Review: Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead

Title: Silver Shadows
Author: Richelle Mead
Series: Bloodlines #5
Publication: July 29th 2014 by Razorbill
Genre: Young Adult ~ Paranormal
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bloodlines | Kobo
Cover Rating: 2/5 (Just no...)
Overall Rating: 5/5

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.

As a Bloodlines and Adrian Ivashkov fangirl, I have a lot to say about Silver Shadows but I'll try to keep it short. Obviously I loved it. A book with Adrian Ivashkov has to be really bad for me not to love it and Richelle Mead is oh so good at what she does. Honestly, I hadn't seen half of the things that happened coming at all and I must say I was pleasantly surprised by it.

I can probably speak for everyone who read the previous book, The Fiery Heart, that the ending shocked us all. At least it definitely shocked me. I wasn't sure where the next book was going to go and I was genuinely scared for both Sydney and Adrian. This, by the way, was a constant state while reading, I must admit. And this book was definitely more different than the others. Which was not a bad thing at all!

A lot happened, both in Sydney as Adrian's world. Sydney being captured by the other Alchemists and thrown in re-education, her live was pretty miserable and dark. I can only applaud her for being so strong, especially when she was being tortured. She really is a strong person and I don't think enough people give her credit for that. She also never stopped trying to help the others who were with her in the re-education centre. And she was really badass in this book with her magical powers. Gotta love Sydney!

And Adrian? As always he was awesome to read about. He was a bit more serious in this book, considering that he couldn't find a way to contact Sydney, not even in her dreams. There were moments where I just wanted to hug him and tell him everything would be okay and other times that I wanted to slap the hell out of him. Also he showed some powers I didn't know he had and yes he was, just like Sydney, badass with them. Gods, I love him. Aside from having Sydney being taken away from his he had also other problems. I'm not going to go into them for the sake of spoilers... but wow!

I can't say much about the others like Jill, Eddie, Trey, Angeline, etc... because they weren't in it much. But when they were, they were great as always. Also, Rose, Dimitri and Lissa showed up. That always gives me nostalgic feelings. Lissa kinda pissed me off, though. 

I have to mention that towards the end, there was a lot happening. And when I say a lot, I really mean A LOT. It was sort of like epic escape scenes that you see in action movies. Pretty awesome, yeah. And something happened that I hadn't seen coming at all. Never in my life I would've dreamed that would happen. NEVER. And the ending was pretty cliffhanger-ish, too so it kind of makes me nervous for the next book.

Silver Shadows was a heartstopping, romantic and full of action book. I didn't think Richelle Mead could surprise me more than she already did with this series, but she did it again. It makes me both want the next and final book, The Ruby Circle and not want it because it'll be the very last book and I'm so not ready for this fantastic series to end. I want more Adrian Ivashkov, always!

Favorite Quotes:

“What is it with you and girls, Adrian, dear? Why do they either mean nothing to you or everything? It's always an extreme."
"Because I don't do things in halves, mom. Especially when it comes to love.”

“I know what love is, Mom. I’ve had love that burns in every fiber of my being, that drives me to be a better person and empowers me through each moment of the day. If you’d ever had something like that, you’d hold on to it with every bit of strength you had.”

“Are you in a suit?” I managed at last, my voice chocking up. “You didn’t have to dress up for me.”
“Quiet, Sage,” he said. “I’ll make the hilarious one-liners during this daring rescue.”

About the Author:

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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. Before becoming a writer, she considered a few different career paths. She received a liberal arts degree from the University of Michigan, an MA in Comparative Religion from Western Michigan University, and a Master in Teaching (Middle & High School English) degree from the University of Washington. In the end, she decided writing was the way for her but believes all of her education prepared her for it.

A life-long reader, Richelle has always had a particular fascination with mythology and folklore. When not writing,, she enjoys bad reality TV, traveling, trying interesting cocktails, and shopping for dresses. Lots of dresses. She is a self-professed coffee addict, fights a constant (and losing) battle with procrastination, and has a passion for all things wacky and humorous.