The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead | Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.5)

"Those words, that voice, had more power over me than any phantom ever could."

My thoughts on the conclusion to a phenomenal series? I can’t even believe I am about to say this but The Ruby Circle is the first, and only, book in the Bloodlines series that I didn’t love. I liked it, this much is true, enough to reread it in the future, but it was still a rather weak installment and not at all up to the standards usually set by Richelle Mead.

I daresay it bordered on half-assed and rushed.

It was enjoyable–but only to an extent. By comparison to the other novels in the series, it was watered down and sped up to hit a more suspenseful note. But it didn’t mesh well with it at all. Mead attempted to wrap up plots from the novels in a way that could have been excellent, had the novel been a bit longer and less “everyone gets a happily ever after except a few!” and more detailed.

See, I’m all for happy endings and logically speaking a lot of things from this final book have been a long time coming and hinted at for ages. But it all felt a bit dull. “Boom, this thing happened!” and “Boom! They’re together now!” and “Boom, let’s make a deal!” is how the story felt to me. Unlike the previous installments, it felt rushed and as if we were told things rather than shown them.

Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead | Rating: ★★★★★

“Are you in a suit?" I managed at last, my voice choking up. "You didn’t have to dress up for me."
"Quiet, Sage," he said. "I’ll make the hilarious one-liners during this daring rescue."

Richelle Mead is at it again! And by that I mean, she’s being an absolute angel and nightmare and the ultimate goddess of suspense all at the same time. No! Joke! I repeat: no joke.

Silver Shadows is just as fast paced as every novel Mead has ever written and then some. I can’t say all the emotions I felt while reading this one because it’s indescribable but I guess you should trust me when I say it, this book will make you feel e v e r y t h i n g. Prepare yourself for a surge of emotion and a whole world of danger, because whereas The Fiery Heart was all about passion and love, this one takes on a darker tone, while still holding onto the romance and humor of the rest of the series.

Last we saw, Sydney and Adrian were separated when the Alchemists caught wind of their relationship. Sydney Sage was turned in by her own, and younger sister, Zoe Sage and things really hit the fan. After all this time of keeping their relationship a secret, they have been discovered and during an altercation in the night which our previous installment ended, Sydney has sacrificed herself to save her friend Eddie (who was with her when she was taken) and is now being held at an Alchemist reeducation center.

The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead | Rating: ★★★★★

"Don’t take the high ground and assume you already know what you’ll do. The truth is, when it comes to someone you love, you’ll find there isn’t anything you won’t do."

The Fiery Heart, the fourth and fittingly fiery installment of the wildly popular Bloodlines series, spin-off to Vampire Academy, takes on a different tone than its predecessors. It’s refreshing. Darker. Edgier. Sexier. After finishing it, in just over one sitting, I found that it’s my favorite in the series thus far–in spite of the heartbreaking finale that leaves us with one question in the form of a cliffhanger.

But we’ll get to that soon. Richelle Mead kicks things up a notch this round and we see even more growth in Sydney Sage. Sydney has grown to be one of my favorite characters in many, many years, and is perhaps one of Mead’s finest developed in all the novels she’s produced.

Sydney Sage is a phenomenal lead character. She’s everything one could hope for in fiction. I love how we’ve seen her go from isolated and cold to something far more superior and warm. There’s just something incredibly pleasing to look at her in this installment and to look back at her first introduction in the Vampire Academy series.

The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead | Rating: ★★★★★

After months and months of waiting and being unable to find myself a copy of the third book in Richelle Mead’s phenomenal Vampire Academy spin-off series Bloodlines, I’ve managed to get my greedy and eager little paws on The Indigo Spell. I can’t tell you how excited I was to pick up where I left off in the fast paced world of magic, but let me say right away that The Indigo Spell did not disappoint!

Richelle Mead shows us no mercy with her mysterious settings, high stakes and steamy forbidden romance and once again pulls readers in within that very first chapter. The Golden Lily was the series at its very best, but The Indigo Spell follows Mead’s ability to just keep getting better and better as the series passes. Mixed with the perfect entanglement of angst, romance, magic and mystery, The Indigo Spell is sure to satisfy readers and leave them tripping around to get the next book.

In the time that we’ve known our leading lady Sydney Sage, we’ve seen her grow and grow right before out eyes.

Now, in this third installment, she continues on that path and finds herself confronting her own feelings just as much as she seeks out the truths of The Alchemists. She is faced with the realization that her life isn’t as she thought it’d be, and there are more secrets hidden away in the background.

The Golden Lily (Bloodlines #2) by Richelle Mead | Rating: ★★★★★

“Wasn’t that kind of the basis of passion? I didn’t know that either. The only thing I knew for sure was that this kiss had been a lot like the last one. Nice, but it didn’t blow me away. My heart sank. There was something wrong with me. Everyone was always going on about how socially inept I was. Did it extend to romance as well? Was I so cold that I’d spend my life never feeling anything?”

Sydney Sage is back in the second installment of her spin-off series Bloodlines. In our previous chapter, the first of the series, we were shown quite a bit of action and familiar faces from the beloved Vampire Academy series and I’ve never been more excited! After an action packed fight involving a duo of Strigoi, and one former Strigoi who set his heart on changing back to the deadly monster he once was, and lastly some, shall we say, unexpected flames–we’re more than aware of dangers our gang just may be facing.

But can Eddie, Jill, Adrian and Sydney continue to keep their identities safe from the world? And can they keep each other safe?

Now that Sonya Karp, Dimitri Belikov and a very persistent Angeline, who readers will remember from Last Sacrifice as one of the Keepers, are thrown into their little family mix the stakes are higher than ever. Sonya seems to be in danger by a group of men who claim to have known her during her time as a Strigoi and an attack not long after which they only narrowly escaped.

Bloodlines (Bloodlines #1) by Richelle Mead | Rating: ★★★★★

“The greatest changes in history have come when people were able to shake off what others told them to do.”

Returning to the same world her Vampire Academy series is set in, Richelle Mead introduces us to characters we’d already come to know (and love) in their own spin-off series titled Bloodlines. Although taking place in the same world and having a similar structure, Bloodlines is on the fast track to take on a life of its own.

And it’s really quite satisfying.

In this first installment we see through the eyes of Sydney Sage, who we know as the alchemist who befriends and helps dhampir, Rose Hathaway, in the original series. We know Sydney to be a bit more standoffish in comparison to the other characters due to her strict upbringing and the way in which she was conditioned to feel and think, and in Bloodlines we get an understanding of who she is and what exactly she feels.

Hint: her thoughts and complex and conflicting because the longer she spends in the company of those she once viewed as “evil and unnatural” she grows to care for them a great deal. Old habits do die hard, though, and in spite of the newfound warmth towards them she has an awful lot of struggles when it comes to what she feels and what she believes she should feel.