Book Review: The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead

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Title: The Indigo Spell
Author: Richelle Mead
Publisher: Razorbill
Series: Bloodlines, Book 3
Hardcover: 401 pages
Summary: (taken from Goodreads)

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.  

Populated with new faces as well as familiar ones, the Bloodlines series 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.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Richelle Mead does it again! The Indigo Spell is a wonderful story in a series of intoxicating books about vampires. I started reading the Vampire Academy series October 2012, and have read through all of that series. Now that I finished the third book in the Bloodlines series, all I can say is that I’m hooked.

As with every book, there are good and bad points. In the past I had a hard time finding a bad point in the books that I reviewed from Richelle Mead, until now. The Indigo Spell has a great storyline with shocking twists, which make for an awesome book. Yet, as I immersed myself in the book, I was totally annoyed with the struggle between my two favorite characters Sydney Sage and Adrian Ivashkov. Now don’t get me wrong: I love this couple! It was Sydney’s constant, “yes please kiss me, no you should never had kissed me” attitude that nearly drove me insane.

Sydney struggles with her role as Alchemist and her forbidden attraction to Adrian, who is a Moroi Vampire, but again the writing didn’t seem consistent with who Sydney is as an Alchemist. She is a fierce protagonist, who had already helped a Dhampir runaway from jail. She watched Stigoi (evil vampires) being killed, joined allegiance with and was in debt to a notorious Moroi. Sydney even stood up to the Warriors of Light and uncovered a devious plan by another Alchemist. This is the person that we are supposed to believe would complain so much about a forbidden kiss.

The Indigo Spell is a great third installment to a really good series. I was really excited when Sydney stopped whining about using magic and began to kick butt. The magic added a whole different vibe to the storyline. As you can probably tell, I like strong women characters who know what it takes to get the job done. Sydney started out strong in the books Bloodlines, and The Golden Lily, but I was nervous for awhile as to what direction the author was taking the character. In the end, The Indigo Spell finished nicely, but not with the powerful kick that Mead is known for in the Vampire Academy series.

Book Review: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

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Title: Vampire Academy
Author: Richelle Mead
Publisher: Razorbill
Series: Vampire Academy, Book 1
Paperback: 332 pages
Summary: (taken from Goodreads)

St. Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school—it’s a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They’ve been on the run, but now they’re being dragged back to St. Vladimir’s—the very place where they’re most in danger... 

Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy’s ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi—the world’s fiercest and most dangerous vampires—make Lissa one of them forever.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

I must say, “I never in a million years thought I would be writing a review about Vampires.” When a friend suggested that I read Vampire Academy I laughed at her. Having never read anything in this genre, I wasn’t in a hurry to start. She handed me her copy and said just try. I reluctantly agreed knowing that I would never be interested in it. The first chapter seemed a little weird to me, as I tried to understand what was happening between Rose and Lissa. The spirit dream confused the heck out of me and when Lissa fed off Rose I thought I was going to be nauseated. But I really liked Richelle Meade’s writing style, so I continued reading. It wasn’t until Rose and Lissa arrived back at the Academy that I found myself actually enjoying the book.

I was intrigued by the whole concept of there being two types of Vampires; Moroi, who are the good vampires, and Stigoi, who are the bad. There is also a group called Dhampirs, who protect the Moroi and they are half Moroi and half human. St Vladimir Academy is a special school for Dhampirs to learn to protect Moroi. Rose, the protagonist of the book, is a Dhampir who ran away from St Vladmir Academy to protect Lissa, a Moroi, from an unknown enemy. The guardians at St Vladmir Academy found Rose and Lissa, secretly living among humans and returned them to the Academy. While at the Academy, Rose practiced training skills with Dimitri Belikov. It was this intense training along with Rose's quick response that would ultimately make her one of the best guardians. The concept of good versus evil has always been the cornerstone of my favorite types of books, so I was hooked to learn that even vampires have a code of ethics.

All the characters were enjoyable, but I have to say Rose, was my favorite. What I found fascinating about her was although she had a lot of emotional problems that played out in her personal life, starting with her thoughts that every male wanted to be with her, she had a strong sense of duty to protect Lissa, keeping her extremely focused. Lissa, being a spirit using Moroi, had saved Rose from death and in doing so created a supernatural bond between the two of them. Rose could read Lissa's thoughts and sense when she was in danger. Because Rose and Lissa had run away from St Vladmir Academy for over a year, Rose was behind in her training. As punishment she had to train extra hours with Guardian Belikov, who I can only imagine by his description to be likened to that of a Greek god, but only Russian. Personally, one could only hope for some one-on-one training with this Russian god. This was a fantastic storyline with many twists that kept me rooting for Rose and Dimitri even though guardians could not date each other.

Richelle Mead's writing style made reading this book not only enjoyable, but one of my favorite recommendations for young adults. This book has a kick-butt storyline, great characters, great plot, but more importantly Richelle Mead constantly interjects the back story, throughout the book, so I didn't have to put much thought into remembering how each character relates.

