Title: The Golden
Lily (Bloodlines #2)
Author: Richelle
Mead
Release Date:
June 12th 2012
The second thrilling installment in Richelle Mead's Vampire
Academy spinoff series
Tough, brainy alchemist Sydney Sage and doe-eyed Moroi princess Jill Dragomir
are in hiding at a human boarding school in the sunny, glamorous world of Palm
Springs, California. The students--children of the wealthy and powerful--carry
on with their lives in blissful ignorance, while Sydney, Jill, Eddie, and
Adrian must do everything in their power to keep their secret safe. But with
forbidden romances, unexpected spirit bonds, and the threat of Strigoi moving
ever closer, hiding the truth is harder than anyone thought.
Populated with new faces as well as familiar ones, Richelle Mead's breathtaking
Bloodlines series explores all the friendship, romance, battles, and betrayals
that made the #1 New York Times
bestselling Vampire Academy series so addictive. In this second book, the drama
is hotter, the romances are steamier, and the stakes are even higher.
I’m not quite sure why I didn’t like Bloodlines the first
time I read it. I’d read VA like 3-4 times before Bloodlines already (and yes,
I’m reading all of them again right now) and I guess I was just unhappy that
Sydney wasn’t more like Rose. I read Bloodlines again before reading the Golden
Lily and this time I absolutely loved it! Sydney isn’t Rose – she isn’t
reckless, doesn’t break rules and she isn’t physically strong. Well, she is,
but her physicality isn’t something she uses to protect herself and others. She
uses her mind instead of her body. She’s a lot like me and maybe that’s the
reason I didn’t fancy her at the beginning since I wanted to read about someone
who’s not afraid to take action and not afraid to break the rules. However, she’s
grown on me. Now that I’ve got that out of the way, I’m going to continue with
TGL review :)
I still don’t enjoy alchemists. In my opinion, they are
quite boring and not as fascinating as vampires. In VA the society of vampires
was a lot more interesting than this one. All I can say is that I’m starting to
get interested, but I’m not on this ship yet. I’ll give them some time to win
me over, though.
I loved every single second of the scenes which consisted of
either Adrian, Dimitri or Eddie. These three are so swoon-worthy. I love that
they’re all completely different yet so much alike. They’d do anything to
protect the ones they care about and do not care how many lines they have to
cross or what obstacles they have to surpass. Trey also grew on me and I think
he should have had more scenes. He’s an interesting figure and I think he has a
lot to offer to the storyline, especially after what happened in TGL. The only
thing that’s missing is Rose and Dimitri in Palm Springs at the same time and
Lissa & Christian visiting, too (Richelle said on her twitter that we’ll
see them throughout the series *squee*). Oh, man, how I miss the dashing C.
Ozera! One of the best perks of re-reading VA is to re-read his one-liners. He
is a kick-ass character!
What did I think about the plot? Well, it had some really
interesting twists, but I got a bit tiresome of Ms. Terwiliger and her pushy
attitude towards Sydney. I think I know where all of this is heading and I’m
already waiting for it to happen so that we could see Sydney be a bit more
active in the fighting scenes. I liked that she decided to study some martial
arts and I like that she’s not only depending on her brain but also trying to
figure out how she can use her body if there should be an attack. The vampire
hunter thing has major potential and I’m happy that we got to explore this even
more.
As to the teams? Well, I’m definitely team Adrian in this
series! In addition, I’m on board with team Eddie. That being said, I’m really,
really pissed how things ended in this book and it better be fixed in the third
book. It broke my heart to see things fall apart like they did. It was
extremely sad. However, knowing Richelle’s work, she’ll make these characters
go through hell before she lets them have their happily ever afters and it’s
definitely something worth waiting for.
Rating: 4.5/5
Excerpts:
“You need me? You yell. You want to leave? We go. I'll get you out of here, no matter what.”
Adrian ordered a martini, earning disapproving looks from his father and me.
"It's barely noon," said Nathan.
"I know," said Adrian. "I'm surprised I held out that long too.”
“Ah, those two. In a fight, they’re lethal. Around each other, they melt.”
“You made your own jean shorts...with a butter knife?”
Reading order:
- “Bloodlines“
- “The Golden Lily“
- “The Indigo Spell“
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
