Silver Shadows: More Vampires!

Back in March I reviewed The Fiery Heart, part of Meade’s Bloodlines series. The next book just came out, perfectly timed to me spending a week on the beach. Where better to read about vampires who can’t stand the sun than while sitting in it? This book picks up a few weeks after the last one left off. Sydney has been taken away to be reeducated after her love affair with vampire Adrian had been discovered. Adrian was losing himself in a haze of booze, coming out of it just long enough to try and search for Sydney in his dreams. He’s desperate to find her, she’s desperate to escape. The book builds until they both manage to accomplish their goals, but there are still a few twists left (one that absolutely delighted me) to keep it interesting, as the last book is yet to come out.

Again, Meade peppers her world with interesting supporting characters. As the focus is heavily on the facility Sydney is imprisoned in, she creates more who are there along side Syd, both as detainees and detainers. Villains, co-conspirators, you’re never quite sure who is on which side. I’ve read too many mystery novels to ever completely trust a shady seeming character, personally, and I think that trait works well here. Part of the fun of this is guessing who’s going to help and who’s going to hinder Sydney as she tries to keep some sense of herself during all the brainwashing and “reeducation” experiences. Meade shows her strength of writing a female character who is willing to fight for herself and use both her intelligence and her strength to help those around her. While Sydney’s main objective is to get back to Adrian, she realizes she can’t leave the rest of them behind. Man, I dig her characters. If I had one complaint, it would be that we didn’t get to see as much of the California crew (Jill, Eddie, etc.)  this time around, but I can understand that looking at the structure of the book.

The story ends with what I think will be a good set up for the final book in the series. Having been reading these since the first Vampire Academy novel, I have to say that I’m incredibly satisfied with the story that’s being told. Meade writes with both long and short term goals, it seems, which makes for an interesting series. Characters from both series play important roles and it’s really fun to watch them grow and come into themselves, both in their own books and these new ones. If you like slightly fluffy, slightly angtsy, funny and well-written vampire YA then these are probably books you’d enjoy.