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?
My Thoughts :
The Golden Lily has been on my iPod for a while and I wasn't in a rush to get to it. Despite liking the Vampire Academy books, the debut in this spin-off just didn't shine as much as I expected to. So the sequel wasn't looking too appealing but I still wanted to give the series a chance to warm up. Maybe things improved and I would never know! After all I have been reading Richelle Mead's books since she first appeared on the scene.
This second book in the Bloodlines series carries on from where the first book left us, in Amberwood hiding Moroi. Now the whole idea isn't too bad. Alchemists, Moroi etc etc but somehow the story just drags on for the first three quarters of the book with nothing really happening. Sydney takes the reader on a tour of her life, worries and relationship problems and we get to read between the lines while she, an intelligent young woman, ignores everything important that is going on in front of her.
Now I like Sydney. She is a nice young girl but while trying to be grown up and independent she comes across as insecure and a little naive. So much responsibility and somehow she has young girl problems like never having kissed a guy before. It is pretty flat and boring at times. Of course there are hints of a bigger story to come all the way through the book but it is only towards the end that things take off and you get the satisfaction you deserve for putting up with all the moaning and running around.
I know that if I had read this book I would have given up on it pretty early on. Listening to the audio book, while sometimes hard going, was easier to keep listening as I walked to and from work each day. I have to give the narrator kudos because she does make the whole story that little more interesting with the good job she does on the voices. She really kept me going.
All in all a good sequel but slow and long winded. The action comes at the end after a few weeks hanging around in the life of Sydney. I will check out the third part because I really like Adrian and want to see what happens with him and I am also curious about a few aspects of the ongoing story. Of course I will be going with the audio option for the next part.
