Review of Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

Title: Bloodlines
Author: Richelle Mead
Published by: Razorbill
Pages: 421
Source: Won from Books With Bite
Format: Hardcover
Rating: ★★★★

Summary from Goodreads: When alchemist Sydney is ordered into hiding to protect the life of Moroi princess Jill Dragomir, the last place she expects to be sent is a human private school in Palm Springs, California. But at their new school, the drama is only just beginning.

When the Vampire Academy series ended I knew I would miss Rose fiercely, so I was beyond excited when I heard Richelle Mead was going to be doing a spin off series!

While we get to learn a little about Sydney in the VA series, Bloodlines is from her point of view as an alchemist.  I really like Sydney.  She is neat, organized, compassionate, and extremely smart, yet has a tendency to doubt the alchemists' ways and disregards the rules when she needs too.  While she may not be the life of the party, I still admire her for who she is.  In fact, I feel like I am her a little bit.  I'm always been "the good child."  I was the one who never skipped school, got good grades and generally followed the rules.  Yet, if I believed there was an injustice I stood up for what I believed it.  Plus with her mixing up her remedies I felt right at home, like I was in my lab doing some experiments myself.  Though I have to admit her concoctions to remove poison, end teenage acne problems and create a fire charm sound a lot cooler than studying the chemistry behind the deterioration of varnishes on 19th century paintings. 

My connection to Sydney may be the reason that while I liked the story, it felt like something was missing.  I miss the spunky and spontaneity of Rose.  I wanted some fearless and totally kick-butt heroine, not someone like myself.  It wasn't until the end that Sydney really came into her own and decided to "screw the system" and I was there cheering her along...come on I need to live vicariously through someone right?

Another thing I was really looking forward to in this novel was Adrian.  I loved Adrian and while I knew Dimitri was the guy for Rose, I still wanted a great ending for Adrian.  Adrian drastically grew up in this novel.  To tell you the truth I hopelessly kind of miss his bad boy ways.  Where is that cocky, sarcastic charm of his? 

The storyline was intriguing and it keep you guessing at what was going to happen.  You had an idea of the bad guys, but never knew to what extent they would torment Sydney, Jill and the others.  You end up being suspicious of everyone and always second guessing the characters motives. 

Overall, Bloodlines is a great start to a series that I'm sure is going to be fantastic.