I think at least half of Vampire
Academy Series readers are brokenhearted for Adrian. I’m one of them. Adrian’s
the kind of loveable bad guy character. Sometimes he reminds me of Chuck Bass
from Gossip Girl, less annoying thankfully. When I heard that Richelle Mead is
going to make a series for Adrian, I felt ecstatic.
Bloodlines main heroin is Sydney the
alchemist. She’s afraid of vampires, hated some of them, but somehow she got
herself tangled with a bunch of vampires. As an alchemist Sydney had to serve
as a bridge between human and vampires. Her job made her involved in the chaos
in vampire world. Her current task was to prevent civil war between moroi
vampires by helping Jill Dragomir.
Jill Dragomir, Vampire Queen younger
sister was in mortal danger from the opposition party of the queen. Sydney and
Jill, accompanied by Adrian and Eddie—a vampire who’s very close to Jill and a
dhampir who’s protecting Jill—they went to a human boarding school in Palm
Spring California—a place where just a little number of vampires hide in there.
Sydney thought that they’re at least safer in Palm Spring. But the drama was
just begun. It’s not only their live on the stake. Before she realized it,
Sydney found out that her heart, ignoring her brain, went to someone who’s
forbidden for her.
I have to say that Sydney is totally a
different character compared to Rose Hathaway (main heroin from Vampire Academy
Series). Sydney is very smart, but she could be very clueless in certain social
situation since she never went to a normal school. She’s not a badass character
to the bones like Rose. She’s very obsessive with her weight and sometime she
could be a little bit unsure of herself. But I think it made her more
believable and easy to connect with the readers. And here she is: in a foreign environment,
a new social circle (well, it’s her first social life aside from her job),
surrounded by some vampires posing as her family. As the story progressed,
she’s more like a mother hen protecting her vampire friends.
The chemistry for the main characters is developed rather slowly. For Sydney, Adrian is an interesting
character. One time Adrian could act like a natural born charmer. On the other
time, darkness leaked from him, making him looked like a totally different character. The difference could be very confusing for Sydney. But for me, their interactions are the most exciting part of the book. It’s very fun to
learn how their relationship developed as they begun to understand each other
better.
I have to admit that in the first
book of Bloodlines series, the story progressed a little bit slow although the
premise of the series itself seemed promising. But we have to remember that
Vampire Academy Series started in a same way—which meant that Mead tried to
introduce and personalize every character in the first book. We can expect the
story to move faster in her next book of the series. One thing I can promise
you: you’ll get a good vampire story from this book. No sparkling vampires, no
clingy characters, you’ll get a decent ending—with climax and a little cliffhanger to make you curious enough for the second book. Definitely a must read one,
even though you’re not a vampire stories lover.
