Hixxup
Written on Jun 30, 2012
The thrilling second installment in Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy spinoff series--and a #1 New York Times Bestseller--now in paperback
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?
- ISBN10 1101565888
- ISBN13 9781101565889
- Publish Date 1 June 2012
- Publish Status Active
- Imprint Razorbill
- Format eBook
- Language English
Reviews
liz089
Written on Jun 25, 2012
Only downside is that I have to wait soooo long for the next part :( Damn I want to have The Indigo Spell !!! NOW.
notajammiedodger
Written on Jun 22, 2012
I would probably recommend not reading this review if you have not read the Vampire Academy series, if you haven't then I would highly recommend you give them a go :) Great series, Richelle Mead is a fantastic author. And if you have, and haven't read Bloodlines then I would recommend you do :D Because it is just as awesome as Vampire Academy.
This book revolved a lot more around the development of the relationships between the characters and getting to know Sydney more. Sydney is beginning to come to the realisation that the vampires are not as bad as she has always been lead to believe. In The Golden Lily, she is developing a strong friendship with Jill and Eddie and everyone else, but at the same time is scared of being accused of getting too close with them by the Alchemists and then being sent to a re-education center; so Sydney is dealing with her internal struggle to help her friends and stay loyal to the Alchemists.
Jill annoys me a little bit, but I felt like she was getting a little more mature in this book, beginning to understand and deal with the situation she is in. I love Eddie, I felt so bad for him this whole book (and Bloodlines), and now I feel bad for Jill! :( Brayden really annoyed me; well not so much him as his relationship with Sydney. I don't really want to say too much because I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, those of you that have read the book will know what I am talking about.
And as always I absolutely LOVE Adrian. Again, I don't want to ruin anything. But he's just so adorable, I love him so much 3 When I first read the Vampire Academy series I was totally all for Adrian and Rose being together, but now I am super happy that Sydney and Adrian can be together (I always knew Rose and Dimitri belonged together anyway, I just loved Adrian more). I just think they are so perfect for each other.
I heard/read a lot of things about what happened at the end of this book. I was really worried and scared about it, but I wasn't at all surprised, it was inevitable, I knew that it was going to happen. On that note, some of the things that happened I found to be a little predictable, but not in a bad way at all I assure you, I just saw them coming. Anyway, I should probably wrap it up. I loved this book just as much as I loved Bloodlines, and I cannot wait for the third book in the series The Indigo Spell. What do you think the title means? I have some ideas about what it might relate to.
P.s. I know a lot of parts of this review are horribly vague, but if you come back after you have read the book, you will totally understand what I am talking about :) And i am really sorry about how long it is :/
This review is also on my blog The Confessions of a Book Nerd :)
ellieroth
Written on Jun 16, 2012
Jo
Written on Jun 3, 2012
Wow! I don't even know what to say! Except that I'm so sad I read this book so quickly and have to now wait ages before I can read the third book!
This review is going to be difficult because there are major things that happen and the hints of them start fairly early on, so I have to be careful about spoilers. I would suggest those who would like things to be a complete surprise stear clear of the product description on Amazon UK. It tells you more than is necessary in my opinion. Back to the review, I will start with the things I can talk about. The relationships in this book - all of them, friendships as well as romantic ones - are effected in this book. Friendships become strengthened, particularly between Sydney and everyone else, which worries her slightly. She's forever questioning her relationships with these people as this is a job ad they are not human! But for people who aren't human... they're not too bad. Because she's a Moroi, and particularly because she's a Moroi princess, Jill's relationship wih Micah becaomes strained. Her life gets more chaotic, and she feels uncomfortable with hiding things constantly, but their relationship also progresses a step, which leads to her worrying about her fangs. She's finally realising how complicated things can be. Sydney gets herself a boyfriend with a fellow knowledge geek, which provides endless amusement, but I will say no more. There's a almost a four way love square (not a triangle!) going on, which sounds complicated, but provides moments of "aww!"
And then there's Adrian Ivashkov. And I am lost for words. This guy... this guy is truely amazing! Behind all his snark and confidence, he is the most caring and protective guy, and at so many times in this book I just wanted to hug him. But not always for being so lovely. He goes through quite a hard time in this book in a number of ways. My heart goes out to him, and I just want to take him away from everything, and bring him home. Ahem. And also slap Sydney a few times, because, GOD, that girl is blind!
