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 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 … 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.
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I dont even know what to say or how to write this review. Since Vampire Academy #1 all the way through Bloodlines #4, I have loved this series. I didn’t know how I would like the Bloodlines spinoff series as I wasn’t crazy about the character if Sydney in the VA books, but she grew on me like a fungus and I found I was just as hooked to the story of her and Adrian as I was to the story of Rose and Dimitri. The Fiery Heart left off with Sydney being hauled off to a re-education center run by the alchemists. I scooped up the audio book for Silver Shadows the day it released fully expecting an insane ride from the moment I hit play.
Well, that didn’t happen.
At best, this book is………..meh……. *insert should shrug here*
I kept waiting for it to get better, and as the book came to a close, I was shocked. Silver Shadows is FAR from the same caliber of book as the preceding books in the Bloodlines series or the predecessor series. I dont know what happened, but for the first time, I was just…..bored. Normally, we see lots of action in the Bloodlines books. Silver Shadows is a lot of waiting. Dont get me wrong! There are some action scenes here and there, but they’re so brief that they’re not memorable.
I will say this. The end has a wicked twist you wont see coming. In all fairness, that twist made sitting through the rest of the book well worth it. I am hoping this was just a one-off fluke and that the series gets back into gear with the next book. If not, this may be the beginning of the end for me and Sydney….
One thing I really did like about the book was the re-education center. It sounds like a frikkin creepy place. I wish more of the book had been spent there to really give the reader an idea of what Sydney is up against with the alchemists.
I also love that we got so much face time with Adrian. I have always said he could easily carry a series of books, and I found his parts of the book to be much more entertaining than Sydney’s parts.
Overall, the book wasn’t horrible, but it certainly wasn’t the best in the series. That being said, if you follow this series, you do need to read this book because there are a few very important things that happen which play into the overall story arc of the series.
I love Richelle Meads writing style. Everything’s perfectly explained and reasonable in its own way, without being too much in Detail to get boring.
I love this book. It’s one of the best in this series. Adrian and Sydney are two of my favorite Characters of all time. I loved them already in the Vampire Academy Series. They are perfect together.
In this book, you could feel their bond and how much they love and need each other. Love wins over everything. I got really emotional during this read. Even after finishing this book, I feel distraught. This story and everything those characters have been thru, it really got to me.
Yeah, I know that without Adrian, Sydney wouldn’t have been in re-education, but if somehow she would have ended up there without being in love with a Moroi, it would have been much worse for her to get through this torture.
It was sad and also thrilling to read about Sydney in re-education. I can’t imagine how it must be to be held there. It sounded horrible. How could a human do this to another human being? I know that the Alchemists have their rules and beliefs but to cause someone else so much pain because he/she did something they didn’t approve of is just plain horrible.
Love, love, love this book! One of my all-time faves! A must-read for Richelle Mead fans!
Richelle Mead does not disappoint. I was so excited for this book to come out and I was more than pleased with it. I loved the alternate points of view so that we could see what was happening with Sidney while in captivity as well as seeing what Adrian was going through. I was surprised to be a bit disappointed with Lissa in this book, I thought she was more insightful than she showed here, but I’m chalking it up to her stresses as queen. The dynamic between Adrian and Sidney just has me about swooning by now, I love them together. Holy Cliffhanger though! I’m going to be anxiously awaiting the next book in February.