The Indigo Spell
(Bloodlines, #3)
By: Richelle Mead
Publisher: Razorbill
Published: Feb. 12, 2013
Genre: Paranormal Young Adult
Rating:
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.
In the aftermath of a forbidden moment that rocked Sydney to her core, she struggles to draw the line between her Alchemist teachings and what her heart is urging her to do.
Then she finally tracks down the elusive, enigmatic Marcus Finch – a former Alchemist who the organization denies exists, and who lives in shadows, on the run. With Marcus’s help, Sydney realizes that the group she’s been loyal to her whole life has been hiding the truth from her. Is it possible that her golden lily tattoo might have more power over her than she thinks?
As she struggles to come to terms with what that might mean, Sydney is compelled to use her magical powers to track down an evil magic user who is targeting powerful young witches. Using magic goes against everything she always thought she believed, but she realizes that her only hope is to embrace her special blood – or else she might be next.
Forging her own way is harder than Sydney ever dreamed. Maybe by turning off her brain – and following her heart – she’ll be able to finally figure out where she belongs.
In this installment of Bloodlines, Sydney dives a little deeper into witchcraft and finds herself becoming a little bit more comfortable with casting spells. She’s also questioning the alchemists more and starting to take a step back from them. Let’s not forget that she’s also kinda-sorta developing a relationship with Adrian. I mean, she’s still fighting it because it’s forbidden and unnatural for a moroi and a human–an alchemist worst of all– to be romantically involved. You throw those three things together with dashes of suspense thrown throughout and you have one enjoyable read.
I will be honest and say that Sydney isn’t my favorite character. I much prefer Rose and her bad-ass ways. However, I can appreciate Sydney’s character. While Rose needed to learn to grow up and become responsible, Sydney’s too grown up and needs to let loose some. She is always in control of everything. Although I will say this, Sydney has come a long way since the first book. Not only with her comfortableness with her “unholy” charges, but with herself as well. I hated reading about Sydney’s horrible eating habits that borderlined anorexia. This is something that we’ve seen since Vampire Academy. So the fact that it was not only addressed in the last book but that she’s actively trying to improve the way she looks at food and her body, was a nice change. Sure she still compares herself to the stick-thin moroi and the perfectly voluptuous dhampir, but it’s doesn’t seem so excessive anymore.
Adrian was awesome in this book. He really steps up his romantic side and tries to be what Sydney wants. He pushes her when she needs it, holds back when it’s requires, but no matter what he is always there for here. Even when she says or does something that would have most guys sulking. Adrian was a main player in this novel. He was always around helping Sydney whenever possible. I’m glad that he no longer mopes around because of his broken heart over Rose. Instead, he’s sort of redirected his affections towards Sydney.
“You’re my flame in the dark. We chase away the shadows around each other.”
Enough about the two main players though. This book has a lot going on. There’s of course the forbidden blossoming love story. Then there’s the added player Marcus who is an ex-alchemist. Apparently he just up and left the alchemists, tattooed over his alchemist tattoo and is in hiding. He hopes to discover all the secrets of the alchemists. He comes into the picture and enlists Sydney to help him pop the lid off of some top-secret stuff that would discredit and potentially cause a rift between the alchemist and moroi relations. Then, there’s the part about Sydney possibly being on some big bad witch’s radar. Thus, requiring Sydney to do some sleuthing while getting herself ready to do battle via spells if the time comes. Plus, there’s a tiny rock dragon thing who thinks that Sydney and Adrian are its parents. ♥
I’m glad to finally see this team starting to take form. They are finally starting to live up to the potential that I knew they had. I have a feeling that the next book is going to be even better now that everyone is starting to gel a bit more. Plus, I’m totally interested in Sydney and Adrian’s romance.
“The future of our relationship hinged on advice from a fifteen-year old girl, a probably untrue story from a one-eyed Chihuahua trainer, and me unromantically – yet skillfully – kissing you on top of silverware and china?”
Previous reviews from Bloodlines
Bloodlines
The Golden Lily
I still need to finish the final two books in the Vampire Academy series. I love Adrian though so I can’t wait to finally see him get the girl.
If you like Adrian in those then you’re probably going to love Bloodlines. There’s a lot of Adrian time in them. 😉
I loved this one and loved that we finally started to see Sydney really question things and make her own choices. Great review!
Yes! This one is where the series really started to pick up for me because of that. 🙂
I always wanted to read this series. I like when groups start to form in series. Makes things more complete.
I’m not going to lie, I was still enjoying the series up until this point. However, they seem more like a cohesive group then a bunch of people thrown together. It definitely made for a more enjoyable reading experience.
Oh I love that quote. I am disgustingly far behind on her books at this point. It’s shameful. lol
>.< I'm trying to get through them. I took a break like 3 books ago and then never ordered the remaining books when they came out. I finally ordered them but decided to reread the whole thing from Vampire Academy on. I still have the last two books to go to finish the series. I'm trying to savor them for as long as I can. LoL
Gave up on this series. I’ve lost interest in YA I don’t think I’ll ever read this series. It sucks that the movie was a flop, that was my only hope in getting familiarized with this world.
Oh, the movie was atrocious! I honestly don’t know how anyone affiliated with the adaptation looked at the book and then the movie and went, “yup! We got a winner here!” I cringed throughout the whole thing. Then when they were partitioning to get a second movie produced because they needed the support due to poor sales on the first one– Oh heck no! I love Vampire Academy. It’s one of my all time favorite books/series, but that movie was painful. I was embarrassed to sit down and watch that with the Mister. He was totally judging my favorite book and I just kept going, “I don’t know what the hell’s going on. This is not the book. This is Mean Girls with vampires.”
Sorry, my rant is over. LoL I understand your feelings towards YA books. I went through that not too long ago where I just got fed up with it all. Now, that’s kind of how I feel about erotica and some romances. They’re all starting to just blur together.