The Fiery Heart (Bloodlines, #4) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Mar 27, 2013 Chelsea rated it it was amazing

Shelves: vampires, uf-pnr, favorites, fantasy, ya, magic

This review was originally posted on Vampire Book Club

Every time I finish one of Richelle Mead’s Bloodlines novels, I clamor for the next one. The Fiery Heart isn’t an exception. No, for those who read the Vampire Academy series, I say: Remember when you finished Shadow Kiss and you needed Blood Promise in your hands with every fiber of your being? Yeah, that’s the end of The Fiery Heart.

The Fiery Heart indulges in the connection between in Adrian and Sydney. Hell, it relishes in it. As a reader This review was originally posted on Vampire Book Club

Every time I finish one of Richelle Mead’s Bloodlines novels, I clamor for the next one. The Fiery Heart isn’t an exception. No, for those who read the Vampire Academy series, I say: Remember when you finished Shadow Kiss and you needed Blood Promise in your hands with every fiber of your being? Yeah, that’s the end of The Fiery Heart.

The Fiery Heart indulges in the connection between in Adrian and Sydney. Hell, it relishes in it. As a reader, I found myself damn-near languid after their interactions and yearning for their stolen moments. They finally admitted their feelings for one another in The Indigo Spell. But with Sydney’s little sister moving in and bringing along piles of Sage and Alchemist baggage, it’s difficult for the two to enjoy their relationship. Their meetings are stolen moments. They text on special cell phones. And they are so in love it hurts.

Why am I harping on the romance angle? Other than the fact it’s smoking hot and just—gah—so good? Fine. This is the first time I’ve read a book by Mead (and I’ve read them all) that read like a romance novel. The main focus of The Fiery Heart is Adrian and Sydney’s relationship and the goal of them being together. To make this even clearer, we spend half the novel in Adrian’s head. His points of view were brilliant and insightful. He continue to struggle with the consequences his spirit use, but wants to be a better man for Sydney. Look, the short story here is you’re going to swoon. And maybe cry. Mostly swoon, though.

The book isn’t all steaminess between these two. We also have big progress on the magical front, on working to break the tattoos that force Alchemists to behave and even on the spirit use against Strigoi. Pretty big strides there, but I just can’t spoil that for you.

I would be remiss if I didn’t admit the ending is wicked. Good wicked. It’s what needs to happen for this journey to move forward correctly. There are so many possibilities as to what might happen next and I need answers. In the meantime, I’ll be happy I devoured The Fiery Heart. It was by far my favorite book in the Bloodlines series and Vampire Academy fans will probably put it in the same league as Shadow Kiss, which is definitely an epic compliment.

Sexual content: Sex, kissing ...more

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Dec 09, 2010 Francesca the Fierce (Under the Covers Book Blog) rated it liked it

Shelves: vampires, read-audio-books, genre-young-adult, books-read-2013

3.5 stars

What has happened? Is it possible that Richelle Mead is losing her touch with me? I have to admit that THE FIERY HEART was better in my opinion than THE INDIGO SPELL but was it what I wanted to see? Not so much.

The book starts out a bit slow. Sydney’s sister Zoey is in town and cramping on Zoey’s style. How can she be a rebel alchemist with her sister following her every step? She manages to do so and continues in her pursuit of magic. Her relationship with Adrian is another thing s 3.5 stars

What has happened? Is it possible that Richelle Mead is losing her touch with me? I have to admit that THE FIERY HEART was better in my opinion than THE INDIGO SPELL but was it what I wanted to see? Not so much.

The book starts out a bit slow. Sydney’s sister Zoey is in town and cramping on Zoey’s style. How can she be a rebel alchemist with her sister following her every step? She manages to do so and continues in her pursuit of magic. Her relationship with Adrian is another thing she has to hide and sneak around her sister to continue, but she does a pretty good job at it. I am starting to believe that yes, Sydney is completely in love with Adrian. But her mechanical thought process sometimes can drive me a little crazy. Doesn’t help that I think Adrian should end up with someone with a completely different passion and personality.

Then there’s Adrian. I leave him for last because he’s a major source for my displeasure. I have come to the conclusion that Richelle Mead must really not like Adrian. I have loved his beautiful soul and his cocky attitude from the very beginning. After seeing Rose trample all over his heart, I was glad he would get some happy time even if I didn’t agree with the choice of heroine 100%. But when I have to read about how he constantly puts himself down because he thinks he’s not good enough for Sydney, how she’s so much smarter than him. That she had to explain things using smaller words for his benefit. Really? Those little things just irritated the hell out of me! And it’s not Sydney’s fault, she never made him feel that way. But he needs a confidence boost and I can’t wait to see that happen before my heart just gives up on reading about him getting stepped on.

The book does pick up speed in the last quarter where it seems everything is going wrong and things don’t get any better at the end, where we get hit with a major cliffhanger! The only thing I liked, other than all that going on? The fact that the ending shows some promise for breaking Sydney out of her shell and mental cage in the next book and breaking some more of her molds. She needs to shake up a bit! ...more

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Sep 06, 2011 Nicole rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-i-own, ya, vampire-fiction, paranormal-fiction, witches-ficition

This one began a little slow for me. But around the half way point the book really picked up. I love the different POVs. The ending made up for the slow start. Although, I really enjoyed this book and gave 4 stars this one was my least favorite of the bloodlines series.

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