Showing posts with label the golden lily. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the golden lily. Show all posts

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Book Review: The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead

Today I am going to share my review on the Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead. This book is the 3rd book in the Bloodlines series, which is a spin off series of the Vampire Academy Series. Vampire Academy is one of my all time favorite series for a lot of different reasons. The spin off series, Bloodline is just as great as Vampire Academy in my opinion. I really enjoyed the first book, Bloodlines, and the second book The Golden Lily which I read last October (you can read my review for it here). I was really, really excited about The Indigo Spell, and since I just read the 2nd book a few months ago most of everything was still fresh in my mind. I really have to say that this book is the best yet in the series and I am so excited for the next one to time out. Now I'm going to get started with my review but for anyone who has not read any of these books there will probably be spoilers.


Summary from Goodreads:

In the aftermath of a forbidden moment that rocked Sydney to her core, she finds herself struggling to draw the line between her Alchemist teachings and what her heart is urging her to do. Then she meets alluring, rebellious Marcus Finch--a former Alchemist who escaped against all odds, and is now on the run. Marcus wants to teach Sydney the secrets he claims the Alchemists are hiding from her. But as he pushes her to rebel against the people who raised her, Sydney finds that breaking free is harder than she thought. There is an old and mysterious magic rooted deeply within her. And as she searches for an evil magic user targeting powerful young witches, she realizes that her only hope is to embrace her magical blood--or else she might be next.


Populated with new faces as well as familiar ones, the Bloodlines series explores all the friendship, romance, battles, and betrayals that made the #1 New York Times bestselling Vampire Academy series so addictive—this time in a part-vampire, part-human setting where the stakes are even higher and everyone’s out for blood. 


So this book pretty much picks up not long after the what happened at the end of The Golden Lily. Sydney and Adrian finally have their (forbidden) moment between them and Sydney is freaking out. She also learned about an ex Alchemist named Marcus Finch who is on the run. She longs to find him and figure out his secrets on how he left the Alchemist and why. Since Sydney is starting to rebel and realize she is being lied to, she is starting to look at the bigger picture of things and what/who she truly cares about. There's also an evil witch on the run who is hunting young witches, and just might be after Sydney too.

Like I said before, I really enjoyed this book. It's probably the best books that I've read in a while. The storyline was really engaging and I was never bored while reading it. Richelle Mead is such a great writer and she has a way of making this world she created and the characters in it seem so real. I pretty much have loved every book and character that she has written in these two series. There is always such excited action in her books and they always have a great climax, this book included. I really liked how there was a lot more focus on magic in this book as well. It gives it a nice twist and puts more into the story line. We are introduced to a lot of new character's in this book, and of course it has an ending that always leaves you hanging.

Sydney is such a fantastic main character for this series and I really like reading from her POV. She is really strong headed and she really grows a lot as a character in this book. The author also has such an amazing way of writing romances in these books that drive you completely crazy. She did it with Rose and Dimitri in VA and now she's doing it with Sydney and Adrain. Speaking of Adrian...Oh. My. GOD. Adrian has got to be my new all time favorite male character. Ever. I really liked him during the VA series but in this series he is so phenomenal. I'm really glad he is a main character in this series because it just wouldn't be complete without him. The 4th book is going to alternate POV from Sydney and Adrain. I was so excited when I herd this because we finally get to see what's inside that screwed up, hilarious, but beautiful head of his.

This is written from the Author on goodreads about the 4th book, The Fiery Heart.


The Fiery Heart is going to be told from both Sydney and Adrian's points of view. That's right. If you've ever wanted to get inside the crazy world of Adrian Ivashkov's head, this is it. It'll still be in first person, but the POV will alternate chapters. I'm so excited about this, it's not even funny. Well, actually...since it's Adrian, it'll be hilarious. I think you guys'll love it, and for those who still haven't made the transition to the Bloodlines series, now's your chance! #1 and #2 are out, and it's not too late to catch up before February.


I can't even express how excited I am about this next book in the series! Reading the Indigo Spell has made me want to go back and re read all of the Vampire Academy books and the other two Bloodlines books as well. Ahhh okay, I'm done gushing about how much I loved this book now. I hope you all enjoyed my review and happy reading!






Tuesday, November 6, 2012

What I Read in October

Hello Everyone! I have seriously been slacking on my blog posts, I don't think I have written on here for at least a month, sorry! I had read a lot more books last month in October then in the previous months when I started this blog and I had a lot of reviews planned out. Sometimes life gets in the way and we get side tracked with things, and my heart just wasn't into writing for a little bit. I am back now and I hope to write a lot of posts in the near future.

Anyways, here is my (late) October Wrap up! I read 5 books last month, which were The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead, Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan, Whispers at Moonrise by C.C Hunter, Hold Still by Nina LaCour, and I finally, finally finished reading A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. 



-The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead was the first book that I read last month. I absolutely fell in love with Rchelle Mead's writing and the whole world she has created all over again when I read this. I put off reading this book for so long and when I finally read it I was like why didn't I read this sooner?! You can read my review for this book here.

-Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan was the second book I read this book. I know I say this about every John Green book I read but, this was definitely unlike any other book I have read before. His books keep amazing me with each one that I read. Both him and David Levithan are phenomenal writers and I encourage anyone who has not read any of their books to do so. I didn't enjoy this book as much as the other John Green books that I read, but I still really liked it because of the two different writing styles that were entwined into the book. It made a totally different and interesting aspect to my reading experience that I don't get in a lot of books.

