Title: The Indigo Spell
Author: Richelle Mead
Series: Bloodlines, #3
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: Razorbill (Imprint of Penguin)
Date Published: February 12th, 2013
Edition: Hardcover
Rating:
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.
My Review:
Warning: If you haven’t read all of the Vampire Academy books, then this could contain spoilers for those. Otherwise, all spoilers are hidden behind tags and clearly defined.
Three books into the Bloodlines series and already so much has happened. The Indigo Spell is a huge turning point in the series for a lot of different reasons. Against everything she’s grown up to believe Sydney has gradually become more and more attached to the vampires she’s protecting — especially one in particular. In The Indigo Spell she faces some crucial choices that could change the core of her beliefs and put herself and her position in the Alchemists in jeopardy.
The stakes are high in The Indigo Spell and I definitely am still loving these books. Unfortunately I still haven’t grown as attached to them as I did with Vampire Academy though, but they are still very good. I think the main thing that is missing for me is more action and tension. The Vampire Academy books are so fast paced that they leave you literally breathless, but the Bloodlines books just don’t do that for me. They have good action scenes and the romance is quite sweet — especially since I love Adrian — but it’s just not as good.
One thing that kind of bugged me in this book is that Adrian is almost entirely different than we’ve grown to know him throughout the Vampire Academy series and even the first two books in Bloodlines. I’m glad to see that he’s leveled off because of Sydney and he’s getting his life back together. But at the same time I don’t think the core of his personality should change so much. He’s always had this sweet underlying personality beneath all of the cockiness and drunken moments. But now we very rarely see the sarcastic and fun side of Adrian, he’s all sweet and not much else. I’m not sure how I feel about that. But at the same time I’m super thrilled that he’s finally getting his time in the sun and the next books will even be from his perspective in addition to Sydney’s, that’ll be really cool!
Aside from the things I’m not sure about, I did enjoy the book overall. Richelle Mead is a wonderful writer and really anything she writes I find myself devouring. The Indigo Spell is a big turning point in Sydney and Adrian’s story and I’m really excited to see where the story goes in the next books due to the turn of events that took place here — and I’m not just talking about the romance. I picture more of Sydney and Adrian as partners in crime and I think that’ll be a lot of fun.
Overall these are great books but definitely read the Vampire Academy books before this series if you’re interested in it. It will give you a lot of background on Adrian especially and help you to really appreciate the growth that’s happened for him in this series. I think it’s a good move on Mead’s part to change up the point of views in the next book(s) though because while I find Sydney a lot more interesting than I anticipated, we definitely need something a little more. I hate to say it but she’s almost too honest with herself and doesn’t have enough internal conflict, especially after the choices she’s made in this book. So I think getting more than one POV will be just the thing this series needs now. I’m looking forward to seeing where the series will go after this book because I have a feeling it’s going to get even better.
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