Bloodlines Review

Bloodlines (Bloodlines #1)

-       Richelle Mead

Publisher: RazorBill

Sydney protects vampire secrets - and human lives.
Sydney belongs to a secret group who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the world of humans and vampires. But when Sydney is torn from her bed in the middle of the night, she fears she's still being punished for her complicated alliance with dhampir Rose Hathaway. What unfolds is far worse. The sister of Moroi queen Lissa Dragomir is in mortal danger, and goes into hiding. Now Sydney must act as her protector. The last thing Sydney wants is to be accused of sympathizing with vampires. And now she has to live with one...

From the first page I was reminded how much I enjoyed Richelle Mead’s writing and the Moroi world she created with the Vampire Academy series. Sydney isn’t a vampire – she’s an alchemist, raised to believe all vampires and magic are unnatural and evil and that her duty is to protect the human world from both Moroi and Strigoi alike. When she is awakened in the middle of the night for a new duty to help protect the Moroi Princess Jill as she hides among humans, Sydney is torn between her upbringing and her growing respect for the Moroi and dhampir she now has to live with.

Most of the main characters here are ones we have run into before in the Vampire Academy series – Sydney, Adrian, Jill, Eddie and it is great to see such supporting characters getting more the spotlight. Adrian in particular is given much more time and development. I loved the relationship he and Sydney share considering their polar opposite viewpoints. Sydney is all about duty and responsibilities while Adrian is about instant gratification. They both rub off slightly on each other and I’m excited to see how this develops over the series. I really liked that even Adrian’s friends don’t hold a lot of expectation from him, while Sydney wants him to accept some responsibility.

I loved the characters and the different viewpoint – Sydney is a great heroine who has a similar need to protect as Rose had, but her focus is all on humans rather than Lissa. I liked her dislike of magic and how she sees the vampire world from the outside. However, I did feel there were a couple of issues with the story – the tattoo storyline was very obvious from early on and I can’t believe it took Sydney so long to figure it out. The whole books also had a large element of setting the scene and background rather than a fully coherent story on its own. Not necessarily a bad thing – the first Vampire Academy book was the same! I am excited about this series though and what Adrian, Sydney, Jill and the others will face in coming volumes! This was a great introduction to the world – readable even if you haven’t read the Vampire Academy series, but I would recommend reading them as well – just because they are well worth a read!

Recommended for fans Jeri Smith-Ready and Kelley Armstrong. 8 out of 10.