Published August 23rd 2011
by Razorbill
Genre: paranormal YA
Rating: B
Rating: B
Goodreads summary:
Blood doesn't lie...
Sydney is an alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of human and vampires. They protect vampire secrets - and human lives. When Sydney is torn from her bed in the middle of the night, at first she thinks she's still being punished for her complicated alliance with dhampir Rose Hathaway. But what unfolds is far worse. Jill Dragomir - the sister of Moroi Queen Lissa Dragomir - is in mortal danger, and the Moroi must send her into hiding. To avoid a civil war, Sydney is called upon to act as Jill's guardian and protector, posing as her roommate in the last place anyone would think to look for vampire royalty - a human boarding school in Palm Springs, California. But instead of finding safety at Amberwood Prep, Sydney discovers the drama is only just beginning...
I love vampires. When everyone is like "blah blah so sick of vampires, so done with vampires blah blah" I'm like, "shut up and give me more vampires!". Truth. Richelle Mead also happens to write about awesome vampires so I was destined to love this book. So while Bloodlines received a variety of different reviews, some loved it, some hated it, some found it mediocre but considering Richelle Mead wrote this and Adrian Ivashkov exists in this book, OF COURSE I loved it.
A big part of the reason why I love the Vampire Academy series is Rose. She's impulsive. Confident. Badass. Not your typical YA heroine and going into Bloodlines, I knew the narration is going to be different because Sydney is so different from Rose but I never cared, especially since I ended up loving loving loving Sydney. I'm so happy she's the main character and she gets her own series! Sure, she's not as outspoken as Rose but that doesn't make her any less badass. A lot of reviews judge her harshly because she's not Rose but umm, SHE'S NOT ROSE. She's her own character and this HER series. Just because she's not physically strong as Rose doesn't mean she's weak (and don't get me started on how if she was like Rose people would complain about how she was just a copy of Rose and there is nothing new about this series blah blah wah wah you can't please anyone, can you?)
Sydney, an Alchemist, knows vampires are not natural and she's not comfortable around them. She judged them and she also has an air of naivety to her despite the fact that her line of work means she goes to a lot of different places and sees a lot of different things. But Sydney is sent on an assignment at the beginning of the book and now she has to work closely with vampires and act as a "babysitter". Because of this, Sydney's opinion of vampires gradually changes and I love reading about that. Sydney's whole character throughout the book grew and I can't wait to see her grow some more in the next book!
Adrian. Oh sweet Adrian Ivashkov who's pretty much is a waste of existence but he's so fascinating and sexy and a fun character to love. Adrian appears as a party boy who doesn't care about anything and doesn't take anything too seriously, but of course there is more depth to him than that and we see that as the book goes on.
As for secondary characters, there is Jill, the heir princess Sydney is babysitting, Eddie, Jill's bodyguard and Trey, a human boy who I really liked. I would love to see more of him in book 2 and more devolpement on Jill's and Eddie's part. However my favorite side character has to be Abe Mazur, aka Zemy, aka Rose's father. He definitely doesn't roll on the right side of the law but he's pretty freakin' amazing! I need more Abe scenes!
Plot wise, I really enjoyed seeing everything unfold with Sydney as she figured out what was happening in Palm Springs and Bloodlines definitely had me turning the pages super fast so I can see everything go down. Overall, Bloodlines was pretty solid start to Vampire Academy spin-off series and I think it's only going to get better and better from here so I'm definitely happy with this book and if you're a Vampire Academy fan, give it a try!
A big part of the reason why I love the Vampire Academy series is Rose. She's impulsive. Confident. Badass. Not your typical YA heroine and going into Bloodlines, I knew the narration is going to be different because Sydney is so different from Rose but I never cared, especially since I ended up loving loving loving Sydney. I'm so happy she's the main character and she gets her own series! Sure, she's not as outspoken as Rose but that doesn't make her any less badass. A lot of reviews judge her harshly because she's not Rose but umm, SHE'S NOT ROSE. She's her own character and this HER series. Just because she's not physically strong as Rose doesn't mean she's weak (and don't get me started on how if she was like Rose people would complain about how she was just a copy of Rose and there is nothing new about this series blah blah wah wah you can't please anyone, can you?)
Sydney, an Alchemist, knows vampires are not natural and she's not comfortable around them. She judged them and she also has an air of naivety to her despite the fact that her line of work means she goes to a lot of different places and sees a lot of different things. But Sydney is sent on an assignment at the beginning of the book and now she has to work closely with vampires and act as a "babysitter". Because of this, Sydney's opinion of vampires gradually changes and I love reading about that. Sydney's whole character throughout the book grew and I can't wait to see her grow some more in the next book!
Adrian. Oh sweet Adrian Ivashkov who's pretty much is a waste of existence but he's so fascinating and sexy and a fun character to love. Adrian appears as a party boy who doesn't care about anything and doesn't take anything too seriously, but of course there is more depth to him than that and we see that as the book goes on.
As for secondary characters, there is Jill, the heir princess Sydney is babysitting, Eddie, Jill's bodyguard and Trey, a human boy who I really liked. I would love to see more of him in book 2 and more devolpement on Jill's and Eddie's part. However my favorite side character has to be Abe Mazur, aka Zemy, aka Rose's father. He definitely doesn't roll on the right side of the law but he's pretty freakin' amazing! I need more Abe scenes!
Plot wise, I really enjoyed seeing everything unfold with Sydney as she figured out what was happening in Palm Springs and Bloodlines definitely had me turning the pages super fast so I can see everything go down. Overall, Bloodlines was pretty solid start to Vampire Academy spin-off series and I think it's only going to get better and better from here so I'm definitely happy with this book and if you're a Vampire Academy fan, give it a try!
Rating: [B] This is the first book in a series I'm now going to be obsessed with!
First:
I couldn't breathe.
Favorite:
"Takes a lot of tries before you hit perfection." He paused to reconsider that. "Well, except for my parents. They got it on the first try." -Adrian
Teaser:
Dimitri Belikov had arrived.
