The Fiery Heart, by Richelle Mead (Bloodlines #4)

Synopsis: 

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. They protect vampire secrets - and human lives.

In The Indigo Spell, Sydney was torn between the Alchemist way of life and what her heart and gut were telling her to do. And in one breathtaking moment that Richelle Mead fans will never forget, she made a decision that shocked even her. . . .

But the struggle isn't over for Sydney. As she navigates the aftermath of her life-changing decision, she still finds herself pulled in too many directions at once. Her sister Zoe has arrived, and while Sydney longs to grow closer to her, there's still so much she must keep secret. Working with Marcus has changed the way she views the Alchemists, and Sydney must tread a careful path as she harnesses her profound magical ability to undermine the way of life she was raised to defend. Consumed by passion and vengeance, Sydney struggles to keep her secret life under wraps as the threat of exposure — and re-education — looms larger than ever.

This may be one of my favorite books in this whole series. It had a lot of romance, which is exactly what I needed at the moment, and the couple was Sydney and Adrian, which made everything better. It’s taken me a long time to finally find this book, because I can’t find it in my country and I needed to get to London or somewhere to finally buy it, but it was definitely worth waiting for it. 

My first thought when I saw that I’d be reading chapters from both Sydney’s and Adrian’s perspectives was begging that this wasn’t going to be another Allegiant. But it wasn’t. Hearing from Adrian’s point of view was interesting, because I’ve always wanted to know more about his way of seeing the world, but it was also a bit disappointing, because I thought very differently of him. Nonetheless, it was great seeing him so in love with Sydney, and also getting to know how he’d felt when he was with Rose. Something else I enjoyed from his point of view was getting to know how Lissa is doing and everything that’s going on at Court and in spirit research. 

And Sydney… she’s changed so much since we first met her in Blood Promise, and I’m so glad she did! She’s become such a different character… and even though I miss that smart, architecture-and-cars-loving girl who was deeply afraid of the evil creatures of the night, I also like the strong, fearless woman, someone who stands up for her believes and who’s learned about love, that she is now. When I first read about her, I could have never suspected she would end up being so in love with Adrian, who’s just her opposite in every single aspect. But they are so great together… And the escape plans, and the she-eats-and-he-doesn’t-drink deal, and the time together at Court… 

So, as you may have guessed already, my favorite thing about this book was their romance, but there are many other things to comment about. 

I deeply dislike Zoe. I never liked her, but the ending of The Fiery Heart, that made me desperate. There was a moment or two throughout the book when I thought I glimpsed some hope for her, but then she just betrayed everything that being sisters means. Little sisters are never horrible in books, but this was unbearable, and Sydney kept trying to fix things with her all the time. It’s also partly Sydney’s fault, because she’s been obsessed with Adrian all the time and there was no way of hiding that, but even though, there’s this unmentioned sisters’ code that’s expected to be respected between sisters everywhere, and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t include selling said sister to the evil Alchemists who will mess up with her mind. 

Jill, Eddie, Angeline, Neil, Trey… I personally think there are too many characters around at the moment, and the worst thing is trying to have them all in love with someone else in the group, setting up all these couples… it was a bit too much, in my opinion. But I really like Eddie and Jill... And Ms. Terwilliger and the witches, and Marcus and his followers… there’s like thousands of things going on at once. 

And about the ending… poor Sydney. I do not want to see her giving up. And she won’t. For Adrian. But she’s going to go through really tough things, and I’m worried. The Alchemists can be really cruel. But Adrian and the others are probably going to go on a mission to save her and end up with the Alchemists’ re-education and all that… Because Silver Shadows will be the last one, right? I don’t want it to end… just like I was really sad for Vampire Academy to end, but then Bloodlines appeared. I guess we’ll see. But either way, thank you Richelle for all these books. 

