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 Chelsea on

5 of 5 stars

Share
Initial Thoughts

I was ready to completely devour this book and I’m glad I picked it up right away. I seriously could not wait to get my hands on this next book.

My New BFF

Sydney just keeps making me happy. She’s growing so much that I can’t keep up with her sometimes. I love how brave she is even though she’s been trained not to care about any of the people she’s with. She looks at her surroundings and sees that these vampires aren’t even that bad so she slowly gets comfortable around them. I’m really, really happy with her character right now. I don’t see any way the author could go wrong with her.

My Crush

One again, Adrian was the centre of my thoughts during this book. He’s just an easy character to fall in love with. My favourite part about him is that he’s not a perfect character. He has tons of little imperfections and it makes him feel very realistic to me. He’s also pretty funny sometime. That helps.

Writing Style

I’m loving the world Richelle Mead has created here. I loved it in Vampire Academy and I love that she has incorporated everything here. There isn’t much not to love about this book. The plot flows nicely and keeps you entertained and the characters are always learning and changing. It’s quite amazing actually.

Closing Thoughts

This is a series that I won’t be able to put down until I’ve read them all. It’s almost addicting, so just a warning to anyone else reading it. The characters are all incredibly complex and there’s nothing typical about them. You’d think in a paranormal ya book that there would be love at first site and a love triangle but there’s nothing typical about this book. There’s only one guy the main character is meant to be with and you know it. The author takes her time developing their relationship and I love that. We need more of this in the ya world. I’m obsessed with everything about this book and I can already tell that I’m going to love this whole series for a very long time.

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 13 May, 2015: Finished reading
  • 13 May, 2015: Reviewed