLOODLINES.. In comparison this book is brilliant. It was nowhere near as predictable as Bloodlines was. I loved getting to know more about Sydney, Although I did find myself wanting to slap her countless times. I found myself shouting "Damn it Sydney" Or "Come on, You are not dumb" every few pages. Honestly she is so smart she can debate about the efficiency of wind turbines in a heart beat but she needs a guy to lay his heart in her hands for her to see that he likes her... When I have been yelling at her from page one "He likes you Sydney" LOL.... She did drive me a little crazy and I am glad my husband was away with work while I was reading this or he might be divorcing "the crazy lady".. :-/

Sydney's teacher is weird and still making her write out those spells, they do seem to be coming in handy and it looks like she is going to need all she can get in 'The Indigo spell'.
It was great getting to see some old faces like Sonya Karp and Dimitri, who wouldn't be happy to see him?
I love Adrian he is so smart behind all that arrogance.
Things between Eddie and Jill change but you wouldn't guess what spanner gets thrown in the works there.
Angeline is almost a mini Rose. Trouble seems to be her middle name, but when it comes to her guardian duties she is all for it.

All in all I loved it and can not wait to read the third instalment 'The Indigo Spell'

View all my reviews

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm a HUGE Richelle Mead fan, I have read all of her series and love them all for their own reason's. I was gutted when I heard that Last Sacrifice was the last in her Vampire Academy Series. So when I heard that Richelle was starting a new series that was a spin-off to Vampire Academy, I was extremely happy.

The main character/narrator of this book is Sydney, who we first met in Blood Promise. Obviously Richelle kept us in the dark about which other characters were going to be featured, dropping hints here and there. I, along with all other VA fans; was hoping that one of those characters would be Adrian. We left him heartbroken by Rose in Last Sacrifice and I felt a need to see more of him and hopefully see him recover and move on.

We start to see a possible love connection between Sydney and Adrian that did get on my nerves a little and I found myself shouting at the pages. "Just Kiss, damn you!"

Eddie was another character from VA that was in Bloodlines, but I felt he needed a bigger part in this story. At the end it showed potential that the next book might give us that.

We were given a new character called Micah. I'm just not too sure about what I think of him. There is a connection (if you want to call it that) between him and Mason, (whom died in on of the VA books) that Eddie picks up on. It affects Eddie quite a lot. I'm not sure if that connection is what puts me off Micah or if it's just the name. As I read another series by Laurell K. Hamilton which has a Micah who debuts in Micah, He is THE Micah. Maybe I should call Richelle's Micah, Michael as I read and see if that helps.

The only problem I had with Bloodlines is that I found it was just too predictable! I was hitting my head with the book every time it hinted at Jill's attack/rescue. The other main Tattoo thing was really predictable too. But saying all that I loved being in Sydney's head and loved getting to see Adrian too.

So definitely want to read the next one, especially since a certain person walked in the door at the end. It sounds like he might be staying for a while too. ;)

View all my reviews