• Title: Bloodlines
• Author: Richelle Mead
• Series: Bloodlines #1
• Previous Series: Vampire Academy
• Next Book: The Golden Lily
• Source: Personal Purchase

Description from Goodreads:

Blood doesn’t lie…

Sydney is an alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of human and vampires. They protect vampire secrets – and human lives. When Sydney is torn from her bed in the middle of the night, at first she thinks she’s still being punished for her complicated alliance with dhampir Rose Hathaway. But what unfolds is far worse. Jill Dragomir – the sister of Moroi Queen Lissa Dragomir – is in mortal danger, and the Moroi must send her into hiding. To avoid a civil war, Sydney is called upon to act as Jill’s guardian and protector, posing as her roommate in the last place anyone would think to look for vampire royalty – a human boarding school in Palm Springs, California. But instead of finding safety at Amberwood Prep, Sydney discovers the drama is only just beginning…

Review

I had a harder time getting into this book than I did with Vampire Academy, but by the end, I really enjoyed it.

I listened to the audiobook of this, and for the most part, it was pretty smooth. However, I will admit that the scene with Adrian and Abe had me cringing. First, Adrian sounded nothing like I imagined he would, and Abe just sounded like a cartoon character. I was nervous at that point that I wouldn’t be able to get through this version. However, I got used to Adrian’s voice. Abe’s voice still makes me roll my eyes, but luckily, he has a very small part in this book.

It also took me a while to warm up to Sydney as the narrator. I liked her enough in the Vampire Academy series, but actually being inside her head was a whole new ballgame. First, Rose was an incredibly strong character with very few prejudices, and I really liked her. Sydney, on the other hand, seems to have more confidence issues, and several times, her prejudices against the vampires had me rolling my eyes. You know an author’s good when she can have you like vampires better than humans! lol

Sometimes I felt that the everyday at the school dragged, but it was never too horrible. And I lived for the scenes between Adrian and Sydney. Their interactions cracked me up, and I loved how easily he could get under Sydney’s skin.

There were a couple of things that I was able to predict that seemed to take Sydney longer to figure out, but then there were also things that I thought I had figured out and was way off on. I really liked the action scenes, especially the big one towards the end. I was surprised how much still happened even after the climactic scene, but I thought it was interesting stuff, too. Seeing as how I was firmly Team Adrian while reading Vampire Academy, the end made me a little sad, but it also looks like it’s setting up a very interesting book 2!

Overall, while it took me a bit to really get into this one, I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it to fans of Vampire Academy. It gives an interesting change of perspective on that world, and I’m very anxious to start The Golden Lily!

Tagged: 4 stars, Bloodlines, paranormal, Penguin, review, Richelle Mead, YA