Review: The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I thought it was really good, certainly the most substantive book Mead has published in a long time. And the longest! Maybe a bit longer than necessary, but I wasn't bored. It's definitely a lot of "tell me", not "show me", but that that makes sense because of who Sydney is, she's the intellectual, not the action hero. She's still a little bit too perfect, it would be nice to see her have a selfish moment every once in a while and to act more like a normal young woman, but I enjoy the character. And of course I still love Adrian. Eddie was great, I'd like to see more of him. Jill is still pretty bland and under-developled, but Angeline had a few moments in this one.

Overall, I like the big story arcs of Sydney having to wrestle with what it means to be a human dealing with vampires, what it means to be an Alchemist, and what her own developing abilities as a human with magical powers might mean. Her natural inclination to take care of everyone, and just to care for everyone, is in direct opposition to her career choice and beliefs as an Alchemist. It's one thing when her sense of responsibility was challenged in the Vampire Academy books. But now she really loves these people, that's a whole different level for her to try to figure out. I'm looking forward to seeing her work it through in the next book.

My only real complaint was the cover, why does Sydney look so pissed off? I thought it had to be Angeline until I looked at the cover of the last book and realized that was the same model they used before, so it had to be Sydney looking so angry. It actually upsets me every time I see it. Determined would have been fine, but she just looks like she's about to start a fight, it's unsettling.



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