BOOK REVIEW - BLOODLINES by RICHELLE MEAD - BLOODLINES # 1

By : Richelle Mead

Published By : Razor Bill

Released : Available Now

Details : Paperback, 421 Pages

RATING :

4 ACHING ADRIAN STARS!!!

When alchemist Sydney is ordered into hiding to protect the life of Moroi princess Jill Dragomir, the last place she expects to be sent is a human private school in Palm Springs, California. But at their new school, the drama is only just beginning.  

Populated with new faces as well as familiar ones, Bloodlines explores all the friendship, romance, battles and betrayals that made the #1 New York Times bestselling Vampire Academy series so addictive - this time in a part-vampire, part-human setting where the stakes are even higher and everyone's out for blood.

BOOK REVIEW:

I would like to say a huge thankyou to Penguin for giving me Bloodlines to review. I have been very bouncy for this book as I am a monster Vampire Academy fan. Admittedly with VA it took me until book 3 , ‘Shadow Kiss’, to really get what everybody was raving about and then the tears flowed, the emotion was powerful and my heart broke. Then book 4, ‘Blood Promise’ ...oh my...that was sad and I cried like a baby.


Dimitri is just an outstanding character and Adrian, he is the guy who you wanted sooooo badly to be happy and not in so much pain. I am so glad I have Adrian back in Bloodlines. I needed Adrian to have his story played out. I did feel lost without Dimitri and Rose, but this is a new series.


I had a look at some reviews before I started writing this one ( which I don’t normally do, I just write from my heart then see what everybody else felt) as I am kind of feeling the way I felt when I started Vampire Academy. I enjoyed Bloodlines but it wasn’t as exciting or fast paced as I thought it would be. So I thought is it just me, so I nosed about and found it wasn’t just me. I will say that there is one rather exciting scene that had a VA feel to it which I really enjoyed.


I get what Richelle has done with Jill and Sydney. These characters are finding themselves plopped into Palm Springs one is an Alchemist and the other a Moroi and they have to adjust socially amongst other things to each other.


Sydney isn’t a very excitable character...yet! I get why. She has been taught from an early age Alchemy and only Alchemy. She really has no social skills, she is to fear vampires and magic, respect her peers no matter how wrong they may be. She follows orders and doesn’t question them ...until she met Rose. Now she is in a lot of trouble from her peers for going with her gut feeling and helping Rose and company in VA. She is walking a tight rope that Keith is only too happy to hold on to .


Jill is only 15 and has been cooped up, and is a target, she has been through a lot. Lissa had her problems in VA. Jill has Adrian and his mind mojo to contend with and that isn’t easy. We had the bond with Rose and Lissa in VA and Rose had to learn how to get Lissa out of her head when she needed to not see/feel what Lissa was going through. Rose and Lissa both grew as characters as the books progressed in VA. Jill and Sydney will too.


I loved how she got called Sydney Melbourne...ha! ( I’m Australian) by her teacher.


I did find that I had worked out a fair bit of the plot but I did get a surprise!! Which I loved!!


By the time I had finished the book, Sydney had started her character growth, albeit baby steps and Adrian’s character had started to move forward and stop playing the victim. Adrian’s heart is broken. Adrian is kind of broken and needs to get Rose out of his system. He fell hard for Rose. He can muck around with other girls because he doesn’t want to ‘feel’, he wants to be numbed from his inner pain. He is starting to look at ‘Sage’ differently and that in itself will cause a whole lot of problems for an alchemist who has been taught that vampires are wrong.


I think Sydney doesn’t yet realise how far she has come with being around Moroi and dhampir. She goes with her gut instinct a lot and she is starting to show her bravery, her natural reaction to step up and help those that need it.


Adrian, Jill, Sydney and Eddie are all quite damaged characters and have to find themselves. I can see Sydney is going to be discovering a lot more than she bargained for in the rest of this series.


Oh I LOVED!!! The last 4 words of the book....*sigh* ...makes me want ‘The Golden Lily’.... badly!!

Michelle