Bloodlines [Paperback]

The Vampire Academy series has always been a favorite for me. I was a little wary to see how Richelle Mead's spin-off would turn out. I've read spin-off's - most are not very good. I loved Rose as a heroine, she had a lot of spunk and I wasn't sure what to expect with Sydney. I thought the author was trying to go for the complete opposite of Rose's character and didn't really think that would turn out well.

After reading Bloodlines I'm happy to say my bad expectations of it didn't come. Although it wasn't as good as the first book in the Vampire Academy series, it has a lot of promise and I'm looking forward to the next book. Many characters return from the original series - Sydney of course, Jill, Eddie, and Adrian. Rose even makes a short appearance.

One thing I've always loved about Richelle Mead's book is her characters. They are so believable and real, both the main and supporting characters. And I'm happy to see that Bloodlines continued with that tradition. I really did enjoy reading through Sydney's point of view. She's definitely not Rose but she was calm, determined, endearing and an overall interesting heroine with a lot of room for character development. We see plenty of Adrian and I love all the parts he was in, he definitely was in it a lot more then any of the other Vampire Academy books. So if you love Adrian then I'm sure you'll enjoy Bloodlines.

The story was interesting but at times it got a little tedious with the high school and daily life. Still it was fun to read and see the characters interact and I'm looking forward to the next books in the series. The author also took any romance with Sydney slow and there really wasn't any at all, which was pretty refreshing and like everything I'm also wondering how this will turn out in the future. If you're a fan of the Vampire Academy series then I'm sure you'll love Bloodlines. It can be read by itself but I don't think you'll get the full impact of it if you haven't read the Vampire Academy series. I'm probably going to read The Golden Lily but I hope the plot doesn't continue to lag on like it did with Bloodlines.

Richelle Mead offered a treat to all her Vampire Academy fans by doing a spin-off series based on Jill Dragomir, Lissa's last existing family member.

I had my doubts at first, mostly because Vampire Academy is one of my favorite series. Rose's voice, strong and filled with confidence was being replaced with Sydney's, whom I remembered as stuck up and analytical. So when Bloodlines began with Sydney emotionally distancing herself from the Moroi, I thought, "Oh no, she's going to be criticizing their every move."

But no.

Sydney was a great character, maybe just as strong as Rose when push came to shove. And Adrian was suave as always, leaving little space for disappointment.

Look forward to reading the sequel.

Its good so far. cant wait to see how story progresses. btw its obvi who the next lovers will be ;)