Book: 13/100
When I finished the second book in the Bloodlines series, The Golden Lily, I was super excited to get to the next novel. Imagine my shock and dismay when I discovered I had to WAIT for Indigo Spell to be released! It was horrific. There is a specific reason I make sure the entire series has been published before I start reading – when I am into books, I cannot put them down.
So when it was finally released (In February) I eagerly got a copy and started reading. I wasn’t disappointed. I enjoyed it as much, or probably more than the first two books.
What happened:
There was no huge time jump between the books, and we meet Sydney again were the Golden Lily left off. She is still at Amberwood prep, in charge of keeping Jill, Adrian and Eddie in check. Another dhampir has since joined their group, Angeline, who gives Sydney more headaches than the other three combined. Raised in a primitive community, she is wild, and thinks violence solves problems. She is routinely in trouble, but shows some development when she starts acting as a true protector towards Jill, leading Eddie to see that she wasn’t as terrible as he initially thought. They start dating, and this starles Jill into realising she cares for Eddie.
Ms. Terwillinger wakes Sydney up at night to have her perform a location spell. Sydney is still training her magical abilities, but she manages to get a view the city where her enemy lie. Ms Terwillinger confides in Sydney that her sister Veronica is an evil witch who steals powers and youth from young, unsuspecting witches. Her concern is for Sydney, who is in danger if Veronica finds out about her.
Sydney still has problems of her own as well. After her kiss with Adrian, and her subsequent denial of feelings, he is now angry with her. She needs to face Jill as well, since Jill witnessed everything because she is spirit linked to Adrian.
Sydney leaves Amberwood for a short while to attend Sonya Karp and Mikael Tanner’s wedding – possible because Sonya had been returned from a Strigoi to Moroi. She is joined at the wedding by Stanton, her boss at the alchemist, and an alchemist Sydney’s age, who has a crush on her.
At the wedding, Adrian causes a stir (as usual) by asking Sydney to dance with him in front of everyone. Refusing would cause further strain on the Alchemist-Moroi relationship, and she agrees, although reluctantly, since being in Adrian’s arms are the most confusing place in the world for her.
Afterwards, Sydney and Adrian set out together to warn other young witches against Veronica, but most often they are either too late or the young witches ignore her warnings. Adrian and Sydney barely control their feelings towards each other, and Sydney constantly fights against it.
When Sydney finally finds Marcus Finch, an alchemist who managed to break the compulsion spell Alchemist are placed under, she is irritated by him already. He is a cocky rebel who loves to break rules and has ton of girls fawning over him. He in turn is fascinated by her, because she doesn’t fall for him or gush when he is around. He tells her how to break the spell, by injecting a liquid into her tattoo that dissolves it. In able for him to help her with that, she needs to do something the Alchemists would never do, to prove that she is really willing to be free from their compulsion.
Sydney manages to get the information Marcus wants relatively easy, and he helps her break the compulsion. She doesn’t feel a startling change in her, but immediately phones Stanton to ask why things are happening behind her back. When Stanton gets angry with her, she immediately realise that she is pushing things to far, and narrowly escapes trouble claiming that she is only worried about Jill’s safety.
On the magical front, Sydney and Adrian eventually track down the witch who is stealing all the younger witches’ powers. It isn’t Veronica, but another witch completely, who attacks Ms. Terwillinger to gain her powers. They manage to save Ms. Terwillinger, but the witch escapes, and now Sydney has other problems, since she managed to anger the witch by hurting her.
Sydney and Adrian agree to start a secret relationship, but when she arrives back at school, Sydney gets a big shock: that the alchemists sent her little sister Zoe to be part of their team. Now the question is: Can Adrian and Sydney keep their love hidden from Zoe, who is desperately seeking acceptance in the strict Alchemist world?
Rating: 7/10
I really enjoyed this book when I finally got my hands on it. Richelle Mead managed to make good books by taking characters from another series (her own Vampire Academy), which I didn’t believe entirely possible. Sydney and Adrian become heroes on their own, and their relationship is so fascinating because they are so different from Rose and Dimitri.
I have to admit I was hoping Marcus Finch to be more like Finnick Odair in the Hunger Games trilogy, but he was somewhat disappointing. He seemed to revel in being the rebel, instead of doing what he did because he truly believed it.
I found out the genre these books fall under, which is apparently YA (Young-Adult). well, you learn something new every day!
Now I just have to wait for the next book…
Read about the two previous Bloodlines novels here:
Life of this city girl 