Hey! so i just finished bloodlines and wanted to start a discussion for people who have finished it! what did you guys think?! i thought it was AMAZING! I wasn't a huge adrain fan before but omg i love him now after reading this book! i can't watit for the next one!

I'm pretty excited now for book 2, though I'm afraid it's going to piss me off what with Dimitri being in the picture. Ugh. It'd be nice if that was over and done with. I mean, he and Rose had their turn. I'd like to read about someone new please. I was afraid that Bloodlines would annoy me with Adrian complaining about Rose... but that didn't happen surprisingly. I didn't want to have their failed relationship come up in every passage where he was involved and I was so glad that mention of Rose was relatively minor.

But overall, I really liked Bloodlines. I enjoyed Adrian and Sydney. I think I even prefer Sydney over Rose as a narrator. I just feel like I can relate to her better. Rose was pretty badass, don't get me wrong, but I appreciated Sydney's subdued strength compared to Rose's glaringly obstinate rebellion.

I really like Jill/Eddie (wrote a fanfic on that once ) though it would've been nice to actually see Jill interested in him too. But there's still time for that. You know, I realized last night that there was zero kissing in this book... However that swoony moment with Adrian commenting on Sydney's eyes at the end sort of made up for that.

I already said it in the what book are you reading topic, but I think Adrian needs to face Dimitri and Rose tbh. I don't think it will play a major role in the series itself, but I think its crucial for Adrian to face them head on in order to get past it. Otherwise everytime he sees them he will tense up even though hes getting better just like he did at the end where Dimitri walked in.

lol Yeah you could read it, though I never got a chance to finish it. *shrug* I have the same username on fanfic.net, so if you do a search you should be able to find me easily.

I know. It was strange that there was no kissing. But I'm also glad in a way because we got more action. And it's the first in the series so you know there's going to be some romantic drama ahead, particularly between Eddie/Jill. I'm glad Adrian's moving on though. I really hope that he can continue with that growth despite Dimitri being there.

Okay cool I will:)

yeah I know but I did like that there was more action and true there's more books. I'm intrested to find more about the Adrain/Sydney. And I so feel like there's gonna be drama with Jill/eddie possibly Mitch? And sooner or later Adrain gonna have to face Dimitri and rose and I think working with him will be good with help from Sydney haha.

I loved Bloodlines. I miss Rose's way of thinking (or rather, jumping into the action...and then thinking about it). But Sydney has an interesting perspective on the world.
I was a little annoyed at Jill and Adrian's bond. I know it gives him a reason to be in the story, but the whole Spirit-Bond thing has been done. We've seen so much of it already that I sort of feel like it wasn't necessary to add it into this story as well. I've always sort of had issues with Spirit though. I don't like that it solved a lot of the problems in VA, or maybe it's just because I had issues with Lissa so I'm taking them out on Spirit. I always liked Adrian's Spirit powers though, I liked that they were different (even though Sonya and Robert could do the dream walking and aura thing too, they always seemed like special Adrian powers) Also, I thought Adrian was supposed to have pretty weak healing powers, and that it was supposed to take a lot of power to bring someone back from the dead. But now he can heal people super well?

I agree with you Wilda, I think Adrian needs to face Rose and Dimitri. I felt bad for him, having Dimitri around now is going to be hard. But I can't say I'm too sad about seeing Dimitri again, I just hope he doesn't outshine Adrian too much. He'll always be my main VA love, but Adrian deserves happiness too.

I'm interested to see whether Sydney will start to develop her Alchemist-witchy powers or not. I think she probably will, I mean, why add them into the story if she's not going to have to explore them later on. I wonder if it's just a Sydney thing, the bad tasting blood and super powers, or if it's an Alchemist thing in general. Like somehow their spells that mix the tattoos and moroi blood give them a LOT more protection and power than ever thought before? They hate the idea of being with Vampires, so what if they created a spell/formula to be included in the tattoo that will prevent Strigoi from "drinking" away their souls. They'll never have to fear Strigoi turning them if they can't stand to drink them dry. Sure, they might still be killed, but at least they'd die with their souls safe.

I don't think it's all that strange that Adrian is now able to heal well. He did learn how to do it before the start of Bloodlines. He just wasn't as good at it as Lissa. But every spirit user has the ability. And it's not like Lissa started out slowly either. She randomly brought Rose and that raven back to life without knowing what she was doing. I think it took something really traumatic in her case. Also in Adrian's because he really cares about Jill. It doesn't seem like such a far stretch to me that they'd find the power within themselves at a time like that.

