The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

About the book

The Golden Lily is the second book in the Bloodlines series (a Vampire Academy spin off) by Richelle Mead. The book was published on 12^th June by Razorbill and the book is 432 pages long.

Plot

Tough, brainy alchemist Sydney Sage and doe-eyed Moroi princess Jill Dragomir are in hiding at a human boarding school in the sunny, glamorous world of Palm Springs, California. The students--children of the wealthy and powerful--carry on with their lives in blissful ignorance, while Sydney, Jill, Eddie, and Adrian must do everything in their power to keep their secret safe. But with forbidden romances, unexpected spirit bonds, and the threat of Strigoi moving ever closer, hiding the truth is harder than anyone thought.

What I thought

I’ve been a massive fan of Richelle Mead’s other books and was excited about Vampire Academy having a spin off series. Bloodlines was great and it made me excited to read The Golden Lily.

The Golden Lily has a really slow opening. In fact, the story didn’t really seem to go anywhere for about the first third of the book. I was actually wondering whether or not it was going to go anywhere at all but I persevered with it and carried on. The first part of the book talks a lot about experiments and science regarding the Strigoi, which is all well and good if you like that kind of thing but I found it a little boring.

Once the plot started to really develop, I was hooked. So many secrets are revealed in this book and many of them I didn’t seem coming at all. Richelle Mead has a way of throwing in a surprise in the middle of no-where so there is no way at all that you can expect it. Some of the events in this book not only affected its plot but also the plot for (probably/ hopefully) many books to come. After the events in Bloodlines, I don’t think I would have ever expected some of these things to happen and I really like how the plot was so mixed up and exciting because of this.

Sydney, the MC annoyed me quite a lot in Bloodlines just because she was annoying and a bit stupid at times. Thankfully, this changes completely in this book. I thought that Sydney was a very strong character in The Golden Lily and she grew a hell of a lot. Her personality grew to be more likeable and her actions didn’t make me want to knock some sense into her either. Sydney became a lot more exciting in this book and I think it showed a lot of promise for where her story is going to go in future books.

Adrian of course was my favourite though. He was always my favourite in Vampire Academy and still is in this series. Unlike many main male characters, Adrian is not an asshole. He is sweet, caring and considerate but also has a bit of edge to him. Due to affinity with Spirit, his mind is slightly messed up and this causes him to be a bit all over the place sometimes but that’s one of the things I like about him. Throughout this book, he tries to keep up a front but goes through a pretty rough time so I felt sorry for him quite a lot.  

The Golden Lily has a bit of something for everyone. There are great characters all round, both main and supporting, and each relationship and friendship is truly special to read about. There is a bit of romance and a chunk of action. There are also some day to day scenes which was quite nice to see. Overall, even though The Golden Lily started out quite slow, it picked up quick enough for me to keep reading and it made me even more excited for the third book to be released.