Paranormal Pick: Bloodlines

Bloodlines
by Richelle Mead
RazorBill (Penguin)
2011
432 pages

Read the first four chapters and see the book trailer here


First in the Bloodlines series, this spin-off of The Vampire Academy is sure to be a hit with teens. If you haven't read the Vampire Academy books, get started right away. Although you can still read Bloodlines without reading the previous series, you may not understand the back story of Rose and Sydney.

Sydney is a human teenager who has been raised to be an alchemist, a group of humans who practice magic and alchemy to protect the human world and vampires who live in the human world. Humans must never learn that vampires live freely among them, and the alchemists protect their secrets.

When Sydney is rudely awakened and dragged from her bed, she knows something terrible has happened. She learns that she has been chosen to travel to California and pretend to be Jill Dragomir's sister, keeping Jill, younger sister of the vampire Queen, safe from both Moroi and Strigoi, those who would kill her. Sydney and Jill enter Amberwood Prep, a private boarding school in California.

Sydney bears the mark of the alchemists--a golden tattoo that gives her healing and magic powers. When students at Amberwood Prep start turning up with strange tattoos of their own, Sydney and Adrian investigate. It seems that they have more to fear than their own kind, there's a band of vampire hunters infiltrating the town and they seem to have Amberwood Prep on their minds. Noone is safe anymore.

It's easy for the reader to lose herself in the world of vampires and alchemists. Sydney is uptight and tight-lipped, controlling and scientific, cautious and quiet, but there's also a dangerous side to her that is appealing. Adrian is a great vampire party boy who scores high in the bad boy category and will keep girls reading.

Recommended for paranormal readers and those who loved The Vampire Academy books. The publisher says ages 12 and up, but I would caution younger readers.

Grades 9-up and mature younger readers. Violence, some sexual innuendo.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.