The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2)

by Richelle Mead

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?

Reviewed by Katie King on

3 of 5 stars

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**3 Stars**

I regret to say that The Golden Lily has suffered the same fate as Bloodlines: I can't really remember the plot. It's not like I'm not paying attention while reading, it's just really hard for me to recall anything that happened in these books. Maybe it's just boring? Maybe I need to start taking notes.

The Golden Lily had a lot of the same issues that I had with Bloodlines. Adrian is the same old Adrian, and again, we dig a little deeper into his character with his growing feelings for Sydney and his strained relationship with his dad. I'm glad he seems over Rose because that ship sailed a while ago, buddy. Speaking of Rose, Dimitri seemed to be just a dull as he did in Bloodlines, just there as Adrian's foil. Random Sonya was a more important character.

One of the major parts of the story is protecting Jill and Lissa's claim to the throne, but Jill didn't make much of an appearance besides to complain and talk about her relationship drama to Sydney. Sydney's own relationship with Brayden/Brandon/whatever was actually pretty interesting to me because I TOTALLY understand that whole dynamic - it's happened to me. It sucks when you're so much like someone but a little too much like them to really feel anything. And poor Sydney has zero relationship experience so she thinks it's normal to feel nothing towards your boyfriend.

Sydney is still a weird character for me. Like I said in my review of Bloodlines, she's really different from Rose, whom I loved in the Vampire Academy series. They're both tough girls, but in really different ways. Rose is all about pride and showing off, and Sydney is tough out of necessity to her duty, like obediently tough? But while in Bloodlines I thought that Rose and Sydney were pretty opposite, I think Sydney really started to grow into her own person in The Golden Lily. She is becoming a little more like the good parts of Rose that I liked, where she's starting to question everyone and rebel. She's no longer exactly who everyone expects her to be and I love it! I'm really starting to enjoy Sydney's view now especially since she stopped obsessing so much over calories. I also think this "blossoming" played a part in how Adrian feels for her. Which, I'm totally rooting for!

But again, there wasn't a lot of plot that caught my attention. The major antagonist of this book fell flat to me. When shit hit the fan, I just wasn't excited. I didn't believe for one second that anyone was in danger, that things might not work out, or that there was really any mystery behind anything. I guess it was nice to have something happen...but it didn't feel like anything was happening. The really great character development must have balanced it out, because now I'm excited for The Indigo Spell!

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  • Started reading
  • 9 August, 2015: Finished reading
  • 9 August, 2015: Reviewed