Book Review: Bloodlines

Bloodlines
Bloodlines #1
Author: Richelle Mead
Pages: 421 Hardcover
Reading Level: YA
Release Date: August 23rd 2011
Review Source: Razorbill
Available: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Borders

Summary: (from goodreads) The first book in Richelle Mead's brand-new teen fiction series - set in the same world as Vampire Academy. 

When alchemist Sydney is ordered into hiding to protect the life of Moroi princess Jill Dragomir, the last place she expects to be sent is a human private school in Palm Springs, California. But at their new school, the drama is only just beginning.

Populated with new faces as well as familiar ones, Bloodlines explores all the friendship, romance, battles and betrayals that made the #1 New York Times bestselling Vampire Academy series so addictive - this time in a part-vampire, part-human setting where the stakes are even higher and everyone's out for blood.

Richelle Mead's new spin off series from the Vampire Academy novels is a continuance of the world she has created.Although it takes place just after the end of Vampire Academy the focus is now on the alchemist that assisted Rose, Sydney Sage. In Bloodlines you get some depth to the secondary characters from the previous series.

Bloodlines encompasses several realities we all face at that critical time between childhood and young adult where we realize life isn't necessarily what we've always believed it to be. Where life decides to show us how unpredictable the world can be. Mead takes those surprises and weaves an awesome world around unexpected friendships and relationships, love and loss, family and duty. This first installment puts down all the necessary introductions and past situations needed to introduce new readers into the extraordinary world Richelle Mead has created for us all.

Overall Bloodlines is a great start to what could be another amazing series in the hidden world that exists in the shadows of our own world. Mead's passion for her characters and her world speak for themselves in her new evolution...Bloodlines. 

*As a side note readers who have read all the Vampire Academy novels my find themselves one step ahead of new readers but don't be discouraged the end leaves you with wanting more as soon as the book is over in true Richelle Mead style!