The Fiery Heart book trailer

So there's a little more than a month until The Fiery Heart is released, and the book trailer came out a couple of days ago. I don't particulary like book trailers. I mean, I like getting to know something about the book, but I can't stand the way they portrait that particular scene. For example, in this book trailer, there's this scene between Adrian and Sydney, and, just like it happened in other books, the scene I see is in no way the same one as in my mind. My mind's Sydney and Adrian have a lot more chemistry than these actors, for sure. They try to look really natural, but they don't look like that to me. 

I'm not saying that I hate these book trailers, because I don't, I just don't like them. They also have good things. Even though Adrian and Sydney aren't as the ones I imagined, they're better than they would be if this was a real movie. Because that's what I do, I compare book trailers to what a movie about it would look like. And in that sense, book trailers are amazing, mainly because they respect what's going on in the book.

So about The Fiery Heart in particular, I like this scene we've seen. And I know that, after three books of liking-not liking each other, this one's going to be all lovely and perfect, besides the fact that they are going to have to hide their relationship from everyone else. And a sudden thought that just came to my mind is the possibility of them telling Rose, because she's the expert on dealing with impossible relationships but then, why would Adrian tell her? They didn't really end up in good terms (that's one of the things that still bothers me...). So I have no idea of what's going to happen in the book. Now Zoey's here, so everything's different. And will Sydney finally realise that she doesn't want that kind of Alchemist life, even if that's everything she is? I don't know how is Richelle going to solve this... So I guess we'll just have to wait. 

November 19 is almost there! And lots of things have to happen until then (Allegiant!!)... 

So in case you haven't watched it, here's the link to the trailer: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7RdweJTnAw

The Indigo Spell, Richelle Mead (Bloodlines #3)

Synopsis:

In the aftermath of a forbidden moment that rocked Sydney to her core, she finds herself struggling to draw the line between her Alchemist teachings and what her heart is urging her to do. Then she meets alluring, rebellious Marcus Finch--a former Alchemist who escaped against all odds, and is now on the run. Marcus wants to teach Sydney the secrets he claims the Alchemists are hiding from her. But as he pushes her to rebel against the people who raised her, Sydney finds that breaking free is harder than she thought. There is an old and mysterious magic rooted deeply within her. And as she searches for an evil magic user targeting powerful young witches, she realizes that her only hope is to embrace her magical blood--or else she might be next.

I finally read it!! Just like every novel by Richelle Mead, I read it in English, which is why I have to wait until I go to an English-speaking country to buy the books. I've spent the last five weeks in the US, which gave me the perfect opportunity to go buy it as soon as I could. 

I love Adrian since I read VA, and even if my true love will always be Dimitri,  Adrian deserved a happy ending, and I think that's one of the main reasons why Richelle decided to write Bloodlines. And I adore Sydney, for her intelligence and her beliefs, for her love for coffee and cars, and for Roman and Greek architecture, for her devotion to her duties and her friends. For everything she is. 

So in my trip back from the US, I read the book in 6 hours. 6 hours enjoying every sentence, every scene, every chapter. I love how Richelle Mead has made me love her books. 

I liked how the characters from the Vampire Academy series are never forgotten in this spin-off, how Dimitri and Rose got the happy ending they deserved after everything they went through, even if now, when they appear, they don't seem to be like the complicated characters they once were to me. Adrian is getting his deserved prominence in the story, where Sydney has become the new Rose. The only thing that I thought was too forced in the story was the short time that's taken Adrian to forget Rose but, you know, who wouldn't fall for Sydney? And I just want to add, since I haven't posted anything about this series before, that Sydney is the best main character anyone could ask for. In every way. I love everything that's happening to her and the new person she's becoming. So now let's just wait with excitement for The Fiery Heart (Bloodlines #4), coming this November!!  

If you have read the rest of the Bloodlines series, this is clearly a must-read. If you have read the Vampire Academy series, this and the rest of the Bloodlines series are a must-read. If you haven't read anything by Richelle Mead, all her books are a must-read. I'm not being really objective here, only adoring her because I feel like I know her, her tweets and her books. And even if you're not into the vampire-like books, give it a try, because that's only the background.