Book Review: The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

Title: The Golden Lily
Series: Bloodlines series
Author: Richelle Mead
Publisher: Razorbill
Release Date: June 12, 2012
Source: own copy
Read from June 27-29, 2012
My rating: 

The second thrilling installment in Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy spinoff series
Tough, brainy alchemist Sydney Sage and doe-eyed Moroi princess Jill Dragomir are in hiding at a human boarding school in the sunny, glamorous world of Palm Springs, California. The students--children of the wealthy and powerful--carry on with their lives in blissful ignorance, while Sydney, Jill, Eddie, and Adrian must do everything in their power to keep their secret safe. But with forbidden romances, unexpected spirit bonds, and the threat of Strigoi moving ever closer, hiding the truth is harder than anyone thought.
Populated with new faces as well as familiar ones, Richelle Mead's breathtaking Bloodlines series explores all the friendship, romance, battles, and betrayals that made the #1 New York Times bestselling Vampire Academy series so addictive. In this second book, the drama is hotter, the romances are steamier, and the stakes are even higher. (from goodreads)

My Thoughts:


     It was the best book I've read this month, what a way to end June! After reading it, I realized once again why I love this series so much. Just Epic. 


     Narrating once again from Sydney Sage's POV, the story lives on and the "gang" are facing yet another but different challenge from the last one. Sydney, Adrian, Eddie and Angeline with Jill are still in Palm Springs posing as siblings in order to hide and protect Jill with Morois against Jill's queen sister Lissa. Only now the problem is not with Morois or dhampirs or even Strigois, but with human warriors they never thought existed.  
    
    There are so many secrets and lies that Sydney just recently knew of. The Alchemist, the group she grew up on shakes her trust & beliefs, as they continue to show some inconsistencies by their lies. They certainly hide a lot from her in lieu that she's a good alchemist and will follow her superiors without question. However, in between those doubts that linger in her head, she's doing her job pretty well- watching over Jill which involves dodging the designer Lia's continual pursuit of Jill as her model and taming the once Keeper Angeline and a side "job" of keeping Adrian company. Ooh, and also she's started dating. 


     But enough of the boring words and let's get on to the main reason why I started reading the series. Though I love the story, but what really keeps me in this is none other than Adrian (as I know most of the readers are,hehe). I don't know what made me love him in TVA (well except for his good looks, witty lines and bad boy att), but I love him even more now. My gosh, his deadly swooning lines are super killer! His sarcastic remarks are just so smartly funny! Besides his beautiful physicalities, we can really see the changes in him now. He's certainly not yet there, but I am so happy that Richelle Mead didn't beat around the bush and went directly bull's eye. If you don't know what I'm talking about ( and are probably thinking what the hell I'm really saying), well this is about his love life y'all *insert happy giddy smile* I'm just so happy that he is not denying what he is feeling. We see it throughout the book that there are subtle and non-subtle hints of his admiration toward S****y (why did I even bother hiding the name when it's so obvious,haha,anyway!). It's so cute how he says something serious and Sydney blushes on this inwardly but adamantly shakes it off as one of Adrian's crazy shady moments. Also funny whenever Jill gets dreamy eyed toward her at times, and I immediately knew it was Adrian through the bond. The protective and jealousy moments made me high!!! :) not to mention They had a lot of other sweet moments together (*inserts swooning here*), and I perfectly understand why Sage would recognize it for a moment only to brush it off nonchalantly as nothing later on. But believe me when I say this will not go to waste because while we know Sydney is an Alchemist and Adrian is a Moroi and they won't perfectly go together, aren't allowed is the better phrase actually, but I have this theory (just let me on this one, I make up these theories in order to satisfy my inner qualms hehe) that Sydney is not just an Alchemist (you'll know why I'm guessing when you've read the book), I even think she's a Moroi adopted by her family, but that's stretching it. Anyway, or maybe she's just an Alchemist, but there's another group out there that are ex-Alchemist that she can join in in the future. It's too early for now anyway. But I'm still rooting for them! :) Sydney is such a nice and pleasant character, not the badass we all want our heroine to be but she is in her own smart ways. However, she's perfect for Adrian. I just know it. She makes him a better person not just for show but for real...


    For other pressing matters, Eddie is still in love with Jill, and Jill is still with Micah, then Angeline likes Eddie. Good luck with that love triangle or squares! Then, Trey is showing some weirdness, and Miss Tregleway is still kinda pushy and still weird in Sydney doing magic (I just know she knows something she's not telling us. It I will soon find it out!) also Dimitri is in town with Sophia doing some anti-Strigoi research with Adrian (who has a problem with his dad) and is still slightly irritated by Belikov's presence though not too much like before (obviously because he's no longer in love with Rose).  


    Anyway, I love this series so much all I'm doing now is blabbing about it instead of properly reviewing it, haha. I pretty much encourage all of you to try and read it, most especially if you're into YA. The premise is naturally good, and Richelle Mead once again wows us with her great storyteller skills. I can definitely see how good she is by how different the  tone of the story is because of their different POV's. While TVA was from Rose's POV and bloodlines is from Sydneys's,and both have opposite characters. Rose's was funnier and focuses more of the physical action descriptions and dhampir's analytical mentality and Sydney has this intellectual, analytical and sometimes funny (because of her social inaneptity) tone. There's so much story not yet told, and I just can't wait to read them all.