♥!The Young Adult Book Club!♥ discussion

The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead



In the aftermath of a forbidden moment that rocked Sydney to her core, she finds herself struggling to draw the line between her Alchemist teachings and what her heart is urging her to do. Then she meets alluring, rebellious Marcus Finch--a former Alchemist who escaped against all odds, and is now on the run. Marcus wants to teach Sydney the secrets he claims the Alchemists are hiding from her. But as he pushes her to rebel against the people who raised her, Sydney finds that breaking free is harder than she thought. There is an old and mysterious magic rooted deeply within her. And as she searches for an evil magic user targeting powerful young witches, she realizes that her only hope is to embrace her magical blood--or else she might be next.

Populated with new faces as well as familiar ones, the Bloodlines series explores all the friendship, romance, battles, and betrayals that made the #1 New York Times bestselling Vampire Academy series so addictive—this time in a part-vampire, part-human setting where the stakes are even higher and everyone’s out for blood.


What did you think of Adrian & Sydney?!?! T-Shirt painting at the sorority party, Jet Steele, Pirate skeleton tattoo, the fiery heart, The B&B, Ms. Telliwether, The Ivshkinator, Hopper the Callistana, Eddie & Angeline, Trey tutoring Angeline, Zoe showing up, Marcus, Sony's wedding, spirit dreams and so many great things! And OMG The Fiery Heart has Adria Ivashkov's POV!!!

Omg, I loved this book (finished it last month) I didnt really start developing Sydrian feels until like the near end of Golden Lily, however Indigo Spell had them just all over the place for me. *squee* [the plane scene]
possible spoilers for those who still hasnt read it
I kind of-sort of have this feeling Angeline doesnt really have a character plot in this anymore...but I could be wrong of course.

Pretty sure I'm not the only one who is anticipating Zoe outing Adrian and Sydney.. I don't want her to, but you know... it gives Richelle a reason to send Sydney to Re-education, which I feel she's been hinting at since the first book..

Hopper-- omg! Hopper made me want to get a pet demon dragon for myself. haha.

Sonya's wedding sounded so pretty!

I'm curious about how the addition of the new guardian is gonna make things. Especially between Eddie and Jill. They need to just get together already! :P

As for the villain of the book. um....what? I mean, yes it was an interesting twist, but...I just...meh.
Glad all the cats made it though in the end.

The end scene when Sydney goes to Adrian to give into her feelings--very slightly reminded me of the end to one of her other book series. (Georgina Kincaid) I have no problem with it. Just something I noticed.

I didnt like Marcus very much though, glad Richelle didn't turn him into a romantic interest for Sydney.

Overall, I love the book and cannot wait for the next one.

p.s sorry for the horrible grammar ^-^;;;

I am totally in the minority here lol. I was disappointed with this book. But let me explain. [Spoilers ahead]

I think Adrian and Sydney are perfect for eachother. I do. I’ve wanted them to meet every since Sydney was introduced in Blood Promise. Their personalities are very well suited for one another and I loved the way their relationship slowly came to in books 1 and 2.

Then, The Indigo Spell happened.

While I know many people probably found the conversation on the plane romantic, I thought Adrian took steps backwards in my book. He was subtle in TGL and I thought it was sweet and I loved their moments together. Then in TIS he drops the L bomb, goes on about loving from afar, how he will never give up, how maybe she’ll change her mind, etc. I’m sorry but that turned me off. It was borderline clingy. It felt like Rose all over again. I prefer the more subtle approach (like in TGL) rather than blasting away with fluff and declarations. He just came on too strong to me.

Now onto the actual plot. I found this book too…choppy and lacking focus. The pacing felt off, too. It seemed like the plotline of Ms. Terwilliger/magic really clashed with figuring out what was going on with the Warriors and the Alchemists rather than meshing together. I don’t even know if that makes sense lol. Another issue I have is the same one I had with VA—it lacks a good villain. The villain in TIS was a witch sucking souls for beauty and power. I mean come on, lol. There has to be a better villain out there than that. [I still don't understand why there isn't like some ultimate Strigoi villian. Wondered this in VA too.]

Character wise, I was disappointed with Marcus Finch. I couldn’t really grasp his character at all, actually. I don't even remember what he looks liek. He’s supposed to be a rebel…but he’s kind of blah. And odd. He just pops up to advance the plot. He and Ms. T actually felt more like plot devices forcing Sydney to do things rather than characters.