Audiobook Review: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

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Title: Anna Dressed in Blood
Author: Kendare Blake
Narrator: August Ross
Publisher: AudioGo
Duration: 8 hours, 43 minutes
Edition: Unabridged
Summary: (taken from Goodreads)

Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story... 

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead. 

So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay. 

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home. 

And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5

Anna Dressed in Blood is a fun ghost story about a guy who kills ghosts and a ghost who kills people. Strangely, they end up sort of liking each other. Cas is a ghost hunter, like his father before him. He is intent on gaining enough skill and expertise so that he can track down the ghost who killed his father and take revenge. He moves to a new town  with his mother, determined to find Anna and send her off to the afterlife. In the process, he makes friends, people get killed, and Cas realizes that Anna's situation isn't as straightforward as it seems -- and neither are the weird events that keep happening around him.

I haven't read a good ghost story in awhile, so I enjoyed this book. I like how Blake brings together ghost hunting and witch elements. She does this so well, that I kind of hope she brings more paranormal stuff into the sequel. There are also incredibly gory kill scenes that every good ghost story should have. The plot didn't drag, which I was really grateful for. Everything felt like it moved along fairly quickly and I wasn't bored for a second.

But there were definitely predictable moments. All of the side characters are worked from stereotypes and they don't have much complexity to them -- add that to the not-so-subtle clues that something weird is going with Cas, and it doesn't have to do with hunting for Anna, and you've got an ending that's pretty easy to figure out. With that said, I still think it's worth a read. I enjoyed the idea of the story and thought that Cas's background was interesting -- not to mention the whole cool ghost-hunting thing.

However, while the story is fun and enjoyable, I don't recommend the audiobook. The narration sounded very stilted to me -- it almost seemed as if words were taken from different clips and pieced together to form the story, because the expression and emphasis rarely matched what was going on in the story. Considering that this is also a first person narration, I expected a lot more energy and personality. I was frustrated by this and found it hard to connect with the characters and the story because of the narration. If you're going to read this at all, definitely go for print.

If you're into ghost stories, definitely pick this one up. It does have its gory moments, but it's an interesting look at ghost hunting and, while predictable, kept me interested the whole time. I can't wait to read the sequel!

Book Review: Seduce the Darkness by Gena Showalter

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Title: Seduce the Darkness
Author: Gena Showalter
Publisher: Pocket Star
Series: Alien Huntress, Book 4
Paperback: 405 pages
Summary: (taken from Goodreads)

The war between otherworlders and humans changed Earth beyond recognition. It also saved Bride McKells's life. Before, the gorgeous vampire was a target for every fanatic with a stake and a crucifix. Now, she's free to roam the streets -- and desperate to find others of her kind. One man claims to have the answers she seeks. Devyn, King of the Targons, is a warrior and a womanizer, and he makes no secret of how much he wants Bride -- and how dangerous he could be to her in every way. 

An avid collector of women, Devyn easily seduces human and otherworlder alike. Until now. Not only does Bride resist him, but she leaves Devyn feeling something entirely new...a bone-deep need bordering on obsession. Her blood is the key to curing a vicious alien disease, but helping Bride uncover her origins will compel her to choose between electrifying passion and a destiny that could tear her from Devyn's side forever

Overall Rating: 4/5

I've been working on the Alien Huntress series for awhile now, and I love it for being such light reading. After reading textbooks and literary books, this was just the thing for me to sit down and relax with.

We've moved on to Devyn's story in this one, and I love it so much! It's always fun to see a playboy fall in love and became a one-woman guy. I think Showalter does a good job in keeping it realistic. He's very confused about his feelings at first and refuses to accept it, but once he does, he doesn't completely change. He's still a flirt and still obsesses over one thing. (I'm sure you know what one thing playboy obsesses over.)

And Bride is awesome! Not only for being a super-powerful vampire, but for being so self-assured and confident. I love her! I think she's going to be a great addition to the team. As always, this series builds up on itself very nicely. There's still the threat of the evil parasite-ridden queen who's planning on infecting Earth, and we get to know a little more about Macy, who was featured in Deep Kiss of Winter that also had a Kresley Cole story.

I do think that some things that had the potential to be really cool were just thrown away. I don't think the solution to Bride's eating problem was ever resolved as nicely as it should have been. It was hinted that she'd seen/met Devyn before, but then nothing further was mentioned. And then: *SPOILER ALERT* (highlight to see text).
Fiona, the one other living super-vampire person was really built up. She tortured the vampire king's brother, she's all-powerful, the vampire king hates her and wants to find her, etc. And then, she's just waiting in the shadows, slinking in a corner. What?! With the way it was talked about, I wanted so much more from her and from Bride's interaction with her. Very disappointing.

Besides that, it was a good book. It kept me entertained, and it was a fast read. For those who need a break from more serious books or who love light paranormal romance, pick this series up!