Review: The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead

The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead 

Series: Bloodlines #4

Release Date: November 19th 2013 

Publisher: Razorbill 

Buy: Amazon | Book Depository

Goodreads Summary 

Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets - and human lives. In The Indigo Spell, Sydney was torn between the Alchemist way of life and what her heart and gut were telling her to do. And in one breathtaking moment that Richelle Mead fans will never forget, she made a decision that shocked even her. . . . But the struggle isn't over for Sydney. As she navigates the aftermath of her life-changing decision, she still finds herself pulled in too many directions at once. Her sister Zoe has arrived, and while Sydney longs to grow closer to her, there's still so much she must keep secret. Working with Marcus has changed the way she views the Alchemists, and Sydney must tread a careful path as she harnesses her profound magical ability to undermine the way of life she was raised to defend. Consumed by passion and vengeance, Sydney struggles to keep her secret life under wraps as the threat of exposure — and re-education — looms larger than ever.

"I won't lie. Walking into a room and seeing your girlfriend reading a baby-name book can kind of make your heart stop." 

The book has Adrian’s POV! The first chapter was hard to get into as I just finished Indigo Spell and I was still stuck in Sydney’s head when I had to jump into Adrian’s. It was so fun seeing what’s happening in his head!

Adrian and Sydney are finally together, which annoys me quite a bit… At the start of the book they were literally the most amazing couple and then they turned into a mushy one that stopped flirting with each other and just talked about how much they love each other. Gross. I think I genuinely like the chase and not the relationship in books. But I still love both characters and over the years I have grown so close to both of them.

Now that Sydney has met the rebel Alchemist Marcus in the last book she decides to use her new magic powers to create an ink that can insure the Alchemists can’t reink the “bad” Alchemist’s and make them into robots. I’m still not too sure about the whole magic use with Sydney…

But there’s more problems for Sydney and her secret life when her sister Zoe moves to the school and keeps a close eye on Sydney and her behaviour. Meaning no time with Adrian and little to no time using magic to recreate the ink that Marcus has to travel to Mexico to get.

Basically the books are all turning into a soap opera… I still love following the story but it’s all getting a little bit stretched out. This book I think could have been shortened by about 100 pages that weren’t exactly needed.

BOY OH BOY. Sydney’s worst nightmare has come to life and the book ends on a cliff hanger… 

Review: The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead

The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead  
Series:  Bloodlines #3
Release Date: February 17th 2013
Publisher: Razorbill
Order: Amazon | Book Depository

Goodreads Summary

Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets - and human lives. In the aftermath of a forbidden moment that rocked Sydney to her core, she struggles to draw the line between her Alchemist teachings and what her heart is urging her to do. Then she finally tracks down the elusive, enigmatic Marcus Finch – a former Alchemist who the organisation denies exists, and who lives in shadows, on the run. With Marcus's help, Sydney realises that the group she's been loyal to her whole life has been hiding the truth from her. Is it possible that her golden lily tattoo might have more power over her than she thinks? As she struggles to come to terms with what that might mean, Sydney is compelled to use her growing magical powers to track down an evil magic user who is targeting powerful young witches. Using magic goes against everything she always thought she believed, but she realises that her only hope is to embrace her special blood – or else she might be next. Forging her own way is harder than Sydney ever dreamed. Maybe by turning off her brain – and following her heart – she'll be able to finally figure out where she belongs.

I started reading Vampire Academy and all the books that followed back in 2011 with a massive love for them! Three years later and I still love Richelle’s work!

Now I usually despise a spin off series as they are never anything like the original and I had a hard time getting used to Sydney in the first two books. However, I love these books, I love Richelle’s vampire world, and I cannot help myself and love this little baby too.

Here’s why I love Richelle’s books

•      They contain very, very cute boys
•        There is always action
•        Humour is never far away
•        Did I mention the cute boys? Yeah well, they are also smokin’ hot with amazing personalities!
•      Also Adrian is mine.

Richelle never fails to deliver on these.

Sydney tries to ignore what happened between the (very) hot vampire Adrian and her, and get back to her alchemist duties as well as rebelling and looking for Marcus Finch. Who just happens to hold all the answers that Sydney is seeking about the organisation that she believed and was born into, who may or may not be lying about working with the Warriors. Not only that but Sydney is continuing with her magic use while an old witch is seeking younger magic users to suck out their life force and put them into a coma.

