The Golden Lily

Title: The Golden Lily (Bloodlines #2)
Author: Richelle Mead
Genre: YA
Rating: 5/5
Cover: 8/10

Sydney Sage is back! Along with Ivashkov, Eddie Castile, Jill (Jailbait) Mastrano-Dragomir, Angeline,  Sonya and *drumrolls, please* Dimitri Belikov... along with a few other characters from Bloodlines. But yes, LOTS of Dimitri Belikov. I'll try not to focus too much on him, though, since this is Sydney's book.

The one main difference I see between the Bloodlines series and the Vampire Academy series, aside from the obvious, is that the plot twists in Bloodlines seem to be so much more predictable. I mean, remember that whole Tasha Ozera conspiracy? That was genius, pure genius (still hate the bitch's guts though).
Sydney's riddles seem to come undone much easier than Rose's. This doesn't mean the book isn't entertaining, it just doesn't make the 'favourite' shelf.
The Golden Lily follows the crew as they try to remain anonymous in California. Their anonymity is almost compromised when a group of vampire hunters starts trying to stake Sonya, thinking that she's still a Strigoi (which is when we get to see badass Russian god in god form again). With all that, plus all Alchemists, who seem to believe that Sydney Sage can do nothing wrong and is the perfect example of what a young Alchemist should be, that very same Alchemist can't seem to stop getting closer to her vampire and half-vampire comrades (Yeah, I went there...). Adrian seems to be walking an ever-thinner  line between spirit-madnes, and... well, Adrian-madness.
After getting used to liking Adrian in #1, I all but fell in love with him now. The man is truly smitten, and I'm happy for him, though his bond with Jill kind of creeped me out at times. Rose and Lissa's bond never made Rose look at Christian all moony-eyed, so that gave me the heebie jeebies. Plus, he's always had the best one-liners, even back when I wanted to walk him off a cliff. Angeline is my mini-Rose. Her training sessions with Eddie (who Adrian calls mini-Dimitri, wink wink, nudge nudge), and all her grouching and complaints just kept reminding me of Rose, especially in Frostbite. Not to mention her punch-first-ask-later policy. I kept wishing someone would call in Rose to train her, because man, that would be just too good.
And talking about Rose... Dimitri. I honestly thought we'd see him in two scenes, tops, and then he'd be gone. Instead, we got an entire bookload of Russian., and I want to take the opportunity to thank Richelle profusely. I'd missed him. And I do love his cell phone. He should use it more. And Sydney should learn to eavesdrop. Eavesdropping can be perfectly fine at certain times. That was one of them.

If you liked Bloodlines, definitely read The Golden Lily. If you read Bloodlines, but are still a little iffy at the lack of Romitri, READ The Golden Lily. I promise you, there will be scenes to make you happy. Fans of Sydrian, have at it.