The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

Title: The Golden Lily (Bloodlines #2)

Author: Richelle Mead

Publisher: Razorbill

Release Date: June 12, 2012

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository

Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. Alchemists protect vampire secrets--and human lives.

Sydney would love to go to college, but instead, she's been sent into hiding at a posh boarding school in Palm Springs, California--tasked with protecting Moroi princess Jill Dragomir from assassins who want to throw the Moroi court into civil war. Formerly in disgrace, Sydney is now praised for her loyalty and obedience, and held up as the model of an exemplary Alchemist.

But the closer she grows to Jill, Eddie, and especially Adrian, the more she finds herself questioning her age-old Alchemist beliefs, her idea of family, and the sense of what it means to truly belong. Her world becomes even more complicated when magical experiments show Sydney may hold the key to prevent becoming Strigoi--the fiercest vampires, the ones who don't die. But it's her fear of being just that--special, magical, powerful--that scares her more than anything. Equally daunting is her new romance with Brayden, a cute, brainy guy who seems to be her match in every way. Yet, as perfect as he seems, Sydney finds herself being drawn to someone else--someone forbidden to her.

When a shocking secret threatens to tear the vampire world apart, Sydney's loyalties are suddenly tested more than ever before. She wonders how she's supposed to strike a balance between the principles and dogmas she's been taught, and what her instincts are now telling her.

Should she trust the Alchemists--or her heart?

I am a huge Richelle Mead fan and I love both her Vampire Academy and Bloodlines series. Because f that, The Golden Lily was pretty much the book I was looking forward to the most this year. And in true Richelle Mead fashion, The Golden Lily was amazing and left me begging for more.

Sidney Sage is a member of the Alchemists, a group dedicated to keeping the vampire world secret from humans. Her whole life, Sydney has been taught to hate vampires, but her latest assignment is making her doubt everything she has ever been taught. The more time she spends with Angeline, Jill, Eddie and especially Adrian, the more she realizes that vampires may not be as bad and awful as she has always been told. Despite all this doubt, Sydney is being held up as the model Alchemist and she couldn't feel like more of a fraud. But soon enough, a mysterious group threatens the vampire world, and more importantly, Sydney's friends. Suddenly, Sydney's loyalties are put to the test, but she isn't sur who she should trust anymore.

Before I say anything else, I will apologize for any gushing that may follow. I have so much love for both Richelle Mead and The Golden Lily. I had very high expectations for the book and they were more than met. The Golden Lily was incredible, and once I started reading, I just couldn't put the book down. I was completely drawn into the story, not wanting to ever leave. The story itself was fantastic and never even came close to dragging or being boring. And the ending, oh that ending. I sort of saw it coming but that doesn't mean it wasn't a killer. Even though I know things will probably work out, that's still not how I wanted things to go.

While she will never replace Rose in my heart, Sydney is still one of my favorite characters of all time. I am loving the person Sydney is becoming even though I know parts of becoming that person were definitely hard for her This time around, her academic approach to romance definitely had me smiling on more than one occasion. Sydney's just such an overall great character. Like with Bloodlines, I loved being able to see more of Jill, Eddie and Adrian. They are such great characters and finding out more about them just makes me love them even more. Especially Adrian. Because while I never thought he was right for Rose, I always had a major soft spot for Adrian. And with every page of The Golden Lily I read, I loved Adrian more. And of course, having Dimitri Belikov back wasn't so bad. 

The Golden Lily was even better than I expected it to be. Richelle Mead certainly knows how to toy with her readers' emotions, leaving them begging for more. And with that ending, I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to be able to wait for book three.