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

The blurb as seen on Goodreads:
Release Date: July 29, 2014
Publisher: Razorbill
380 Pages

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.

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I’m going to start things off by saying that I enjoy the Bloodlines series much more than I ever enjoyed Vampire Academy. The characters are more likeable and then there’s Adrian, who, honestly, was the best thing to come out of the former series. However, as much as I love Adrian and have grown to love Sydney, the latest installment in this series didn’t sit well with me. I’m going to try to keep this as spoiler free as possible, but just be warned, I will be mentioning past books.

The last book left us with our group in shambles. Sydney, having been betrayed by her family, was captured by the Alchemists and hauled off to their reeducation camp. Adrian is drowning his pain in alcohol. Jill, who is linked with Adrian, suffers his pain as well. Eddie feels guilty for Sydney getting caught since she was with him that night. Everyone is just basically depressed and down.

Silver Shadows jumps right in, opening with Sydney being held who knows where. She quickly realizes that the only way she may ever get out is to go along with what the Alchemists are selling. So she slowly begins reciting the words they want to hear, but not without some fall backs. Meanwhile, Adrian has been frantically searching his dreams every night hoping to get through to Sydney. With the help of Marcus, former Alchemist, they start narrowing down compounds where she could be held.

What I liked about this book was Sydney’s strength. I felt in the last book it was missing slightly. She became more the love-sick girl that is in every YA book. It was nice to see her surrounded by her “people”, yet not really a part of them. She held true to what she believed in and even though she kept putting herself in more danger, she stayed true to what we have come to know her as: a helper and a leader. 

What I didn’t like was basically the whole ending. It felt wrong and completely out of character for both parties involved. I didn’t know where she was going to take the story, but I definitely didn’t expect it to go there. So I guess that is a plus on the fact that this was anything but predictable. But I didn’t enjoy the last few chapters as much as I enjoyed the rest. 

However, the plot point that was brought up on the very last page does give me hope that the final installment will be up to par. And also, can we get an Eddie book? I’m in love with that character and am so happy whenever we get more of him.