The Golden Lily, A Review

The Golden Lily is the second book in the Bloodlines series by Richelle Mead.

After being considered a traitor to her people for aiding Rose Hathaway, Sydney Sage has finally cleared her name and reputation in the Alchemist Community. All she had to do was uncover an illegal ring of people using vampire blood to help kids enhance their abilities in sports and, oh yeah, a rouge vampire trying to become Strigoi. All of this was accomplished while helping the sister of the Moroi Queen stay in hiding at a human boarding school. All in a days work.

Adrian and Dimitri (swoon to both of those men! ) with the help of Sonya Karp, are trying to find some way to help protect humans and vampires from Strigoi attacks ( the vampires that we have come to know from myth with no thoughts of anything but murder and mayhem). Sydney feels the need to help them in whatever way she can, after all they are trying to protect humans too. But when the question of using her blood as a sample is brought up, all of Sydney's beliefs are put to the test.

In between her moral dilemma of donating blood Trey, Sydney's friend, swears that he has found her soul mate in a coworker at the coffee shop he works at. Upon meeting Brayden, Sydney realizes that Trey might know what he is talking about. He is her intellectual match in every way. She could debate with him all day. That is all there is to the dating thing right? It is normal not to feel passion when you are talking about the effects of wind energy? Surely there are no sparks or tingling feelings when you touch someone in real life? 

Sydney's "relationship" is the last thing that she has time for when one night, while picking up dinner downtown with Sonya, the women are attacked. By humans! The men meant to behead Sonya right there on the street. In that moment Sydney's entire world view is changed. She was attacked by her own kind and they were there to do her and her "friend" harm. All of her life she was afraid of the vampires. They are an abomination and not natural. All of them. The Moroi (vampire elites), the dhampir's ( the Moroi guardians) and the Strigoi (the evil undead ). Why had she never realized that all people are capable of evil deeds. Are Dimitri and Sonya really worse than the men who attacked her? Is Adrian?

Oh Adrian, Sydney really is spending too much of her time thinking of that vampire. She knows that it is because she is proud of him for going to school and taking art classes. Trying to be a better man all around. She is just a good person who likes to see people succeed. It has nothing to do with the way he looks at her or sticks up for her. Nothing to do with the wonderful way he smells, whoa! Did she just think that?

The hunt is on. Someone knows that there are Moroi in Palm Springs and they seem to be ready to stalk and kill at any cost. Sydney must figure out what is going on in time to help all of the people in her group that she has been protecting. Does someone know that the Moroi princess, Jill, is here? Are they targeting her along with Sonya? Why does this group that attacked her keep tugging at Sydney's memory? She should know what is going on but there are too many holes in this mystery. Can she solve it in time?

Oh my good Lord so many things happen in this book! I could not put it down! At all! As I kept getting closer to the end of the book I found myself wondering how Mead was going to tie up all the loose ends. Oh how she does it flawlessly. Not one single detail goes unnoticed. Sydney is such a wonderfully written character. I wish that I knew her in real life. In this book so many of Sydney's limits are challenged and she handles it with her typical grace. None at all! :)  I love this series and I can not wait for the next book. If you have not tried this series yet, go out and by the first book, Bloodlines, right now! You will be hooked, I promise you. This is A Must Read Indeed!

Happy Reading,

Lisa :)