Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Review: Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead


Silver Shadows (Bloodlines #5) by Richelle Mead
Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets—and human lives.
In The Fiery Heart, Sydney risked everything to follow her gut, walking a dangerous line to keep her feelings hidden from the Alchemists.
Now in the aftermath of an event that ripped their world apart, Sydney and Adrian struggle to pick up the pieces and find their way back to each other. But first, they have to survive.
For Sydney, trapped and surrounded by adversaries, life becomes a daily struggle to hold on to her identity and the memories of those she loves. Meanwhile, Adrian clings to hope in the face of those who tell him Sydney is a lost cause, but the battle proves daunting as old demons and new temptations begin to seize hold of him. . . .
Their worst fears now a chilling reality, Sydney and Adrian face their darkest hour in this heart-pounding fifth installment in the New York Times bestselling Bloodlines series, where all bets are off.
GR
Publishes in US: July 29th 2014 by Razorbill
Genre: YA Paranormal
Source: bought
Series? yes. Bloodlines #5
my review of #1 Bloodlines
#2 The Golden Lily
#3 Indigo Spell review
#4 The Fiery Heart
#6 - The Ruby Circle - Coming February 2015
Buy it: Amazon Barnes & Noble IndieBound Book Depository
Author stalk away: site twitter facebook blog Read the first SEVEN chapters!


    I wanted to read this because I love this series and Richelle Mead is one of my favorite authors with her YA series. I am so happy that Adrian found someone he loves and that loves him back regardless of their "species" her being human/alchemist and him being a Moroi (vampire). In their culture this is frowned upon.

    I read a recap on Recaptains but Silver Shadows did a good job of reminding me what happened and who is who. It was a pretty natural way too. 

    It was really hard in this one because Sydney and Adrian are separated, and Sydney is going through torture to be reformed by the Alchemists who jerked her from Palm Springs where she had actually made friends, but worst of all in their eyes, she had fell in love with a vampire. They did all sorts of things like sensory deprivation and Pavlovian conditioning in hopes to bring her back to being so wary, almost hating the Moroi and dhampirs. Sydney keeps Adrian and their memories on her own private reel and thinks about the center will hold. 

    Adrian falls back into drinking to numb himself but tries so many times to find her in her dreams, but he never can and gets increasingly depressed and frustrated. He has a surprise visitor and has decisions to make about getting himself together or making another hard choice. I saw so much more character growth in him while still keeping his personality. He also demonstrated a very real issue-- that with depression sometimes big events can cause you to slip into bad habits. 

    I loved the course of the story and how competent Sydney is and that she doesn't lose her head. She fights and remembers the center will hold. She also makes allies and friends and the way that she sneaks and obtains stuff she needs, as well as being resourceful without her amulets and other magical tools that could help. 

    And the ending, break my heart now. I loved where the plot took them and that they had some glimpses of getting things on track when bam. Ms Mead drops a big one and then its over. I loved it though and will certainly finish the series because I love the characters, the actions, the real emotions, the romance and plot turns. 


Bottom Line: Another fantastic book in a series with characters and a romance that I love.

My question to you, my lovely readers:
Do you think that you could withstand torture to keep your view of life/religion/race?

27 comments:

  1. I'm so behind with these books, one day I'll have to read the second VA book before this series.

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  2. I'm glad you enjoyed this one Brandi, and that the series just keeps getting more interesting. That ending sounds like a killer though! :)

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  3. I'm glad that love this one! I can't wait to catch up with the series.

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  4. I'm skimming your review since I've only read BLOODLINES, but I'm glad to see you enjoyed it so much! Looks like I have an awesome story to look forward to once I catch up :)

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  5. YA paranormal with 5 stars rating... I'm gonna get my hands on it soon :)

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  6. I just finished this book this weekend myself. It was a great read yet hard to get through as you ate seeing people you like go through that. I like to think i could hold up through any thing for the ones i love but then their are those's who don't. I guess you never really know until you're put in that situation. But I think i could continue to care for the person i do regardless of what thrown at me.

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  7. I devoured the audio of this. I think this is the best in the series. So much character growth and then a happy ending and then the bomb of a cliffhanger. I can't wait for Ruby Circle.

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  8. This was so dark and very difficult to read, but I loved it anyway. Richelle is so awesome.

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  9. Bloodlines is a series that seems good but I am not sure if I want to pick it up. At least yet. But I'll think about it ^.^ I don't know if I would be able to withstand torture for my beliefs. That's a very tricky question! I would love for my immediate answer to be yes, but in reality I will never know unless I am in that position. I hope I never will be xD

    http://olivia-savannah.blogspot.nl/2014/09/seven-sneezes-book-review-giveaway.html

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  10. I still need to read the first book in this series. I have been wanting to for some time. I'm glad you love this one and I'm going to have to try and get started!

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  11. I'm so happy you loved this one and I totally agree - it was amazing. I cannot wait to see and read the last one. Great review, Brandi :)

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  12. I've been holding off reading this one until the last books release date is closer so i can binge read them asap but i'm glad to hear you loved this one so much and that the romance was as good as ever! Great review :)

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  13. I've been wanting to read this series. I keep hearing/reading good things about it! I'm glad you enjoyed this one so much!!


    Lovely review!

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  14. Wow, a five star mid-series that is good. I haven't tried Mead yet, but I will.

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  15. I think writing this spin-off is genius, extended the series without sacrificing the quality of the story and world she built. Happy to see this is still going strong, too bad the movie adaptation sucked!

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  16. I still need to read the fiery heart and I can't wait. I miss this series so much and really need to catch up!

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  17. I wonder what kind of torture the book character had to go through. It just sounds so painful.

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  18. I LOVED THIS ONE! I'm dying for the next book!!!

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  19. I haven't read Silver Shadows yet. (And it is sitting right <---- over there... hangs head) I love this series and I am so glad it still got 5 stars!!

    Naomi @ Nomi’s Paranormal Palace

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  20. I so can't wait to finally binge read the series next year! Been waiting for ages. Ohhh, tough question. I would, I guess the same as everyone would (and do- when it comes to racism and religious views) and no one should question that, as long as it doesn't hurt you or anyone else.

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  21. Yay for awesome reads! I love hers but holy cow. I cannot believe how far behind in her books I've gotten! I'm going to have to do a serious binge read. lol

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  22. I don't read this series but it seems everyone is really happy with this installment!

    Karen @ For What It's Worth

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  23. I have heard great things about this series. Thanks for the review!

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  24. Yay! So happy you enjoyed this! I adored this book and I can't wait to see what happens next!

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  25. Gah! I so need to start this series! I only skimmed your review, but I'm loving the rating! So happy you enjoyed it so much! :)

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  26. Oh, I wonder if I should hold off on reading this one until the last one comes out. The ending was like a bombshell, Brandi?

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