The book follows several teenaged students as they deal with forbidden romances, the Strigoi, and the supernatural in general. On the whole I enjoyed the story and would recommend it to fans of the Vampire Diaries (written) series or the works of Cassandra Clare. The Golden Lily is a 2012 urban fantasy young adult novel by New York Times bestselling author Richelle Mead and is the second novel of the Bloodlines series. The alternative voices given to Adrian and some other characters, added to the quality of the listening. I think Emily Shafter is a very good narrator, (although I will always prefer an English accent) but naturally the similarity in the tone of her voice for the repeated parts makes it more obvious than it might be in the written version. I found I couldn't ignore the frequent use of cliches and repeated phrases, which really detracted from the experience in places. The quality of the writing is what lets the book down. The plot is engaging, and this along with the development of the supernatural world (we become more familiar with witchcraft, and also the origins of the Alchemist 'society' in this instalment) is the main strength of the book. I particularly liked the way in which Sydney's prejudices were explained and gradually challenged throughout the book.

However, the more complex character backgrounds and exploration make them a little more believable. As in the Vampire Academy series, the spin off (which centres around Sydney from the original series) is centred around heroes that are a little too stalwart and villains that are a little too mean.

The golden lily by richelle mead