Book Review: The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead

Title: The Indigo Spell 

Author: Richelle Mead
Series:  Bloodlines, #3
Pages: 432
Publisher: Puffin
Date of Publication: 12th February 2013
Source: Publisher*
Synopsis from Goodreads: 

In the aftermath of a forbidden moment that rocked Sydney to her core, she struggles to draw the line between her Alchemist teachings and what her heart is urging her to do. Then she finally tracks down the elusive, enigmatic Marcus Finch – a former Alchemist who the organisation denies exists, and who lives in shadows, on the run. With Marcus's help, Sydney realises that the group she's been loyal to her whole life has been hiding the truth from her. Is it possible that her golden lily tattoo might have more power over her than she thinks?

As she struggles to come to terms with what that might mean, Sydney is compelled to use her growing magical powers to track down an evil magic user who is targeting powerful young witches. Using magic goes against everything she always thought she believed, but she realises that her only hope is to embrace her special blood – or else she might be next.

Forging her own way is harder than Sydney ever dreamed. Maybe by turning off her brain – and following her heart – she'll be able to finally figure out where she belongs.

My Thoughts:
After the shocker of an ending that The Golden Lily left us with, as soon as this book landed on my doorstep (thanks Puffin!) I had to read it. After completing some coursework for Textiles, I wasted no time in getting straight into The Indigo Spell. I considered a reread of the first two books first, but I needed to know what would happen after the huge cliffhanger of The Golden Lily, so I opted to start this one without a recap, hoping that I would be reminded of the previous events as I went along. I wasn't, so a reread is recommended, although It was still really, really awesome!

In my notes for my review of this, I've got:

"SYDNEY AND ADRIAN. YES PLEASE. Frustration.
SO ANNOYING. SO FRUSTRATING. SO. SO. GOOD.
Exciting. Obvs."

I write things down as I'm reading, as they pop into my head, so that I don't forget them and have something good to write in my review... Well, I'm not really sure if you could count those as good notes, but it sums up my feelings for this book pretty well. While I really, really enjoyed it, there were so many times I wanted to chuck it at the wall, or scream and shout at the characters. I absolutely adore Richelle Mead but boy this book is annoying.

Firstly, Sydney. She needs to get over herself! Yes, she's been brought up as an Alchemist, but I've never really understood their principles. They've been taught that vampires are hideous creatures that are unnatural and abominations. But, they help them, by disposing of Strigoi bodies and hiding them from regular humans? So that makes no sense to me. Anyway, she may have been brought up this way but she's lived around Moroi for so long that obviously she can see for herself that they're not the bad guys, and while yes, they do eat humans which is a little bit freaky, it's not that bad because they only drink from willing volunteers... Right?

Also, the whole magic thing. She's got the gift of being able to use magic, and she's really good at it, so why doesn't she just use it?! Man. Anyway. I did like her, apart from sometimes wanting to give her a good ol' slap to make her see some sense. Saying that though, she was seriously awesome when she did do magic. I absolutely loved those parts of the book - it was nice to learn more about magic and also Mrs Terwilliger too - she's pretty cool. I'd love a teacher like her...

I really love how, while the Bloodlines series does have an ongoing story that spans all three books so far, each book has it's own little story that gets resolved at the end. It means that even if I've forgotten what that ongoing story arc is, I can at least enjoy the story of that book. I also like it because it's just a story that I can read all at once, without worrying about having to remember everything that's happened while I wait a year or so for the end of the story. So that's good. It keeps it interesting too, and is a lot less confusing than the story arc (because with the Moroi, Hunters, Alchemists, Warriors... Confusing!).

Lastly, I can't say nothing about Adrian. I love him so much, and he is so perfect with Sydney. Their relationship is so frustrating though, because it goes against everything that Sydney's ever believed, so I won't spoil whether or not they work it out, but it takes them a long time to even begin to try. I've had a couple people ask though, and I will say that there are some kisses. Yeah. Anyway.

Overall, I really did enjoy The Indigo Spell, and I'm super excited to read the next book, The Fiery Heart, which hopefully will be coming out later this year so we don't have a whole year to wait, just half! I definitely recommend this series if you haven't read Bloodlines yet but have read Vampire Academy. If you've not read VA I'd recommend you read that first, seeing as this is a spin off. This series continues to be awesome and seriously, you're missing out if you've not read them! They're action packed, fun and exciting, and I will always love them, no matter how frustrating they can be.

*Huge thanks to Puffin for sending me this in exchange for an honest review! In no way has this affected my opinion of the book.