I kind of like that Adrian and Jill have a bond. Sure, it's a little overdone by now, but it's forcing Adrian not to drink quite as much. And I like Adrian much better now that he's taking a proactive role in something for a change. Even getting on his knees and cleaning.

I'd definitely like to know more about Sydney's powers. Where it comes from... if it's the reason her blood is inedible for vampires. I have considered that the reason might be because of the tattoo. The title "The Golden Lily" definitely makes it seem like the Alchemist tattoo is going to play a major role in what happens next... and Sydney's inedible blood was one of the main mysteries at the end along with her witch powers... just theorizing. Though I can't believe that no Alchemist has ever been bitten before, and the fact that Stanton was so interested saying "there's also the mystery of your blood" meaning she'd never heard of anybody having inedible blood before, which makes me think it's a Sydney-only occurrence.

Anyway, I was bored so I photoshopped the Bloodlines cover to make it less overexposed and so Sydney and Adrian have the correct hair/eye colors. I just hate that you can't really see their faces all that well and that they look so dull... Well, that makes sense for Adrian, but not for Sydney. Look, I even did a comparison with the original cover.

Spoiler:

Yeah, I know he'd been practicing and that he cares heaps for Jill, but it still seems a little odd to me. If he starts using crazy-super-complusion too I'll be a little annoyed that he's not advancing with his current powers (although I guess being able to dreamwalk into a human mind is advancing his powers too)

I like seeing Adrian come out of his shell too, being sober and all that jazz, but it sucks that Jill was the reason he was turning his life around, that he couldn't manage to do it on his own.

I imagine they've lost Alchemists to strigoi before, but if it is an Alchemist thing that makes all their blood taste bad, then the strigoi probably killed the Alchemist after having a yuck meal, so all that was discovered was a dead Alchemist and no reason behind it. Besides, while the Alchemists deal with making strigoi bodies disappear, Keith and Sydney are proof that Alchemists don't often come into contact with vampires (even moroi & dhampirs) so how many of them come across LIVE Strigoi and live to tell the tale? Right now it just seems like Sydney's the one with bad tasting blood, but I doubt they're ging to bring in some random strigoi to taste test the rest of them.
I wonder if she tastes bad to Moroi too?

Nice work with the covers Ash!

Okay, so maybe an Alchemist had been bitten before and nobody would've been able to account for whether a Strigoi/Moroi found the blood inedible. But still... Alchemists had been around basically forever. They can't just be learning about the inedible blood thing now after centuries of existence. Especially back in the times where Moroi and humans worked together. Strigoi have always been a threat. Someone would have known...

Eh. I'm probably wrong anyway what with the title referring to the tattoo and all.

I guess Sydney would taste bad to all Moroi since Lee was Moroi and he couldn't stomach her blood. Or do you think that because he was Strigoi at one time that he can't be considered a reliable evaluator of Sydney's blood?

No, I think you're right, Moroi probably find her yuck too. I forgot Lee tasted her.

Yeah, I can see where you're coming from, the Alchemists have had plenty of time to notice they don't taste good. And since they document EVERYTHING it'd be strange if they hadn't kept a record of it somewhere. I mean, especially with their fears of being eaten or turned/affected by moroi-strigoi-vampire-ways. If they knew the vampires couldn't stomache their blood it might not protect them, but they'd have some sort of defence againse them.

Eddie and Jill - I was expecting that.
Syd and Adrian - A bit surprising. I think they'd make a nice couple. Wonder what its going to take for Syd to cave and let go of her alchemist beliefs.
Her dad sounds awful.
Trey is definitely Adrian's competition. Why didn't Syd go to the game with him?

The family dynamics were interesting. They could've made some of them cousins.
I can't believe Laurel just turned nice in the end thought she'd seek revenge for the hair incident.
Any thoughts about the last mystery about who called up the tattoo shop?

I think Sydney didn't go to the football match with Trey, a) because Trey was on the team, so it's not like she'd be going *with* him, but more like to watch him, and b) because she really does have issues with social skills, she just can't seem to pick up the signs when someone's asking her out, or hinting at *wanting* to ask her out.

That's a good question...I can't remember, but was the gender of the tattoo-calling-person ever mentioned? Like did the tattooist say it was a male or female? Because that'd narrow down who it might be.