Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead

Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead
Series: Bloodlines #5
Publisher: 
Publication Date: 
Source: Bought

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 CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS.

After the HUGE cliffhanger at the end of The Fiery Heart, I was desperate to get my hands on Silver Shadows. I was desperate to find out what was going to happen to Sydney and whether Adrian and her friends would be able to save her.

After reading Silver Shadows, there’s no denying Sydney’s strength. Honestly, if I had to go through half of the things she went through in this book I’d be rocking in a corner. But not Sydney. She’s an extremely intelligent character and her intelligence definitely came in handy a lot. She figured out what she had to do to survive and she also figured out a way to save the other people who were trapped with her. Sydney is one of my all-time favourite female characters and this book definitely pushed her up the list.

Oh, Adrian. Adrian, Adrian, Adrian. I adore Adrian, but throughout the first half of this book I just wanted to punch him. Repeated punch him in the face for being a selfish jackass. Sydney has been captured by the alchemists and taken god knows where, and instead of trying to help Sydney, Adrian is off getting drunk and partying with another girl while Sydney is hoping Adrian will find her in her dream. But he can’t because he’s drunk. I get that Adrian is struggling with Sydney away, but that does not give him an excuse to act like a complete ass. He eventually redeems himself, and starts acting like his usual, lovable self. But Adrian definitely has a lot of making up to do.

The story line was fantastic – even if I did find parts of it hard to read. Quite a few of the scenes in the re-education centre made my stomach turn and broke my heart, but it was still a fantastic read. I loved that we got to hear from both Sydney and Adrian (even if I did want to punch him) because it allowed me to see what was happening in both of their worlds while they were apart and I don’t think it would have been enjoyable if it had been written from one POV. There was a part towards the end with Sydney and Adrian that made me roll my eyes because it’s happening in a lot of YA books right now, but it still warmed my heart because I adore those two together so much.

The ending was just… wow. It was a major cliffhanger and it’s left me even more desperate for The Ruby Circle! February better hurry up because I need that book, but I’ll also be extremely sad because then the series will be over.

Overall, Silver Shadows was a fantastic addition to the Bloodlines series. Even though it wasn’t my favourite – The Fiery Heart will be hard to beat for me – I still loved every second of it and I cannot recommend this series enough.