Title: The Indigo Spell (Bloodlines #3)
Author: Richelle Mead
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Age Group: Young Adult
Rating: 5 stars
Purchase: Goodreads, Amazon (HC), Amazon (PB), B&N
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.
Populated with new faces as well as familiar ones, the Bloodlines series explores all the friendship, romance, battles, and betrayals that made the #1 New York Times bestselling Vampire Academy series so addictive—this time in a part-vampire, part-human setting where the stakes are even higher and everyone’s out for blood.
This book made me cry. It doesn’t happen very often – so far in 2013 only two books have succeeded, namely The Indigo Spell and Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare – but when it happens it means that this is a darn good read. In the case of The Indigo Spell, much of that brilliance can be attributed to one person. Adrian. If there’s one YA character who ever captured my heart, then it has got to be Adrian. He’s everything you’d wish for in a book-boyfriend: charming and entertaining, mysterious, intelligent, brave, caring. It also helps that his previous relationship was doomed for the start, he suffered a broken heart, and now is his chance for redemption. So whenever Sydney turns him down or thinks she can’t be with him, I feel like shaking her and telling her to get over all her prejudice toward vampires, even though I know it’s not that simple, and there’s more going on than that. But I want Adrian to be happy. He freaking deserves to be.
Now I’ll end my Adrian-related rant with the conclusion that he’s awesome, nothing should ever change about him, and whatever books Richelle Mead writes featuring Adrian as main character – or even secondary character – I will devour them.
Back to the plot and story. Things have gotten even more complicated than Sydney ever thought possible, and it’s hard for her to figure out where her allegiance lies. She meets with some sort of rebel alchemist named Marcus, who is determined to uncover all of the alchemists’ secrets. Sydney, once a firm believer of everything the alchemists stood for, is now more than ever convinced her former family is hiding something, and that those secrets are dangerous. She’s changed so much since the beginning of this series. Finally she jumped off the iron throne the alchemists built, pretending they were better than vampires, and learned that not all vampires are evil, wicked creatures. She’s practising magic, becoming more powerful with each passing day, discovering who she truly is and who she was always meant to be. I really like her personality, and the complexity of her character. She’s layer upon layer upon layer, and she surprised me every now and then even though I thought I knew her by now. At the end of this book, I was rooting for Sydney even more.
The plot itself wasn’t that spectacular. The villain is easily discovered, a witch who is obsessed with staying young, beautiful and powerful forever, and steals young witches’ powers to do so. Yeah, been there, done that about a bazillion times before. But who really cares about the plot? It’s the characters that make these books, their emotions, their inner turmoil, their battles, who they will be in the end.
I can’t wait for the next book in the series. Meanwhile, if you haven’t picked up Bloodlines yet, shame on you. Go buy yourself a copy. Now.
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