The Golden Lily: A Bloodlines Novel

Richelle Mead has blown it out the water again! She never ceases to amaze me with her writing and leaving me wanting so much more. In this follow up to Bloodlines we get to see some new characters and we get to see some old ones. I could not put this book down lord I was up till 3am finishing it because I just had to see what happened to Sydney.In The Golden Lily Sydney is faced with numerous issues and the most pressing is keeping Jill safe from the Moroi who want to kill her. Sydney, Jill, Eddie, Adrian, Dimitri, and Sonya, Angeline, Micah, Brayden, and Trey have so much going on in this book. I love how Richelle set it up each character has their own story to tell and Richelle does not disappoint when it comes to the work up of a romance. This review will be different because I want to give you short glimpses into all the characters lives and of course you know I have to save Adrian for last because he makes my heart speed up and I just can't concentrate when I think about those big green eyes...... you get the point I don't need to ramble.*******THIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS IN IT, SO PROCEED WITH CAUTION*******Jill is finally getting used to boarding school. She is dating Micah and she has friends and things seem to be going well except for her bond with Adrian. It seems like sometimes he can hide his feelings through the bond but other times he can't and that is when Jill feels it the worst. School is going great and she has managed to make more friends but she worries for Adrian constantly and that leaves her in a fog. Plus she and Micah are getting serious and Sydney has warned her about getting to close to him because he is after all human. Poor Jill what will she do when she is faced with a huge decision that will affect her and the others around her?Micah God Bless his soul because he looks just like Mason and every time Eddie looks at him he is seeing Mason all over again. Micah is smart and athletic and he loves Jill. He and Jill are dating and Micah is excited because in Bloodlines Jill was afraid to date him because she is a Vampire and no one can find out. Micah ever the gentleman loves spending time with Jill and her family and even goes so far as to include her in everything he does at school. Together they make a great couple and Micah even invites Jill home for Thanksgiving.Angeline lord she is as crazy a Dhampir as ever. She has taken on the task of protecting Jill and she has to learn how to fight like a Dhampir because she is used to savage fighting and Eddie has told her that she needs to think and act like a guardian and pay attention to all things around Jill. This becomes hard for Angeline because at times she is not comfortable around everyone but in the end she and Eddie practice and she is able to hold her own. Plus she has a crush on someone and she is willing to do anything to get their attention.Eddie oh Eddie he has pined over Jill since she came to court. He knows that as a Dhampir he can never be more than just friends but he longs to be with her and every time he sees her with Micah his roommate he is forced to swallow his feelings for her. Eddie is first and foremost her Guardian and will do whatever is in his powers to keep Jill safe from all harm. He has a distraction from his pinning of Jill because he has to teach Angeline how to fight like a Guardian and he has to teach Angeline how to spot danger. Plus Angeline is really fun to be around. At times she can be to much but he really enjoys her company.Dimitri and Sonya are at Clarnce's house conducting experiments and trying to figure out a way to restore Strigoi back to Moroi's. They have Adrian to help them out but there is only so much they can get done because they need something that can only come from one person and that person is not willing to give it up at first but once that person does help out in the experiments they regret it because there is so much danger out there and they are afraid that they will get hurt. Dimitri is still hot as ever and he is so devoted to the Guardians. Sonya is planning on her wedding in a few months. She and Mikhail are so happy now that Sonya is a Moroi.Trey is so grateful to Sydney for uncovering the whole tattoo mess because it has restore his position on the football team and he no longer feels threatened. But in Golden Lily we get to see more and more of Trey and his bizarre behavior. As Sydney uncovers the truth Trey will have to make some tough decisions and he will have to decide if he truly does trust Sydney enough to tell her the truth.In Golden Lily we meet Brayden who is a brainiac just like Sydney. He works at the coffee shop with Trey and Trey introduces him to Sydney. Brayden is smitten by Sydney and they soon start going out on dates but everytime they are on a date some crisis comes up and Brayden and Sydney end up separated. Brayden is smart and funny and he even has all the makings of a *Swoon* worthy guy but at the end of the day can he stand up to the one person who loves Sydney? Well well well you just have to read the book to find out!And last but not LEAST in my eyes Adrian. Lord in Golden Lily he shows a side to him that is very rare. He is still in school taking his art classes and still drinking and smoking. But we get to see a glimpse into his life and how things got so bad for him. We also learn some interesting stuff about Adrian and we get to see him show his feelings for someone. Adrian is actually capable of being unselfish which totally threw me because I love my snarky rude boy! Adrian realy stepped it up this time around and I love him even more!So what are you waiting for..... Go on out and get Golden Liliy because you will not be disappointed!

