Straight to the Point: The third book in the Bloodlines series has a lot of promise, but on some aspects it fails to deliver, the anticipation of a whole year meeting a slightly disappointing end. It’s still worth a read and most definitely will keep you tuned to the adventures of Sydney Sage, Alchemist extraordinaire, stuck in the world of Vampires and Witches.
Bloodlines has been highly anticipated ever since Richelle Mead wrapped up Vampire Academy, her hit book series that had managed to rekindle the love for Vampires in a world overly populated with all things Twilight. It’s a sequel, taking place in the same universe as Vampire Academy, only the focus has been switched from the Moroi/Dhampir/Strigoi trifecta and turned more towards the Alchemist (a secret organization that has been working in the shadows for centuries, trying to keep the information about the existence of vampires a secret).
With the new series comes a new heroine – Sydney Sage. An Alchemist who starts to struggle with her beliefs after her discovery that the world she’d been brainwashed to believe in, had an entirely different set of rules. After two books had already come out – Bloodlines and The Golden Lily – everyone was anxious for The Indigo Spell, the third part of six that is going to hit bookstores everywhere come the 12th of February. I got to read an advanced copy on the book and I have to say I’m vaguely disappointed. The book maintains the same style of first person point of view, limiting the ability of the reader to see what happens with the other characters that don’t interact directly with Sydney Sage, something that ends up removing several key characters from the spotlight. Jill Dragomir, Eddie Castile, Trey and Angeline all end up severely underused, making some of the anticipation dry out.
While the book is entertaining, the lack of her interactions with more people has made it hard to understand the dynamics of what was going on around the main story arc, everything else being resolved in a few sentences every few chapters, before returning to the main plot. In any other situation that would’ve worked perfectly, however she had a very limited group of people that she interacted with constantly, something that manifested less in the previous books, where you got more background on everybody. My biggest surprise about the series came from the character of Marcus Finch, who I’m sure you all remember from the extensive promotional videos and contests that hit the internet months before the launch. While he was considered a very important character, his presence in the book was minute, and we know less about him than I would’ve expected. Perhaps it will be further developed in the next few books, but so far it’s a little disappointing to know that we’ll all have to wait yet another year for The Fiery Heart to come out to clear this mystery.
Despite all this the book was highly entertaining, keeping me connected to the story for a whole day, making me unable to put it down. The mystery is entertaining enough to make you wonder throughout the story what’s what and who’s done it, though at times it seems to lag, only to pick up its speed after a few more chapters. Sydney Sage is one of the characters that shows the greatest growth, changing from the girl that obeyed the rules blindly, being nothing more than a tool to be used for the purposes of others, into a woman that has her own ideas and can make up her own mind about how things should be. The change is more subtle for the character of Adrian, but it’s still there, making up for the lack of his own presence in the book. Don’t get me wrong, he’s there, but for the better part of the book he’s useless and while I admit, I love a story with a strong female character if, as an author, you’ve gone through the trouble to create strong supporting characters, why not use them?
However, I will say this, something changes drastically in the Sydney/Adrian dynamic that will probably make everyone incredibly happy. I admit I expected more from the book, but it’s not going to deter me from reading the next one, nor is it going to make me love this particular universe any less. It gets a 10 for effort and a 9 for what it actually delivered. Take a look at the two book trailers prepared for the book and get reading.
