The Golden Lily (Bloodlines #2) by Richelle Mead
(May contain spoilers)
Format: Paperback (arc)
Publisher: Puffin Books
Published: 12th June 2012
Pages: 418
Main Characters: Sydney, Adrian, Jill, Eddie
Date Started: 8th June 2012
Date Finished: 12th June 2012
Rating Given: ****
Blurb from Goodreads:
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 really loved Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series and liked Bloodlines so when I saw The Golden Lily was coming out I thought I would ask if I could receive an arc copy of it. I wasn't actually expecting it as I don't usually get the big titles so I was very happy when I received it in the post thank you Puffin Books I'm so grateful for the opportunity to review it as I loved it more than Bloodlines.
I'm not actually sure about the Bloodline series covers but the one part of the cover that I love is the title and the way that it looks elegant and the pattern around it just looks beautiful it really does make the book stand out but the rest doesn't match.
I am a huge fan of Richelle Mead as she is one of the only author's that start a series off and I'm not a huge lover of it but when more of her books comes out in that series I just end up loving them and this is no different. I love Mead's style of writing as she puts in loads of twists and turns as well as giving us brilliant characters that you can't help but root for.
With this series there isn't that much action until right near the end which I would prefer a bit more action throughout. Although there's no action for most part of the book I just could feel it coming which was what kept me hooked I just had to know what was going to happen next. At the beginning I couldn't remember what had happened in Bloodlines so I did get a little lost but there was little hints of what went on throughout the book. I loved the humour in this book as I would find myself either laughing out loud or smiling but then there was also some heartache as well. I really did feel like I was apart of this world and I loved it and I am looking forward to see what happens in the next book especially with that ending I think my heart may have just broke a bit.
I loved the characters this time round as in the first book I wasn't a fan of Sydney as she was a bit too dull for me but in this book I found I liked her throughout the book yes she still wasn't an exciting character but she had some funny things to say and she grew more of a backbone. Adrian is just one of the best characters in any book he is so funny I just love him. I did feel so sorry for him in parts of this book I just hope we get a happy ending for him as he needs one. I loved that we saw more of Dimitri.
Overall another great book from Richelle Mead and I for one can't wait to see what happens next!