Too much in this book felt contrived and easy. Sydney can always leave campus whenever she needs to because Ms. T can always arrange that—or of course she has friends (who have no point in being in the book, but perhaps for this one scene) who can sneak her out the window if Ms. T isn’t around. Homework and school is hardly mentioned because it’s easy for Sydney—I hate books in high school settings because they neglect how much time you have to put into schoolwork, even if you’re halfassing it. At least in VA we had classes with Rose. I realize high school is not as important at this point as the VA, but really the high school in Bloodlines is a poor choice. Hiding out is fine. Adding school that is only mentioned when it's plot related is silly.

Which brings me to another problem. If Jill's safety is so important, why is she protected by a just graduated guardian, an alchemist, and a dhampir from the mountains? Nothing against Eddie, Sydney and Angeline, but there is better security available. At least put an experienced, older guardian out there posing as Jill's dad or mom or something. I've never understood the logic behind Jill's so called security.

-sigh-

I don’t know. Back to TIS. It all just seemed so conveinant. This book felt too plotted, too perfectly put together and predictable. How did Adrian not think about meddling his car from Alicia? Why on earth would he leave their number? I don’t know, I just figured out things so quickly that I grew frustrated that they didn’t.

I wanted more Jill and Eddie. And I missed Dimitri and Sonya a lot. They made TGL even better and not having them felt like something was missing in this book. There was so much emphasis on Sydney and Adrian that many of the secondary characters took a backseat.

I’m not even going to get into the magic. The Moroi magic makes sense and is explained well. The kind Sydney does…is not. Sometimes she says an incantation, sometimes she mixes stuff up, sometimes she waves an arm…there’s no basis for it. And apparently she can do just about anything..make herself invisible, find someone, make fireballs, etc. There needs to be more limits instead of it coming off as deus ex machina. I’m not saying Mead needs to type novels on the principles of it, but simply having Sydney say “I cast a spell to do this..” or “I say an incantation to do..” isn’t enough for me.

All in all, I thought the book was okay. Definitely my least favorite in the series, but I didn’t hate it. I just wish the relationship between Sydney and Adrian had been handled differently. The end was a bit cringeworthy for me. Not to mention Sydney seemed OOC half the time in this book.

Yeah I understand what you are saying. I definitely think Eddie and Jill get pushed aside and they are not getting much character development not that I am complaining THAT much since I LOVE Adrian. I would disagree with missing Dimitri and Sonya though. Dimitri is so boring and this is not his series. He is done and over and it's Adrian's time to shine. Dimitri got his HEA so he needs to get go away now. This series doesn't have a serious of villains. It's about witches and stuff and no strigoi :-( That kind of annoyed me first but I'm used to it now. I would agree that the whole "Jill protection plan" seems strange...like there would be better ways to hide her. I guess they are thinking that it would draw more attention to her? Or maybe some secret reasons will eventually be revealed?

Can't wait to read this one! Hoping to get to it at the end of the month :)

Oh my gosh I just loved this book! All the Adiran/Sydney feels =D And the adorable jokes gggaaahhh! When I read this series I always feel like I have inside jokes with the characters/Richelle/All the other readers and I just love that feeling.

My one main gripe was the the plot was very focused on Adrian/Sydney and I wished there had been more to do with Jill, Eddie, & Angeline. I thought Jill should have been a bigger part of the story especially since she is the entire reason everyone is in Palm Springs. But I'm not complaining, I loved all the Adrian/Sydney love in this book!

Loved all the Adrian & Sydney scenes!!! I did want a bit more Eddie but maybe everyone else will get more spotlight time in The Fiery Heart. Just so excited to have Adrian's POV!!!!!!

I was surprised by Richelle's usage of witch material opposed to the usual striogi problems but I thought it was a nice change.... So is The Fiery Heart going to be from Adrian's POV?

Brittany wrote: "I was surprised by Richelle's usage of witch material opposed to the usual striogi problems but I thought it was a nice change.... So is The Fiery Heart going to be from Adrian's POV?"

It will switch between Sydney and Adrian's POV for the rest of the series.

INDIGO SPELL SPOILERS****************************

I finished this book last week and absolutely loved it. I thought that Adrian was awesome!

One thing I noticed (my only real criticism) is that there was hardly any vampire stuff in this book. I guess the focus of this series is more alchemist stuff. But since Adrian and Jill play such important parts in the series (and they are both Moroi) I would like to see more Moroi and more Strigoi!

