Mini-Review: The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

                                                       

The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

418 Pages

Release Date: June 12th, 2012 

Publisher: Razorbill 

Genre: YA Paranormal

Rating: 4 STARS 

Goodreads Summary:

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?

Richelle Mead does it again. The Golden Lily is an exceptional and beautifully written sequel to Bloodlines. (And I don't mean it in how classic novels are described, more of how YA Paranormal/Vamp books are written.) Richelle Mead did a lovely job with the plot and the story moved in a good pace and flow. Sydney's a great character, she's got the brains, but when it comes to guys...so not her forte. She's plain clueless or just too loyal, which is a good yet bad thing in her situation. Especially since she's getting closer to Jill, Eddie, and Adrian and getting attached, while she's also loyal to the Alchemists. This does cause a whole new perspective drift on how Sydney views the Alchemist and her thoughts on Morois/Dhamphirs. (The end seriously proved that!)

We also get introduced to a new character: Brayden, Sydney's boyfriend, is pretty much the guy version of her. And he never stood a chance against Adrian. I loved how he would express his jealousy and how Sydney didn't really understand the source of it. They're total opposites, yet they both understand each other's struggles and always find some common ground with one another. I'm glad that Sydney is starting to realize that not everything's black and white and that Adrian may have placed a seed of change in her. All we have to do is wait to see if that seed will bloom

Who wouldn't want to read this EPIC, romantic, and action-packed book? I totally recommend the Bloodlines series, which is also the spin off series to the Vampire Academy series, to anyone who misses the VA series or just wants to see more of Adrian ;D