-Whispers at Moonrise by C.C. Hunter was another really great book I read. It is the 4th book in the Shadowfalls series, and I sware with each book in this series the books just keep getting better and better. The next book in the series is going to be the final book and I'm so sad that the series is ending. This is such a great series in the YA fantasy/paranormal genre.

-Hold Still by Nina LaCour was another great contemporary novel that I have added to my collection. I read this one on my kindle, and it was a quick read. There were so many aspects in this book that I loved and it is one that I highly recommend. This was one of the books that I planned of doing a review for, but since that didn't happen I will include a mini review here. It has great character development in it, along with some amazing characters. It is about a girl whose best friend commits suicide and she finds her journal she leaves behind. It's a very emotional heart lifting book about their friendship and we get to see the main character heal and gain strength from her grief.

-Lastly, I finally finished A Game of Thrones by George R.R Martin which is the first book in the series A Song of Ice and Fire. I was so proud of myself for reading and finishing this book because it is so long (809 pages!) plus I own the mass market paperback edition so the writing is super tiny! Also, this book has a lot of detail and it's hard to read and pay attention to everything that is going on, at least for me. I tend to stay away from adult novels like this, but I loved the TV show so much that I wanted to read the book. I tried to read the book first, and I had absolutely no idea what was going on so I'm glad I watched the show first. I can't wait to read the next books in the series but they are a little overwhelming because all of the rest are 1000+ pages. Yikes!

This is all for my October wrap up post. This post was a little bit longer than my usual wrap up videos but I wanted to talked a little bit more about the books I read since I didn't do any reviews for them. This month I started reading both Hidden by P.C Cast (10th house of night book) and The Golden Compass but I wasn't really getting into either book. I am still trying to read Hidden so we will see how that goes! Thank you all for reading and have a great day :)







Sunday, October 7, 2012

The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead: Book Review

Hello Everyone! I'm going to share my book review on The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead today. I finished reading this book a few days ago and I really enjoyed this book. I am a HUGE fan of Richelle Mead, she is a fantastic writer and the Bloodlines series is becoming one of my favorites. I absolutely love the Vampire Academy series so I was really excited when Richelle wrote a spin off series to Vampire Academy and I loved the first book Bloodlines as well.

While reading The Golden Lily,  I had forgot a lot of what happened in the first book so I was kind of confused at what was going on, but through each book (vampire academy as well) the author does a good job of explaining things from the previous books when necessary so it was easy to catch on when reading. Also- if you have not read Bloodlines then there could be some spoilers here! Now onto my review!!



Summary from Goodreads:
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?


Like I said before, I really enjoyed reading this book. I enjoyed it better then the first book mainly because of the ending. This book pretty much picks up from the last one with Sydney as the main character. I love all of the characters in this book as well, and it was nice to see how Sydney is developing a more personal friendship with all of them as she is working to help protect Jill. Since Sydney is an Alchemist, she works to protect the human world from Vampires, but since Alchemist don't like Vampires and think everything about this existence is wrong she isn't suppose to be too involved. Through the book Sydney really learns that Humans can be more dangerous then Vampires and as her relationships with them grows she starts to question everything she was taught to know. I was also happy that Dimitri played a bigger told in this book as well. He was in the story a lot and he is one of my favorite characters. This book didn't feature Rose or Lissa at all, so I was happy to see another of one of the previous main characters back.

I thought the plot in this book was a little slow and I was really wanting so more action but the story and characters made up for that a lot. I absolutely love Adrian. He is probably my favorite character in the book. Now while I always liked him in Vampire Academy as well, I was definitely team Dimitri in the whole Rose love triangle relationship. Now since that is all done and over with, Adrian has become my favorite character. I really like Sydney as well, I think she is a strong female character but sometimes I just want to slap her because she won't let herself listen to her heart. Which I won't explain because I don't want to give away any spoilers.

The ending to this book was so amazing and it just leaves you hanging! I love endings like this that are anticipating but I hate waiting for the next book to be released to find out what happens. The ending of this book was what I have been waiting for this entire series :) I was so sad that I couldn't have more because the book ended. I absolutely can not wait for The Indigo Spell to come out!

I definitely gave this book a 5/5 stars on goodreads. I put off reading it for so long because I forgot what happened in Bloodlines. I'm happy that I finally decided to read it because I fell in love with Richelle Mead's writing and the whole Vampire Academy / Bloodlines world all over again!

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed my review!


Monday, October 1, 2012

September Wrap up

Last month in September I only read 3 books again. I read Tilt by Ellen Hopkins, Venomous by Christopher Krovatin, and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. However even though I only read three books, I read about 200 pages of A Game of Thrones, which I started at the end of August. I put down that book so I could read different ones because it was taking me forever to read. I hope to finally finish it this month in October.


I really enjoyed Tilt by Ellen Hopkins. It wasn't my favorite book that she wrote, but I still liked reading it. I didn't do a review on this book, but I gave it 4/5 stars on goodreads.

I also enjoyed reading Venomous by Christopher Krovatin. It was a fun and quick read but it has a lot of deep and mature content in it. It was different from any kind of book that I've read before. You can read my review on this book here.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green was my favorite book that I read this month. John Green is a phenomenal writer and this book definitely did not disappoint me. I did a review on this book as well, and I will leave the link to it here.

I'm currently reading The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead, which is the second book in the Bloodlines series. So far I'm enjoying it, but I don't remember all of what happened in Bloodlines so it's a little hard for me to get into. After this book I'm going to be reading The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling. I am so so so excited for this book and I can't wait to read it. It was a pleasant surprise that J.K wrote another book!

Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed my (small) September wrap up!