The Golden Lily: A Bloodlines
Novel – Richelle Mead
Pages:
418
Publisher:
Razorbill
(Penguin)
Release
Date: 8th
June 2012
Other
Titles by this Author: Vampire
Academy, Frostbite,
Shadow
Kiss, Blood
Promise, Spirit
Bound, Last
Sacrifice, Bloodlines
Will love lose her everything she
knows?
Sydney is an alchemist. She
protects vampire secrets – and human lives.
In hiding at a California boarding
school, Sydney’s life has become irrevocably intertwined with Jill Dragomir,
the vampire Moroi princess she has been tasked with protecting. She has grown
close to those in Jill’s royal circle – and to someone in particular. Someone
that forces her to question everything the alchemists believe in. Someone
forbidden.
When a shocking secret threatens
to tear the vampire world – her new world – apart, Sydney’s loyalties are
tested more than ever. Should she trust the alchemists – or her heart?
Richelle Mead’s novels are some
of the tense, action-packed and emotionally involving that I’ve ever read and I
never fail to become fully invested in them. The Golden Lily was no exception.
One of the first things that
made me smile about The Golden Lily will
be something that lovers of the Vampire
Academy series will understand completely: lots of Dimitri. He will always
be my favourite guy from Richelle Mead’s vampire world and I was very happy to
see him, though I did miss the lack of Rose. They seem to swap so far; one in,
one out. But without the overpowering fire of Rose, Sydney was able to really
come into her own for me. I liked her in Bloodlines,
but I loved her in The Golden Lily.
I loved Syndey’s growing
irritation with always being seen as responsible and dutiful; it was really
quite amusing. This came with the overall softening of her character, towards
vampires, the vampire world and on her view of what’s right and wrong, natural
and unnatural and it was so nice to see her as more human. There was another
aspect about Sydney’s focus and complete control that seemed a lot more
prominent in The Golden Lily that
really intrigued me and that was her obsession with calories and sugar and
wanting to have the waif-like figure of the Moroi that she’s never physically
be able to achieve. It was almost painful to witness, but I can completely
understand where she’s coming from: she is an eighteen-year-old girl who’s
surrounded by beautiful people all day.
With Sydney’s softening
attitude towards Moroi and dhamphirs came a delicious forbidden spark that
Richelle Mead excels at: the electric chemistry between Sydney and Adrian. I
wasn’t Adrian’s biggest fan in the Vampire
Academy series, but I absolutely adore him in this one. As we got more
personal and emotional glimpses of him, I completely understood why Sydney was
falling for him. And boy was she! I love the fact that she ignored it so
completely that she barely understood it herself until they were attached at
the lips. And, wow, that was a kiss. What was even funnier was how Adrian’s
feelings affected Jill through the bond – it was brilliant. They are a couple
where the odds would be so completely against them and yet I championed them
all the way. I just wish that Sydney hadn’t done what she did...
Even though The Golden Lily took a little longer to
get going than I’m used to from Richelle Mead, I still loved it and I’m already
desperately anxious for book three and the repercussions of the intense final
chapter of the book.
Thank you to Razorbill for
providing me with a review copy.
Sophie
I really must read this series. I feel like I am missing out.
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