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

Silver Shadows

Author: Richelle Mead

Series: Bloodlines

Pages: 380

Publisher/Source: Penguin Books Australia

Release date: 29^th July 2014

Amazon – TBD

Synopsis. (Goodreads)

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: 4 out of 5 stars

Contains possible spoilers from the previous books

After the jaw dropping ending in book 4, The Fiery Heart I was more than excited to read Silver Shadows and despite a few minor issues I had, it was still a great addition to the series and has left things in a very interesting place.

When the Alchemists discovered Sydney Sage was in a relationship with a Vampire, she is taken to an unknown location for re-education where she will have her soul cleansed of this impurity. The events that took place in this facility were pretty brutal, the alchemists form of punishment involved a lot of mind tactics that would break anyone but Sydney remained strong and continued her attempts to work her way out of the hell that they were putting her through but in doing this she needed to gain the trust of the other imprisoned Alchemists, not an easy feat when the crime she committed is considered the worst of the worst.

Quote: Out of old habit, I put my hand on my collarbone, touching a cross that was no longer there. Don’t let them change me, I prayed silently. Let me keep my mind. Sydney.

Adrian on the other hand wasn’t as strong and surprised me - not in a good way, I won’t reveal his behaviour while Sydney was locked up but I just couldn’t sympathise with him. For me, he progressed drastically as a character from the first book Bloodlines through to The Fiery Heart but in this he let himself go deeper and deeper into his wallowing self-pity ways which was reminiscent of his VA behaviour – he didn’t remain consistent or persistent, admittedly he did try for a long while but he seemed to just give up. In saying that, he did end up redeeming himself and I admired him for it but I’m not sure I completely agree with how they went about it all, the repercussions of their actions are going to be very interesting to see play out.

Quote: “But with Sydney... with Sydney, I'd had it all- And lost it all. Love, understanding, respect. The sense that we'd both become better people because of each other and could take on anything so long as we were together. Only we weren't together anymore. They'd ripped us apart, and I didn't know what was going to happen now.”  Adrian

There is a lot of kick-butt action sequences and destruction in parts of this book which I liked, the first part I found to be extremely slow which was to be expected with what Sydney was going through, the middle part lagged in parts but the last third really kept me interested. There are many surprising developments I didn’t envision happening and I’m super excited to see how it all comes together in the end – I’m really hoping in the next book there is some more page time with Zoe and Sydney’s father and of course more magic use.

I don’t feel we got to see as much of the secondary characters again in this book, I missed their presence in The Fiery Heart as well but I did appreciate the role Marcus played and I wish there was more mushy moments between Jill and Eddie.

Richelle Mead’s writing is exciting and engaging, the dual POV again worked perfectly and the outcome of the events blended beautifully to create a wonderful page-turner. The wait for The Ruby Circle is going to be painful. 

Thank you to Penguin Books Australia for the opportunity to read and review Silver Shadows.

Books in order:

Bloodlines 2011

The Golden Lily 2012

The Indigo Spell 2013

The Fiery Heart 2013

The Ruby Circle

About the author:

Scorpio Richelle Mead is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of urban fantasy books for both adults and teens. Originally from Michigan, Richelle now lives in Seattle, Washington where she works on her three series full-time: Georgina Kincaid, Dark Swan, and Vampire Academy.
A life-long reader, Richelle has always loved mythology and folklore. When she can actually tear herself away from books (either reading or writing them), she enjoys bad reality TV, traveling, trying interesting cocktails, and shopping for dresses. She's a self-professed coffee addict and has a passion for all things wacky and humorous.