Review: The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

Bloodlines #2

Release Date: June 12^th, 2012

Number of Pages: 418

Publisher: Razorbill

Source: Bought

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.

I absolutely loved the Vampire Academy series. I had really enjoyed Bloodlines, even if it wasn’t as good the first series. The Golden Lily, sadly, disappointed me for most of the book. I do have to say that the ending brought me back to the series, making me really excited for the next book, but for more than half the book, I was far from in love.

I have to say, it’s probably Sidney’s boyfriend that turned me off. He’s kind of the most boring person I’ve ever read about, and to see her spend so much time with him instead of with Adrian, it made me go crazy. I absolutely adore Adrian in this series, and all I want is to see more and more of him. To see most of her free time spent with her boyfriend (I don't remember his name) bored me.

I had been a fan of Dimitri in VA, but in Golden lily, I was a little annoyed by his presence (There. I’ve said it.) He’s just there and he doesn’t make anything special to really make me swoon over him still. Adrian, on the other hand, I find him charming, and I love the evolution we can see in him, especially in this book. He just seemed to grow so much! Sidney changes a little in this book, but only a little at the end, and it did slightly annoy me. She may be intelligent and all, but she still has a lot to learn, and some of the things I wish she could have learned in this book.

Action was lacking for the first half of the novel. It was mostly about relationship between the characters, and I have to say I was expecting something more. Nothing really came and surprised me (I was actually imagining crazy twits in my head, and we got the boring plot instead… (I mean, there were so many people who could have been bad guy I wouldn’t really have seen coming. The one person that was supposed to surprise us wasn’t surprising at all.)

Overall, it wasn’t the best in the series, but I still want to read the Indigo Spell, if only to know what will happen with Sidney and Adrian. I won’t be dying for it, but I’m not giving up. Fans of the series will probably still enjoy it, but will probably not fall head over heels for this book in the series.