Review: Silver Shadows (Bloodlines #5) by Richelle Mead

 *Review contains spoilers from the previous books of the series.

Silver Shadows (Bloodlines #5)

by Richelle Mead

July 29, 2014

416 pages

Goodreads  Chapters

Goodreads Summary:

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.

Review

Oh boy, this book. Where do I even start. Richelle Mead has a way with words that just keeps you glued to the pages. No matter how unpleasant the scenes were, you just want to keep going. Then when you get to the heart-racing and swoony scenes, you just want to jump up and down and squeal.

For the first half of the book, the focus was on Sydney's experience in re-education and Adrian's resolve to find her. Sydney was so incredibly resilient. I had no doubt she would endure anything to protect the people she loved but the way she handled the torturing was extraordinary. Even I couldn't help but cringe and I was just reading about it! She's grown so much since the first book and I'm loving her badass rebel side. Adrian on the other hand was a disappointment for me in this first half. When he went back into party mode and started hanging out with Nina so he wouldn't be alone, I was fuming. Sydney was being so strong for him but he couldn't even withstand some loneliness. I was so devastated when he didn't show up in Sydney's dream that first time. Thankfully, he did redeem himself by pulling himself out of it by himself (twisty enough for ya haha).

I really wanted to bash my head against the book whenever Sheridan spoke. Gahhh, I couldn't stand that woman. Everything that came out of her mouth sounded unreasonable and poisonous to me. I'm so glad Sydney never succumbed to her words. I love that her human magic protected her. We got to see her use her magic too! It was realistic in the sense that it didn't make her invincible. She couldn't just use it to break herself out because the invisibility spell had flaws.

One of my favourite part of this book was how much everyone missed Sydney and how hard they tried to locate her. It was fun to see Adrian and Marcus working together. Watching the other Alchemists in re-education band together was exciting too. Emma and Duncan really surprised me. They were deeper than they seemed at first.

I think every reader fangirled when Adrian finally rescued Sydney from the Alchemists. I definitely did! The joking about Adrian dressing up for the occasion had me laughing so hard. Even in the face of danger they're still so damn adorable. I was so relieved they managed to keep the cuteness up. I knew something big was going to happen so I was mentally prepared but wow when Adrian got down on one knee, I was surprised. I didn't think they'd go that far but I guess it was totally hinted at ;) Their love really goes beyond anything I've read. Sydrian rocks.

One thing that I definitely could've used some more of was Jill and Eddie. I know they're not the primary focus of the series but I can't help but want to see more of them. The cameos the VA characters made were interesting and I love how nicely they're tied back into the Bloodlines storyline.

From the ending of this book you just know the last installment of the series is going to be explosive. I can't help but wonder how one book is suppose to wrap everything up but I have total faith in Richelle Mead. Afterall, she did give us the beautiful story that is the Bloodlines series :)