I love the whole rebelling against the Alchemist’s and that’s what’s making me like Sydney at the moment but the whole magic using bit just isn’t working for me. It’s just so boring! Even the witch hunting was a massive snooze fest for me.

I love all the books in the VA series and I love this spin off, but the way the books are arranged is getting slightly boring for me. There just aren’t any surprises for me anymore, every book follows the same structure of starting off from the last book, which is great. Then a problem occurs or some mission that carries on for most of the book, which then turns into the problem-solving chapter of the book ending on a somewhat positive note but with a small hint of a problem for the next book to continue to.

The fact that Sydney and Adrian and now together isn’t a surprise for me either.  Obviously this was going to happen. I just wish I could beat Sydney up and take my rightful place next to Adrian and live with him forever and ever until the day we never die.

But apart from that I loved the book. The characters developed so much and I know them each in such a way that I can even imagine what they will say and their reactions and they just feel like a small family to me. :’) 

The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

Title: The Golden Lily 
Author: Richelle Mead 
Series: Bloodlines series book one
Publisher: Razorbill 
Date Published: June 12th, 2012

Buy: Amazon 

Goodreads summary 

Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets—and human lives.

Sydney would love to go to college, but instead, she’s been sent into hiding at a posh boarding school in Palm Springs, California–tasked with protecting Moroi princess Jill Dragomir from assassins who want to throw the Moroi court into civil war. Formerly in disgrace, Sydney is now praised for her loyalty and obedience, and held up as the model of an exemplary Alchemist.

But the closer she grows to Jill, Eddie, and especially Adrian, the more she finds herself questioning her age–old Alchemist beliefs, her idea of family, and the sense of what it means to truly belong. Her world becomes even more complicated when magical experiments show Sydney may hold the key to prevent becoming Strigoi—the fiercest vampires, the ones who don’t die. But it’s her fear of being just that—special, magical, powerful—that scares her more than anything. Equally daunting is her new romance with Brayden, a cute, brainy guy who seems to be her match in every way. Yet, as perfect as he seems, Sydney finds herself being drawn to someone else—someone forbidden to her.

When a shocking secret threatens to tear the vampire world apart, Sydney’s loyalties are suddenly tested more than ever before. She wonders how she's supposed to strike a balance between the principles and dogmas she's been taught, and what her instincts are now telling her.

Should she trust the Alchemists—or her heart?

I slept with this book for about two weeks while I was in hospital and when I got out, for some reason I just couldn’t get to it and I couldn’t bring myself to reading it. Which sucked cause I really wanted to read it.

… When Dimitir and Eddie walked in being all dangerous and hot I couldn’t help myself but to read it in slow motion to make it look even more awesome (if that was possible). And it was.

So I don’t have the same views as Sidney about vampires and magic- how she doesn’t like Jill using hers in front of her or Adrian being a vampire and all that and I get it cause she was brought up that way and she has to feel this way. But I would love that the idea of vampires, and magic and just them but then again that’s just me and it would be kind of boring if Sidney agreed to everything. The way the book was written in her voice, it was really clear about the reasons why she felt that way that she did and it was so convincing which made it 10 times better. In Bloodlines I distanced myself from her, I couldn’t get into her mind and why she thought/ did some of the stuff she did but during this book all of that was gone and for me that was what made this book so much more better then Bloodlines.

Actually on second thoughts I don’t know if it was better than Bloodlines- both books are epic and awesome and just beautiful. I can’t bring myself to choose between the two it’s like choosing which child you love more.

The book lacks romance big time! And I am gutted by that as Richelle is so good at writing romantic and hot scenes but there is clearly something going on between Sidney and Adrian and that made it bearable. Just.

And what I like about their relationship is that it’s not being rushed, they clearly care about each other but it’s taking their time and I love that it’s so cute and I want to be the girl that Adrian is lusting over.  

For me this new series has everything that Vampire Academy had. It has danger, action, some romance, it’s funny, cute, and very lovable. With no doubt this is one of the best books/ series’ I’ve read.

One thing that I didn’t really like was the ending. I loved what happened I hated how it ended so quickly!

I cannot wait for the next book! If I could, I would go to sleep and have someone wake me up when the book comes out! Maybe I’ll have a dream about Dimitir and Adrian… but then I wouldn’t want to wake up ever again so that’s out of the question.