What can I say? Richelle Mead has done it again. In the Vampire Academy books I loved Adrian more and more with each book. That love continued in Bloodlines. But with The Golden Lily I LOVE Adrian. So. So. Much. He is absolutely amazing in this second book of the Bloodlines series. His character is what carries this entire story. Sydney is still the narrator for this story, and she grows on me more and more as the story progresses and she pushes out of the strict confines of her Alchemy upbringing. But it is Adrian who has the greatest amount of depth as a character. He is the most fascinating person to read about. His insight and compassion are so touching to read at times. He knows when to be flippant and when to be serious. He was the perfect match to Sydney's personality in every way. He GOT her. This book was amazing!What I loved:Sydney. Sydney is an interesting character to me because she is the product of a lifetime of being told exactly how to act and how to think, with a father who was never satisfied with anything that she did. She is borderline anorexic, socially inept in many ways, and unable to relax enough to truly enjoy her life. As Adrian so adeptly points out, she has been raised to be a piece of a machine without her own free will. But in this book Sydney begins to question the organization that she has devoted her life to. She begins to realize that the world is not quite so black and white. How would it be to have grown up with such firm ideas of right and wrong, and good and evil, and then to one day come to question all of it. It would certainly put your world atilt at least. Seeing Sydney go through this transformation was so interesting to me. She fights it all along the way. She doesn't want to give up her earlier belief system, but her experiences are proving that system to be more flawed than she imagined. I loved her attempts to navigate the new world of boy/girl relationships as she had her first kiss and first "boyfriend." She floundered a lot, and she was always wanting to head to a book to try and research how relationships were supposed to work. Classic Sydney! And her interaction with Adrian and the evolution of her feelings were so wonderful to read. It wasn't a quick evolution. She still has awhile to go before she is ready to give into her feelings. But I am so excited to be along for this ride.Dimitri. I admit it. When he popped up at the end of Bloodlines I was not so happy. I LOVE Dimitri so much. He is my favorite hero in all of PNR, and I thought his story with Rose ended perfectly in the VA series. I was super worried how he would play out in this new series where he and Rose are not the focus, but instead it is Adrian who is not Dimitri's biggest fan. Well, I was very happy with how he took part in this story. He was still Mr. Awesome, and I was able to re-experience just how kick tail he is in a crisis situation. But he didn't take center stage in this story. His presence really helped to flesh out Adrian's issues with his breakup with Rose, and I appreciated that.Eddie. Eddie got to play a bigger part in this book, and I really loved getting to know him better. He is strong and steady and willing to do anything to protect Jill. I am excited to read more and more about him as this series progresses -- especially his feelings for Jill.The love story. At the end of Bloodlines it was clear that Adrian and Sydney were at the beginning of a great friendship. Adrian had just noticed her as a beauty and not just the Alchemist. In this book those feelings change and grow into something much stronger, especially for Adrian. Well, they are growing for Sydney too, but Adrian is the only one in the story who is acknowledging those feelings. I liked both of their growth in this area though. It was interesting to see Sydney's feelings growing even though she wasn't really noticing them as romantic feelings at first. Even if she did, she would run away from that label because of her upbringing. But I also really loved reading about Adrian and his different ways of getting Sydney to spend time with him. I could see what was going on, but Sydney had no clue. And the last chapter? Perfect! Loved it! It perfectly matched both of their characters. Now I am just super impatient to get the next book in the series and see what happens next with these two.There were a few things that didn't work as well for me. I was not a huge fan of the Angeline angle in this story. She was a pretty annoying character for me, and I still can't figure out why everyone decided that she would be the best person to protect Jill. But as the story progressed she grew on me a bit more, so I am willing to ride this part of the story out and see where it takes me. It could be that with more story I will come to appreciate her character more and more. I also thought that some of the story involving the vampire hunter group didn't really make logical sense. It seems like if you were a Strigoi hunting group you wouldn't be hanging out in the California desert. There are better places to find Strigoi. And what are the chances that they would bounce into Sonya in this desert town? It all seemed a bit too convenient. But you know what? I didn't care too much. I was still excited about the storyline and just went with the flow. And, to be honest, I think that the revelations that come about with the discovery of the existence of this group will end up being super important to the story later on, specifically as it involves Sydney and Adrian. We shall see.I was a bit underwhelmed with Bloodlines when I read it last year, but I think my expectations were unreasonably high. Now I realize that that book was a perfect setup book for the rest of the series. Knowing the events of that book help to make this book so much more satisfying a read for me. This book once again reminds me why Richelle Mead is one of my super duper favorite authors of paranormal romances. Five stars!

