Bloodlines (Bloodlines #1) by Richelle Mead // Book Review

Rating: 3/5; Liked it. It was okay.

Release Date: August 2011

Series: Book #1 of the eight part Bloodlines series. 

Synopsis:

The first book in Richelle Mead's brand-new teen fiction series - set in the same world as Vampire Academy.

When alchemist Sydney is ordered into hiding to protect the life of Moroi princess Jill Dragomir, the last place she expects to be sent is a human private school in Palm Springs, California. But at their new school, the drama is only just beginning. 

Populated with new faces as well as familiar ones, Bloodlines explores all the friendship, romance, battles and betrayals that made the #1 New York Times bestselling Vampire Academy series so addictive - this time in a part-vampire, part-human setting where the stakes are even higher and everyone's out for blood.

Thoughts:

I was really excited about this new series when I first heard that Richelle Mead (her Vampire Academy series is so fun!) was writing an eight novel series that's a spinoff of Vampire Academy. This new series, Bloodlines, will focus on the alchemists. Our protagonist this time around will be Sydney and some of the main to secondary characters from VA will show up in this as well (!!). One of those guys is Adrian and whoa you have no idea how excited I am about that. We will surely get to know him more and read more of his snarky remarks in addition to finding out  how he's taking …everything. 

You're probably wondering why I only liked this book and didn't love it. The reason for that is that as with many new series, the first book is always the background book. There's a lot of information overload (and mystery) in this one that even though I enjoyed it, I just couldn't help but get anxious for the action to kick in. VA was very much about the action and romance. This one, not so much. Understandable though considering it is the first book, but I was still not fully satisfied and could have been (uh, VA #1 was addictive from the first page!). The first half of the book could have been shorter and the second half could have been longer. I LOVE fights/adventures/action scenes. You know that will be in the series and it's good, but in this book, it wasn't great. I just found it to be predictable and that bothered me. I'm still a huge fan of Richelle Mead and will be reading the other seven books in this series, but I sure hope she can up this. The way she writes causes the readers to see everything in their heads and it all looks just like a movie. Can't help but love that. In addition to that she sure knows how to bring her characters to life with more than just a spark. Everyone has their own personality and their own background (for the most part) and now I can't wait to "see" them all again. As always, I'm very curious about the guys in this one, especially the new ones popping up or re-appearing. I'm also curious about what Sydney will do in regards to her future and also in regards to her father. Hopefully she can try to not want his approval so much. He's a jerk, he doesn't deserve it. 

Similar:
Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead
Darkest Powers trilogy by Kelley Armstrong

~~T.V and Book Addict~~