The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead

The Indigo Spell (Bloodlines #3) by Richelle Mead ☆☆☆☆☆

Oh, Adrian. Richelle Mead definitely knows how to write her boys. I was madly in love with Dimitri in Vampire Academy and couldn't imagine a better guy to love. Especially in comparison to Adrian in that series. But within this series, Adrian is the only one to love. He is snarky like so many of the male characters I love to read, but his snark is good-intentioned and funny. He never seeks out to make anyone feel bad. And as Sydney says in the book, he's the only one that never asks for anything in the form of a demand. He's all heart. And it's part of his artistic side.

I wish I had the never to highlight my books (it's one of my favorite things about a Kindle), because I would have highlighted so many sections of this book. Lines I wanted to remember forever I transcribed into a notebook by my bed. But there were several places that weren't about lines, places that were about emotion or inside jokes. On my second night of reading there were several places that I busted out laughing, loud in my little apartment. At least two of those sections I was laughing so hard I had to catch my breath to keep on reading.

The end came much too soon and I was craving more and more Adrian (especially after the table and silverware, not explaining why). I can't wait to read the next book. I need more Adrian. Oh, how I wish these boys were real!

My only complaint with this book, aside from the ending coming too soon, was that you forgot they were vampires because they never fed. Throughout the entire book there was no mention of the Moroi going over to Clarence's to feed. Very strange. I think that reminder would have been helpful.

The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

The Golden Lily (Bloodlines #2) by Richelle Mead ☆☆☆☆

I almost want to say this book was lucky to get four stars, but that's where I am really conflicted. There is a lot wrong with the book, but there is still also a lot that is right with it.

The story was just as gripping as all the other books in this series and the series is spun off from, Vampire Academy. And even though I enjoyed reading it, I found it took me awhile to get into it and I didn't find it that hard to set it down if something else came up. The culprit? There was no surprises.

The end of the Vampire Academy series ended with major surprises. The clues Mead left ended up leading in several directions, ones that seemed obvious and were wrong in the end and ones that I didn't see coming, but became obvious in hindsight. Bloodlines was similar. While there were a lot of obvious things going on, there were still surprises throughout. But in this book? Nothing surprised me. And I think that was the biggest let down when I finished it right now. I figured out all the clues before Sydney did and I hated her for her naivety as a character. And the clues were so obvious that I was hoping for those surprising twists that the other books had, but I didn't find them.

My other problem with the book was typos. Both the series before this and this series is riddled with typos and a new copy editor definitely needs to be hired, or at least someone needs to start doing their job because I've never read any other series with this many typos. Along the same lines as the typos, there are a lot of "writing techniques" used in here that no trained writer would actually use. In fact, some of the ones I caught were techniques I was told to avoid in my first fiction class for my undergrad Creative Writing degree.

Despite the flaws, I still liked the story. And most of all, I still love the characters. I fell in love with Adrian even more and wished I could smack him upside the head several times. And I realized just how much I missed his snark, though I would have loved even more of it.

I thought it was ridiculous that the next book in the series will be out in February, less than a year away. To me it showed why there is are many typos, because there isn't enough editing time to be had. But still, I can't help but be glad that I don't have that long to wait to keep this story going. Can't wait :)

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

Bloodlines (Bloodlines 1) by Richelle Mead ☆☆☆☆☆

I will admit that I put this book off for way too long. I did start reading it when I first got it in the mail, but I had only made it three chapters in when I let the school semester take over my life. Essentially, this book was on the top of my list for my winter break reading, other than the book I borrowed from my professor and another book I was already half way through. Even with reason I feel like I should've dropped everything to put this first.

When I first pre-ordered the book I thought, hey it'd be great to see where the Vampire Academy world goes now. I was thinking in terms of story continuation and nothing more. And I was wrong. This book blew me away. Sydney as a narrator was more than I could have expected and I loved getting to know her and getting to know the world again through her. Most especially, getting to know Adrian again through her. It was brilliant.

The story line was also amazingly well written. There were several different plot twists going on and I am glad to say I figured out all but one of them before they were revealed in the story. The one I didn't figure out was more because my imagination was far too exaggerated. I loved stories were you can interact as a reader and figure the story out for yourself, and she set the story up perfectly in that way to invite the readers to explore it more. Admittedly, one plot point I wouldn't have figured out were it not for her Bloodlines Book Club on YouTube. And not only was the story great, but I must say that the writing has improved dramatically since the first Vampire Academy book, where I gave it a very low reading level and almost didn't finish reading it because of typos. This book impressed me on every angle really. I can't wait for The Golden Lily to be released this summer!