Sydney is still in Palm Springs watching Jill, but now she has another problem. Hunters are out to kill Strigoi, and they are coming after Sonya Karp believing her to still be Strigoi. But it the truth about someone she thought a friend that hurts her more.Conflicted feelings leave her vulnerable to the schemes of others.A must read for all lovers of the supernatural world.

An engaging next installment. This series starts off as a slower burn than the VA series, but it fits well with the story and the character POV we follow. Sydney is a great character to follow and peeling back the layers of the deeper mystery keeps me reading on. I think what makes each individual book better is how it's a smaller puzzle piece to a larger narrative, makes it more intriguing than one 'punchy' story arc per book. I can see why it's written this way, but some of the exposition pieces can be a bit superfluous, but I think that's so that new readers can be caught up to speed/ if someone hasn't read the other book in a while they won't be missing important info

A slow, and at times tediously childish read. It felt like it was written for a younger audience than the VA series, which even years later and no longer a teenager I liked, this however didn’t feel age appropriate. I only read this to see some insight into life for rose and dimitri after last sacrifice but there are only tiny, dreadfully forced, cameos.I’m writing this review after reading the whole of this series, so would say it only gets interesting at around book 4, so would recommend starting there!Sydney and the plots that follow the first couple of books just fall a little flat, not feeling well thought out in the way VA was.

This is book 2 in the Bloodlines series, a spin off from the Vampire Academy saga. Having read the first book you will notice that the characters remain the same and we even see some of the original VA characters crossing over, bringing with them the familiarity of the world created by Richelle Mead.In this second installment the theme is very much self-growth. We see Sydney taking on more responsibility and growing in confidence as an individual away from the strict, watchful eyes of the alchemists. She questions their ways more and more, growing ever closer to the group of Moroi and Dhampirs she has spent so much time with.She continues her work with Ms. T and starts to discover her own abilities and prejudices. On a more personal level she discovers dating, which may be her toughest challenge yet. With all this happening in her scholastic and personal life, as well as the ever constant threat of danger to Jill from Moroi rebels, it's a wonder she has time to help with the experiments conducted by Sonya Karp and Dimitry Belikov. To top it all off she learns of a group of warriors that hunt vampires and discovers the unnerving truth behind their conception.This book has a lot going on and yet the author manages to tie everything together successfully so that you are kept interested and yet not overwhelmed or lost. It balances the development of the new characters while bringing the familiarity of the old extremely well.Next up... Book 3: The Indigo Spell.

The Golden Lily is one of the most highly anticipated books of this year! Richelle Mead never fails to deliver something new, exciting and unpredictable. Fans will not be disappointed.Welcome back to the world of Moroi (vampire) and Strigoi (evil monsters)! In this book there's more action, more character development and, most importantly, more romance! For those of you who have not read the Vampire Academy series then I wouldn't recommend you the Bloodlines series just yet. The Bloodlines series is the spin-off series to Vampire Academy, so definitely go and read VA first!I really enjoyed the main character, Sydney Sage. She has grown and developed so much since the first time we met her in the Vampire Academy series and first getting a glimpse inside her head in Bloodlines. Her eyes and mind have been opened to new possibilities and beliefs. In Bloodlines, Sydney wasn't the easiest character to relate to. The way she thought, her actions and her uptight personality could put anyone off, but overtime you do get used to it and even see that there is something deeper.Sydney also has an unhealthy obsession with dieting. After being around skinny, beautiful Moroi vampires, she worries and obsesses over everything she eats. To be honest, I think I would feel a bit insecure if I was standing next to my friend who was pretty and skinny no matter what she eats. I would want to lose wait, be like her. Luckily there is someone who appreciates Sydney just the way she is...Adrian Ivashkov! In Bloodlines he was annoying, rude with moments of brilliance, but in The Golden Lily? He was just too hot. We see a lot more of the positive in him that we only had a few glimpses of in Bloodlines. He's funny, thoughtful, protective and determined. However, I can sum him up in one word: confused. Of course that's all explained at the end.I recommend you start reading Richelle Mead's books RIGHT NOW! Her writing is incredibly addictive and engaging. Everything felt realistic; the characters, the scenes, the dilemmas. I couldn't stand to put this book down for even one second.The Golden Lily is a beautifully written book that will keep readers entertained until the very end. Action, mystery and romance all mashed up into this thrilling sequel that will satisfy Richelle Mead fans everywhere.