BLOODLINES by RICHELLE MEAD

Bloodlines

by Richelle Mead

Published: January 2011

Publisher: Razorbill

Genre: YA, fantasy 

*spoilers if you haven't read Vampire Academy*
Buy this book here*

"Sydney protects vampire secrets - and human lives.

Sydney belongs to a secret group who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the world of humans and vampires.
But when Sydney is torn from her bed in the middle of the night, she fears she's still being punished for her complicated alliance with dhampir Rose Hathaway. What unfolds is far worse. The sister of Moroi queen Lissa Dragomir is in mortal danger, and goes into hiding. Now Sydney must act as her protector.
The last thing Sydney wants is to be accused of sympathizing with vampires. And now she has to live with one..." -taken from Goodreads

Bloodlines is the first book in the spin-off series to Vampire Academy, whilst a few of the characters from VA appear in this series it predominately focuses on new characters, or characters that didn't play a massive part in the other series, this book creates another dimension to the VA world.

Sydney, the main protagonist was first introduced in Blood Promise (from the VA series) and this spin off series focuses on the aftermath of helping Rose Hathaway with her predicaments from the previous series. Sydney is an Alchemist, which is a group that works alongside the Vampires and covers up any Strigoi attacks, however, they absolutely hate both the Moroi and the Dhampirs and think that they are an abomination. So when Sydney Sage is enlisted to help try and protect the next in line to the Moroi crown she isn't too pleased. Or so it seems. Her role in helping Rose has ensured that she is left throughly confused about if the Alchemists views on Vampires is entirely true. 

In Vampire Academy Sydney was a very odd, one-dimensional character with no real personality, however, this book she really gets to show herself off. She is annoying and flawed, like almost every protagonist in YA fantasy fiction, she is arrogant when it comes to her intelligence and sometimes her inner turmoil over the Vampires is a little frustrating, but totally understandable given the circumstances.

Adrian, for me is the real star in this book. I liked him a lot in VA but I absolutely love him in Bloodlines. I love that he is so flawed and a complete mess but he knows it and owns it. He has the best one liners with his sarcastic, witty usually rude remarks and always, always offers a sense of relief and entertainment. I am glad that he is finally having a life after Rose completely ditched him at the end of VA (nope, I'm still not over it). 

The plot in this book was brilliant, it was fairly slow at the start when it was setting the scene and the characters but as it progressed I was hooked. I like that although Sydney is the main protagonist, every other character like Eddie and Jill as well as Adrian all have their moments of spotlight and I really feel as if you get to know them all, rather than just getting one side of the situation. Its clever how even though it is all through Sydney's perspective you still feel as though you are getting to know the other secondary characters.

Overall, I was very impressed with this book and am extremely excited to continue on, I love Richelle Mead's writing and the way she world builds and her character progression is like no other.

4.5/5 STARS

On a side note though, I really wish that both this series and Vampire Academy have cover changes as they just really, really don't give an accurate representation of the book and I feel like so many people will be put off by the covers.