Now for the things I can't exactly talk about. What I will say is that the secrets discovered in this book - and the questions they raise for Sydney about everything she has been brought up to believe - are going to effect the rest of the books in the series from this point on. There's no way they couldn't! This is major stuff! Not completely surprising in itself, but a surprise because a whole series and the first book of this series went by with no real hint of anything like this. This will effect everyone, and it's huge! I cannot wait to see where this will lead in the next books!
As I said, things that lead to the major events start on fairly early on, but despite this, I found the pace of the book, to begin with, to be kind of slow. I wasn't really bothered, because there could be no problems at all going on for these characters, and I'd still want to read about their everyday lives. But this book leans more towards firguring things out and discovering and the personal lives on the characters, more than the action and danger. Don't get me wrong, around the second half of the book things pick up, and there is the edge-of-your-seat action we're used to (and woaaah!), it just takes a little longer for us to get excited/anxious about things. It's still a fantastic book, and one I love!
THE ENDING! Oh. My. WORD! How anyone is going to be able to coherently talk about the end is beyond me. All I feel like saying is, "DIKARHGKHFDGAJKGRTEYUG!!!!!!" But that's not really good enough for a review. If you get emotionally involved in the lives of these characters, and you happen to be a particularly big fan of Adrian, well, your jaw will be hanging down on the floor! There are no words to explain how I feel, but I could probably cry! Mead is a horrible, horrible person to her characters - yet, there is absolutely no other way that situation could have gone. Not at this point. But oh, my heart aches!
An amazing book, and for multiple reasons, I AM SO EXCITED to read the third book in the series! Just brilliant! Fans of this and the VA series need this book! Pre-order nooow!
Amber
Written on Jun 2, 2012
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The Golden Lily was, of course, amazing. I don't think you need me to tell you that if you're a long time fan of the Vampire Academy and Bloodlines series. I've tried to make some notes before writing this review, but as always, expect me to spew out a lot of random thoughts. This is Richelle Mead, after all.
I felt that TGL was a little predictable, much like Bloodlines. This isn't a bad thing, because it didn't make me enjoy the book any less than I would have otherwise, but it did get a little frustrating because the characters seemed to pick things up so slowly.
Despite the predictability, the plot was fast paced and captivating, much like Richelle Mead's other work. The characters were (almost) perfect, and I could have carried on reading for another two hundred pages because I just love this world and this story so much.
There were so many moments that made me squee! I ended up texting a friend of mine at 4am because something happened. She did, of course, mock me, but that's okay!
There was also a lot of talk about an arena. I won't say why, when or how, but when this whole thing started, I nearly jumped out of bed to do a happy dance. That's the Spartacus/Ancient Rome fan coming out in me! EEP!
As for the main characters, I ADORED Sydney in this book. Her character arc is so perfect already, and I can't wait to see more growth from her throughout the rest of the series. She has come such a long way already, and with four more books coming out in the future, I can't wait to see what else happens to her! I'm loving her inner conflict.
Adrian was, by far, my favourite thing about this novel. He is just so flawed, and I love my flawed characters. So flawed. So great. I LOVE HIM.
I did have a couple of problems with this book, which meant I rated it as Essential instead of All Time Favourite. The first was Jill. I honestly can't stand the girl. I think she's pathetic, and her jumping from one guy to another gets on my nerves. She also does such stupid things, it made me want to slap her. I know she's only 15, but still.
And that leads me to my other point - Eddie and Jill. If you read Bloodlines (which I hope you did, otherwise you're going to be spoilt!) then you'll know that Eddie has a thing for Jill. I am not too sure how I feel about this. I mean, she is 15 and he must be nearly 19 by now, if my calculations are correct. I think that's way too big of an age gap. For now, at least. No me gusta.
And the final thing that I hated about this novel was that Sydney kept talking about how good looking Dimitri was. Not just that, she kept going on and on about how he was an awesome fighter. Yes, Sydney, we have been told at least ten times by now. You don't need to mention it fifty more. Seriously, she said something about Dimitri in EVERY. SINGLE. SCENE. he was in. I couldn't deal with it, I had to keep skimming those parts.
Anyway, overall this is amazing. The good outweighed the bad by far, and I am DYING to read the next book in the series because of the way this one ended. There are so many questions raised, and so many answered. I NEED MORE.
journalingirl
Written on May 19, 2012