Author: Richelle MeadSeries: Bloodlines #5
Audience: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal
Publisher: Razorbill
Release Date: July 29th 2014
My Rating: 4.5 Cups
Source: My copy
Blurb (from Goodreads):
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.*Disclaimer: This is book 5 in the Bloodlines series and book 11 in the Vampire Academy series. Spoilers are unavoidable for previous books. Plus, this book is 6 year old.
In The Fiery Heart, Sydney risked everything to follow her gut, walking a dangerous line to keep her feelings hidden from the Alchemists.
Now in the aftermath of an event that ripped their world apart, Sydney and Adrian struggle to pick up the pieces and find their way back to each other. But first, they have to survive.
For Sydney, trapped and surrounded by adversaries, life becomes a daily struggle to hold on to her identity and the memories of those she loves. Meanwhile, Adrian clings to hope in the face of those who tell him Sydney is a lost cause, but the battle proves daunting as old demons and new temptations begin to seize hold of him. . . .
Their worst fears now a chilling reality, Sydney and Adrian face their darkest hour in this heart-pounding fifth installment in the New York Times bestselling Bloodlines series, where all bets are off.
My buddy read with Jamsu @ Jamsudreams continues with Silver Shadows. This book came out almost 6 years ago, but this is the first time I've had the courage to read it. I'm not ready for our buddy read to end *insert sobs*
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Not only do we get to see how far the so-called "good guys" are willing to take things in order to make sure that everyone plays by their rules, but we also get to see Sydney being totally rebellious and I am here for it.
Sydney is trying to resist re-education, while Adrian is trying to fight spirit. Both are struggling with their own demons, and both are trying to survive this fight. I loved seeing my babies being tormented. I may not have liked certain details that Mead insisted on including in the story, but she does write some pretty awesome drama.
Sydney has grown up so much during these last 5 books. She went from hating the work Jackie made her do, to using all of her knowledge on magic in order to escape the Alchemists. But because this is Sydney we're talking about, she's not using magic for herself only. She's actually trying to get the other alchemists imprisoned at the re-education center free as well. We truly see Sydney in all her glory in this book, not just as a powerful witch, but also someone who is very resourceful, strong, and with the will to survive. Silver Shadows is by far my favorite book in terms of her development, at least so far.
Adrian too went through his own transformation. He gave up taking medicine in order to find Sydney, but that left him open to the mental consequences of using his magic, and that... that is not helping him. He is struggling with his alcohol addiction, he is trying not to start smoking again, he keeps hearing his dead aunt's voice in his head, and he keeps getting nowhere with his attempts at summoning his girl in a spirit dream. So he's getting hit from all sides. To top it all off, he blames himself for Sydney being caught by the Alchemists, and that doesn't help things either. This leads him to make some not so okay choices at first, which made me want to shake him silly. He eventually gets his shit together and is able to pull himself together enough to fight for his girl, and I don't think I've ever been prouder of a fictional character.
We finally get to see Marcus doing something other than talking and I was super proud of him. He truly isn't just someone that talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk. We also get some really awesome callbacks to a previous jailbreak involving Lissa, Rose, and Eddie, and I had a chuckle at that. And all in all the plot moved along very quickly. I actually managed to read this in one sitting.
Like Jamsu mentions in her review, we talked about how much Mead seems to love cheating plots. I myself am not a fan, which is really the only reason for the missing half star from my rating.
The ending was surprising and I did not expect that to happen. I'm getting my courage to read the last book in the series, and if you know me, you know how hard that is for me, but I am super excited. I'm very curious to see how it all ends. And who knows, maybe Mead will eventually come back to this world to write more stories.
Remember to visit Jamsu and read her review of Silver Shadows!
