17 June 2012

Willow Reads: The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

The second thrilling installment in Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy spinoff series

Tough, brainy alchemist Sydney Sage and doe-eyed Moroi princess Jill Dragomir are in hiding at a human boarding school in the sunny, glamorous world of Palm Springs, California. The students--children of the wealthy and powerful--carry on with their lives in blissful ignorance, while Sydney, Jill, Eddie, and Adrian must do everything in their power to keep their secret safe. But with forbidden romances, unexpected spirit bonds, and the threat of Strigoi moving ever closer, hiding the truth is harder than anyone thought.

Populated with new faces as well as familiar ones, Richelle Mead's breathtaking Bloodlines series explores all the friendship, romance, battles, and betrayals that made the #1 New York Times bestselling Vampire Academy series so addictive. In this second book, the drama is hotter, the romances are steamier, and the stakes are even higher.



There are definitely going to be spoilers here. xD I just finished this book and I'm going to complain about it a little. 

Title: The Golden Lily (Bloodlines #2)
Author: Richelle Mead
Page Count: 418 
Book Website: http://www.richellemead.com
Published: June 12, 2012
Source: Long time Richelle Mead fan
For those who don't know, there are teaser trailers posted on the Bloodlines Youtube Channel for the books as they come around. It will probably be a while before new ones are posted, but they're usually 30 seconds or under of a clip, which contains a quote from the book they're advertising. Kind of cool for me, thought I'd share. 


So I've been a Richelle Mead fan since my sophomore year of high school- I randomly picked up Vampire Academy (book one of the popular Vampire Academy series) at the library and I was kind of putting it off until last to read it out of my stockpile of books. I couldn't have been more wrong, though. And I openly admit that. 


Richelle Mead has put me through some anxious times, but I don't regret it. She's one of my favorite authors by far (though nobody can trump J.K. Rowling in my book), and I'm so glad I started reading VA when I did. I have every single Vampire Academy book, in both book and ebook form... Then there's the Official Guide and the Graphic Novels (I only have #1, but #2 just came out). I also have the first book in both formats to this series, which is a spin off to the six-book VA series. If you haven't read the Vampire Academy books, I suggest you read those before reading Bloodlines and The Golden Lily- it'll help you understand quite a bit about the characters. Plus, they're an amazing read.


Down to business though. I gave this book five stars on Goodreads because I absolutely loved it. xD Richelle Mead has done it again. 

In this installment of Sydney Sage's story:  

While co-protecting Jill with Eddie and a new character to the series (though I think she was in the sixth VA book, Last Sacrifice) named Angeline, some interesting things happen. At first, Angeline doesn't seem to fit in at Amberwood Academy- she breaks dress code rules, punches a guy at an assembly, and keeps coming on to Eddie like there's no tomorrow. She also comes close to breaking the facade of the brother/sister story by asking Eddie to the Halloween dance. 


While that's happening, Jill is still here! She's still dating Micah, that started in Bloodlines. But she's starting to face the fact that she can't date him forever- vampires and humans just can't be together and things are getting serious. She doesn't know that Eddie likes her as much as he does, she has to be blind not to see it if Sydney can see it. We don't get her insight really, it'd be more interesting if we could. But anyway, there's some flames there. xD


Adrian is also here in his beautiful glory. I love Adrian so much. xD 
We find out that he loves cherry slushes and pomegranate gelato, but not everything is smooth sailing. We have another confrontation with his dad, and that goes just about as well a lion would treat its prey. But things get better eventually, and he gets this truck Sydney falls in love with. And there's more romance in store for Adrian here... I'll let you see how- READ THE BOOK! xD Adrian also gets one of the most romantic lines of the entire book: "You are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen walking this Earth." Actually, he says it twice. xD






Sydney also gets some romantic interaction- for a lot of the book, she's dating this guy named Brayden. Well... I'm not actually sure if you could call it romance. Even I know that you feel something from kissing someone you're attracted to- and Sydney really doesn't feel it. Anyway, she thinks she does. He's smart and they have a lot in common, but in the end it doesn't work out. Their breakup was comical, too. Sydney laughs her way out of the coffee shop he works in. But at least it wasn't teary or anything.


The best part though? Another fangirling moment? Even more intense than the Adrian stuff? 


DIMITRI. FREAKIN. BELIKOV!
He's there, for all of the book. 
And, if you know me, you know I am totally for Dimitri. 
He's there with Sonya Karp doing some research, as we know from the last line of Bloodlines. But he's actually here! That in itself made me squee. I loved him being there, even though the entire book was mostly romantic tension between Sydney and Adrian. I loved that protectiveness though. He's amazing, and there was ONE mention of Rose, in a phone call. 


Well, now that I've sort of covered some of the main parts of the book, I'm satisfied that I got my current "ajgksgjasogasgjiwefwefjasfjknagls" feeling out and I can go to sleep. xD


But yeah, I loved The Golden Lily, and I can't wait for book 3 of the series called The Indigo Spell. This will be released as soon as possible I hope- according to goodreads, it's expected to be out in February next year but this will probably change as more info comes available. :)

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