Bloodlines by Richelle Mead, UK edition cover.

Title: Bloodlines
Author:  Richelle Mead
Genre:  Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher:  Razorbill (25th August 2011)
Source: Local library
Blurb:

Sydney protects vampire secrets – and human lives.

Sydney belongs to a secret group who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the world of humans and vampires.

But when Sydney is torn from her bed in the middle of the night, she fears she’s still being punished for her complicated alliance with dhampir Rose Hathaway. What unfolds is far worse. The sister of Moroi queen Lissa Dragomir is in mortal danger, and goes into hiding. Now Sydney must act as her protector.

The last thing Sydney wants is to be accused of sympathizing with vampires. And now she has to live with one. . .

Rating: *** (3 stars)
Review:

Bloodlines is the first book in a new series by Richelle Mead, and is a spin-off her previous series Vampire Academy; it is set within the same world.

I’ll be honest from the beginning, I have never read any of the Vampire Academy books. I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never actually picked one up or read a review about one. So for me this was a jump straight into a new world. Having read Bloodlines I may go back and read the Vampire Academy series, but we’ll see.

Sydney is an interesting character. She’s an odd mix of likable, conservative and almost radical. It was interesting at the beginning of the book to see her home life, and to see the Alchemists. It’s not a large part of the book, but it does provide an interesting insight into Sydney. It was nice to read about a character who was (mostly) confident in herself. There’s no getting away from the fact that she’s smart, it’s a large part of her personality.

I also liked the rest of the cast. Adrian, Jill, Eddie, Clarence, Lee and Keith are all well-developed characters. Keith is delightfully dislikeable. Adrian, Jill, Eddie, Clarence and Lee are all likable, but at the same time different to Sydney. And Micah… well, he seems really sweet. Laurel too, although she’s not on the page much, is a brilliant bitchy character and her interaction with Jill is excellently done.

I really liked reading this book. It felt the right length and the book felt complete; once I’d finished reading I felt like I’d had an enjoyable read. The ending was open, and whilst I am looking forward to reading the second book in the series,  it didn’t feel contrived. The break was a natural one.

I umm-ed and arr-ed about what rating to give this book, because to be honest I sit somewhere in between liking this book (3 stars) and really liking this book (4 stars). I really want to read the next book in the series, but at the same time I only finished reading the book this morning and I’m having trouble recalling details from it. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed reading the book; in fact I could hardly put it down – I had to know what happened next.