The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead

About the book

The Indigo Spell is the third book in the Bloodlines series by Richelle Mead. It was published by Penguin on 12^th February and the book is 416 pages long. Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy.

Synopsis (Taken from Goodreads.com)

In the aftermath of a forbidden moment that rocked Sydney to her core, she finds herself struggling to draw the line between her Alchemist teachings and what her heart is urging her to do. Then she meets alluring, rebellious Marcus Finch--a former Alchemist who escaped against all odds, and is now on the run. Marcus wants to teach Sydney the secrets he claims the Alchemists are hiding from her. But as he pushes her to rebel against the people who raised her, Sydney finds that breaking free is harder than she thought. There is an old and mysterious magic rooted deeply within her. And as she searches for an evil magic user targeting powerful young witches, she realizes that her only hope is to embrace her magical blood--or else she might be next.

What I thought

Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy was one of my favourite ever series and I was so sad when it ended up also so happy that there was a spin off series! The Indigo Spell is the third book in the series and pretty much starts from where The Golden Lily ended.

To begin with in this series, I thought that Sydney was a bit boring. However, this book has completely changed my mind about her. As an Alchemist living with vampires (the good kind though), Sydney ends up conflicted a lot about what she actually believes is right or wrong. Then there is the addition of her new magic skills which add a lot to her personality I think. I really liked how Sydney progresses as a character in The Indigo Spell, compared with the first two books in the series. I also felt that she was a much more approachable and likeable character here, due to her coming out of her shell a bit more.

The plot for The Golden Lily was extremely exciting but I didn’t feel the same about this book. We are left reeling from the events that happened previously and this book seemed like a bit of a filler. There are quite a few different things going on in The Indigo Spell which is why I don’t think it was quite as exciting.  However, I liked this. The Indigo Spell introduces quite a lot of new things into the Bloodlines world and although they aren’t explained fully, it sets the scene for the next book and for numerous things that could happen.

One element of The Indigo Spell that I did really enjoy was Sydney and her magic. Along with the help of her teacher and Adrian, Sydney begins to realise that the magic is inside her no matter whether she thinks she believes in it or not. This part of the plot was exciting though compared to the rest. I don’t want to give away too much but being able to throw around some fireballs sounds pretty awesome to me. The magic aspects of this series really make it stand out compared to Vampire Academy and make it a worthwhile series all on its own.

A big part of the previous book was the story between Sydney and Adrian, which I have to say I was very pleased about. Things definitely develop in The Indigo Spell but things are still quite up in the air between the two characters. Adrian knows exactly what he wants while Sydney, well, she never seems to know. I absolutely adored Adrian in Vampire Academy and I have to say that this series has made me love him even more. That boy has so much going on and there is so much about him that is interesting. He’s also a wonderful person deep down and not the person he was once made out to be. I cannot wait to see more of these two in future books.

I was sad to see that Jill wasn’t in this book very much. Sydney’s whole reason for being in her particular position is because of Jill. She was quite a large part of the previous two books and while she does pop up now and again in this one, I don’t feel as though it was enough. I missed her presence throughout. However, as there are all kinds of other things going on, I can understand why she gets so little page space in comparison to other characters.

Even though this is a bit of a mixed review, I did love The Indigo Spell. There was a lot explained, a lot happening and showed that there is a hell of a lot more to come.