Unapologetic Reviews

I actually found The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead a more interesting addition to the series than the previous one. That was because of several things. On the one hand there is a lot more magic than before, which was interesting and exciting. I also love little Hopper . How cute is that? I also loved how much Adrian was in this book. He had been my favourite character since he was introduced, and I'm still hoping for a second movie just to have someone cast as him. I also loved how we got to know more about the inner workings of the Alchemists . BTW, Sydney 's father is still awful. Worse than my own. Sydney changed a lot since the first book. Part of it is because she had to do things in order to survive and to save the people she cares about. She also learned to care for people, and to just see them as people. I felt like she's becoming a new person, but someone whom she had in her all this time, but was forced to the sidelines by indoctrination. The process is basical...

I find it somehow hard to write a review for The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead . Though generally it is a lot easier to write for books that I either loved a lot, or hated. This edition of the series goes along the lines it has been for a while, since if we look at the whole universe, this is the 8th book. By now, the writing has become an old friend, though quite predictable. I've noticed the formula a few books back. Still, I find myself reading on, wanting to know what else is in this universe. The good thing about this book is that while we do have some things we know about the surroundings, we discover new things as well, new groups, new ways of magic, and new things about old groups. Like I have previously mentioned, Sydney is a lot like me. It was funny to see her dating, because it reminded me of some of my troubles with dating. The guy was even like some of the people I've dated, though none so smart. How Sydney is not like me is that she has some serious hang-ups abo...

At the acknowledgements Richelle Mead wrote that it was hard starting a new series, even in a familiar setting. Actually, it was kind of hard for me to start reading it. I enjoyed the Vampire Academy series a lot, and wasn't sure if I would like this one. It did help that I already liked Sydney , the star of this series, and I read that Adrian would be in it too. I did end up liking Bloodlines by Richelle Mead. The story starts out slowly. There are new characters, and some familiar faces from the sidelines of the previous books that take centre stage here. We also see Rose briefly, and get a small update on Lissa . It was weird seeing Rose from the outside. There are a couple of mysteries that slowly unfold. Most of them I could guess easily, there were enough clues, but one big one didn't have a lot of hints, so I didn't guess it. The slow start accounts for the building of the new environment, and also getting to know the characters. It's also Mead's style t...

I took some time after reading Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead to write the actual review. It's difficult to write about a book that is the ending to a sequence that was six books long. I feel that I invested into the series a piece of myself as well. The story itself was exciting. I actually didn't guess all of the ending, just a few pages before it was actually revealed. In a way, I thought that it was a bit mad, but it's not something I find wanting to argue about. The most important thing about closing a series like this is that you tie up all the lose ends. They did all come together in a neat little bow, and the one that didn't got its own series, so that's fine. If anyone is interested, I am going to read that one as well. The title did throw me a little, and I'm still not sure exactly why this is it. There was an intent for sacrifice several times in the story, but none of them felt like a last or final one. It could have been given for dramatic effect...

A lot of things happened in Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead , and I'm kind of at a loss trying to gather it all in my head. The end of the previous book made some of the events in this one obvious. What I wasn't prepared for was what happened in the middle, and towards the end. In a way, this could be called a " bridge book " in the series. It's not very focused, because it has the events that take the reader from the previous book, to what happens in the last book. I often see this in book series with 6 books. They are really two trilogies, with the first three books having one story, and the second three having the sequel story. Therefore, this book felt a bit incomplete, and I had to move onto the next one right away. Good thing they are all out. At this point in the series, there aren't really many new characters, it's mostly the old ones doing more things. However, we do see some new minor ones that push the story along, though their appearance is in p...

After finishing the previous book, I knew Blood Promise by Richelle Mead would be a departure from what we had before. I was afraid that because Lissa and Rose weren't in physical contact anymore, I wouldn't get anything from Lissa. However, I got plenty, since Rose couldn't stop herself from checking on her best friend, luckily we didn't miss anything important either. The story itself is quite different. Before we mostly had some sort of a mystery, which became the task to be resolved by the end. The main story here is a journey. It seems quite hopeless at the beginning, but we can expect that it's not. There are a lot of new things that Rose discovers during her travels, which I found very interesting. The author expanded on the universe in a good way, and didn't feel like she found herself in a bind and just threw things in. The details in the new environment felt real. As someone who lives in Eastern Europe , though not in any place in the book, I often f...

Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead , the third book in the Vampire Academy series follows the pattern of the previous books in that it starts off slowly, increases pace in the middle, and the last 20% is so fast, you have a hard time putting it down. So far, I enjoyed this edition the most, though the mystery I guessed very soon, a lot sooner than Rose . At least, it didn't take her hundreds of pages as it did Bella in New Moon about the wolves. That was where I gave up on that thing. The ending I knew a few pages before it happened, because it made sense story-building-wise. In this book Rose evolves away from Lissa even more. It's a natural progressing, as in the first book Rose was centred around her, then with the romance in the second book she started to get away from her more, until in this book Lissa is just on the side, with Rose having a lot more things to focus on. The story does have many strands, but in the end they come together nicely, and everything makes sense, e...

I picked up  Frostbite by Richelle Mead after having enjoyed the first one in the series. I only gave that one 3 stars, because I couldn't decide if I was less thrilled by the story because I had seen the movie, or because it was just not a very thrilling story. The second book I read a lot faster. Finishing a book, in spite of it not being very long, within a week is pretty uncommon for me nowadays. However, about the last 25% was very exciting, and I almost missed my stop on the metro because of it. In fact, the metro was having problems, going extra slow today, and I didn't mind, because I was reading. Returning home I finished it quickly. The story itself picks up right after the last book. I liked how it started, it was kind of mysterious like some of the events in the first book. Though while that one had an actual mystery, this one didn't really. There were some weird things that were found out later, but the first book had an actual "whodunnit", a...

I've known about this book series for a while. It sounded like something I wouldn't like, in spite of my love for vampires. My main issue was that it takes place in a school. I've graduated high school 14 years ago, and since then I tend to be annoyed by stories that take place in a school. Okay, other than Harry Potter . I decided to read Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead after seeing the movie. I know it wasn't very popular, but I thought it was a lot of fun. Though compared to the book they amped up the action. I've also read that in the book the friendship between the two girls is more prominent, which sounded good, since I'm not a fan of romance. While the book does have some romance, it's not too much. The story is really about two girls looking out for each other. I've read a lot recently about the lack of female companionship in books. This is just the opposite. Quite refreshing. The school aspect is not prominent in the sense that we don't ...