Review--The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets—and human lives.

Sydney would love to go to college, but instead, she’s been sent into hiding at a posh boarding school in Palm Springs, California–tasked with protecting Moroi princess Jill Dragomir from assassins who want to throw the Moroi court into civil war. Formerly in disgrace, Sydney is now praised for her loyalty and obedience, and held up as the model of an exemplary Alchemist.

But the closer she grows to Jill, Eddie, and especially Adrian, the more she finds herself questioning her age–old Alchemist beliefs, her idea of family, and the sense of what it means to truly belong. Her world becomes even more complicated when magical experiments show Sydney may hold the key to prevent becoming Strigoi—the fiercest vampires, the ones who don’t die. But it’s her fear of being just that—special, magical, powerful—that scares her more than anything. Equally daunting is her new romance with Brayden, a cute, brainy guy who seems to be her match in every way. Yet, as perfect as he seems, Sydney finds herself being drawn to someone else—someone forbidden to her.

When a shocking secret threatens to tear the vampire world apart, Sydney’s loyalties are suddenly tested more than ever before. She wonders how she's supposed to strike a balance between the principles and dogmas she's been taught, and what her instincts are now telling her.

Should she trust the Alchemists—or her heart?


Richelle Mead is doing a fabulous job here folks!! If The Golden Lily was this awesome, I know The Indigo Spell is going to totally rock! And being the third book, it's definitely going to have some sort of killer cliffhanger! It's been pointed out many times over that her third book in her series tends to be monumental!

For awhile, I didn't know what to expect from The Golden Lily. It has been ages since I read Bloodlines, but I was once again happy to return to the Vampire Academy world! This time Dimitri is around and while it was all sorts of fun seeing him again, he's not the same without Rose! In this series though I am totally team Adrian. I loved Adrian before but I really love him more now. His character is so vulnerable and yet, he tries to do better.

There are several instances throughout the book where he tries to be a better person. To impress a certain Alchemist maybe? (wink, wink!) He is still the fun loving Adrian, he made me lol quite a few times, but he does seem to genuinely care for Sydney. And it's very endearing.

Sydney has her hands full this time around though, since her friend Trey has decided to set her up with her "soul mate", Brayden. Brayden is practically the male version of Sydney. She enjoys being with someone whose intellect matches her own, yet when they kiss, she feels no spark. 

There's also romantic trouble brewing between Jill, Michal, Eddie and Angeline. They make quite the odd love shape. Quadrangle? Whatever you want to call it, it's definitely going to lead to some messiness!

The main part of the storyline here involved Sonya and Dimitri trying to understand the whole Strigoi line, in that there's a cure. Sonya and Dimitri were both brought back to their ordinary selves after having been Strigoi. But then suddenly Sonya has been kidnapped, by a "new" band of vampire hunters. They call themselves the Warriors of the Light. They hunt vampires, Strigoi being their top priority for the meantime. I have the feeling that this group is going to be playing a role in the remainder of the series.

 Sydney is a character that continues to astound me. She has once been adamant that vampires are just bad. Sure the Moroi were okay, but they were still vampires. She has come a long way since we first met her in Blood Promise, yet old habits die hard. And I may have said this before in my review of Bloodlines. While she has advanced from her ways of old, it's hard for her to totally leave everything she learned since her childhood to be in cahoots with vampires--the Moroi like Adrian and Jill.

She makes a few shocking discoveries at the end of The Golden Lily that are already going to be apart of the next book! And there was another very shocking surprise at the end of this one! Of course that too has left Sydney as confused as ever as to who she is and what she is to do. Gotta love Mead!


Overall rating 5/5 stars