I guess as Sydney becomes more comfortable with the Moroi Richelle Mead won't mention it as much. But even in Bloodlines I remember them talking about the Moroi having to drink blood. And this book you would think that Adrian and Jill were regular people.

I agree about the villain thing. For the last 3 books of VA I was waiting for some super Strigoi to show up and be the one that planned the attack on the school etc. but it never happened.

In fact the whole attack was sort of forgotten about or at least not investigated. When something like that happens in the human world, they dedicated masses of resources and money to finding out who is responsible and and hunt them down.

Just look at Bin Laden.

I'm guessing it was because Dimitri was supposed to be the big villain but he really failed to impress. He just came off as more of a deranged mouth breather than anything else.

BL seems to be setting up Alicia as the main villain but she has a long way to go. I like the fact that she is smart but she's not very menacing yet. Still, she might kill one of the main characters or something and up her status. :P

So how many books are going to be in this series?

Brittany wrote: "So how many books are going to be in this series?"

6. Same as VA.

This has become one of my favorite books! I’m so happy that Adrian has finally found someone that loves him back. Adrian is actually one of my favorite characters throughout this series and of course Vampire Academy. Sydney and him make a good match. She smart and well behaved and Adrian is creative and likes to be wild. It allows the other person in the relationship to be better. Sydney has some fun and breaks the rules and Adrian tries his best to behave.

Sonya’s wedding was absolutely breathing taking and I wish that I had actually been there! There were two things that I loved about this part in the book. The first would be that Alchemists were actually attending the wedding and trying to patch the rift between vampires and Alchemists. The second this that you actually get to see characters that were in the Vampires Academy series. I think this book was just absolutely amazing and I can’t wait until more books come out!!!

I loved the ending between Adrian and Sydney. And then (view spoiler)[ Zoe shows up (hide spoiler)] and I wanted to throw the book across the room but I didn't because it's a book and Adrian Ivashkov is in it so it's too precious. Can't wait for The Fiery Heart!

ADRIAN ADRIAN ADRIAN... I need to know what happens with Adrian and Sydney.... i need to get my hands on this book!!

There is nothing worse than having such an awesome ending to a book and then having to wait for the next even-more-awesome instalment :) come on Fiery Heart!!! Doesn't that title just get you excited!!!

finished it last night loved it so much

Read a quote of Fiery Heart, is now dying even more to get it.

Dying to get my hands on Fiery Heart, I just loooooooooooooooooved Indigo Spell and Adrian.

My obsession with Fiery Heart has nothing to do with parts of the book apparently being in Adrian's POV... okay, who am I kidding, I'm reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaally excited to get to see inside Adrian's head. :)

♥ Innocent Lamb ~ Forever Reading ♥ wrote: "Dying to get my hands on Fiery Heart, I just loooooooooooooooooved Indigo Spell and Adrian.

My obsession with Fiery Heart has nothing to do with parts of the book apparently being in Adrian's POV...."

Isn't everyone?

I'm soooo excited to get Adrian's POV! Been my dream since I met him in Frostbite!!!

“Adrian's face was the picture of perfect politeness and restraint, meaning something disastrous was about to happen.”

Anyone know the page reference to this quote, I can't find it! IS DRIVING ME NUTS!!

Teresa wrote: "“Adrian's face was the picture of perfect politeness and restraint, meaning something disastrous was about to happen.”

Anyone know the page reference to this quote, I can't find it! IS DRIVING ME..."

It is at the end of chapter 3 when Adrian asked Sydney to dance.

I'm reading The Indigo Spell right now and it's SO good!!! I love Adrian in this. :P

I literally read this in less than a day! The first two books I found weren't as good as Vampire Academy, but TIS really captivated me! I was always a Dimitri girl, but after reading this I fell for Adrian in a way I never thought I would. I really would have loved to see more of the other characters though. I feel as though Richelle concentrated way too much on Adrian and Sydney and their relationship, rather than the whole group and having them more than just minor characters. I'd LOVE to see more Eddie, as well as Dimitri and Rose. I also think that Richelle should build on Lissa and Jill's relationship too, because that was hinted at in LS but is yet to be worked on. All in all, my favourite in the bloodlines series but doesn't compare to the VA series

I read this whole thing today! God pages 251-253! God please send me my own personal Adrian

Don't we all fell in love with Adrian, in this series. especially in this book :D

LOVE ADRIAN!!!!!!!!