Fictional Crush of the Week-Adrian Ivashkov from the Bloodlines Series

July 27, 2014July 26, 20142 Comments

In just a few days, dosage the fifth book of the Bloodlines series, physician Silver Shadows, will be hitting bookstores. I’ve been rereading the series and remembering just how much that I love Adrian Ivashkov. I can’t wait to read more of him when the book releases on Tuesday.

Character Name:

Adrian Ivashkov

Book or Series They Appear In:

The Vampire Academy Series (Secondary Main Character)

Frostbite, Shadow Kiss, Blood Promise, Spirit Bound, Last Sacrifice

The Bloodlines Series (Main Character)

Bloodlines, The Golden Lily, The Indigo Spell, The Fiery Heart, Silver Shadows (out July 2014), The Ruby Circle (out 2015)

Author/Creator:

Richelle Mead

Played By:

No One (RIP Frostbite)

Who They Are:

Adrian Ivashkov is a secondary character in the Vampire Academy series and a main character in the Bloodlines series. He is a Moroi, a so-called good vampire who has mortality, and is sensitive to sunlight but won’t burst into flames because of it. He is the nephew of the late queen Tatiana, and has the rare elemental power of spirit which includes things like compulsion, dream walking and healing. He is volatile, using alcohol as a solution to the “crazy” that comes with spirit. He has a sarcastic sense of humor, always looking to crack a joke, or have a one-liner. He briefly dates Rose, and she tries to make him a better person but he doesn’t quite succeed. When he brings Jill Dragomir back from the dead using spirit, he’s sent to help keep her safe in Palm Springs and falls in love with Jill’s human protector, Sydney Sage. Sydney is the one who gets him to change and he quits smoking, cuts back on drinking, starts going to college and stops sleeping with random girls.

Why I Am Crushing On Them:

Oh Adrian Ivashkov. I was in love with Dimitri Belikov in the VA series because I was in Rose’s head and I wanted her with Dimitri so badly but I always had a soft spot for Adrian. As soon I started reading Bloodlines and I realized that he was going to fall massively in love with Sydney and vice versa, I knew that I was done. I love his sarcasm and his darkness. You know that I love those bad boys who are really good deep down. In real life, its so annoying but in books, they’re just so irresistible. That snark just gets me every single time. And I love that we see this beautiful slow change in Adrian in the Bloodlines series. I love that, while his personality remains the same, he becomes a better person around Sydney. That’s how you know that’s real. With Rose, he had to force himself but with Sydney, he genuinely wanted to be a better person and I just love it. Every thing that comes out of his mouth is a total win.

Notable Quotes:

“You, know I’m the Queen’s favorite great nephew, Well, yeah I’m her only great nephew, but that’s not important, I’d still be her favorite…”

“Takes a lot of tries before you hit perfection.” He paused to reconsider that. “Well, except for my parents. They got it on the first try.”

“I tried to be a better person for her– but it was to impress her, to get her to want me. But when I’m around you, I want to be better because… well, because it feels right. Because I want to. You make me want to become something greater than myself. I want to excel. You inspire me in every act, every word, every glance. I look at you, and you’re like… like light made into flesh. […] You have no clue how beautiful you are or how brightly you shine.”

“Yeah? Can you draw a skeleton riding a motorcycle with flames coming out of it? And I want a pirate hat on the skeleton. And a parrot on his shoulder. A skeleton parrot. Or maybe a ninja skeleton parrot? No, that would be overkill. But it’d be cool if the biker skeleton could be shooting some ninja throwing stars. That are on fire.”

Adrian returned to his crossword puzzle. “Well, you can think what you want, so long as you remember-no matter how ordinary things seem between us-I’m still here, still in love with you, and care about you more than any other guy, evil or otherwise, ever will.”

“I don’t care if you say we can’t be together. I don’t care if you think I’m the most evil, unnatural creature walking on earth. You can think whatever you want, go whatever you want. I’m going to just go on loving you, even if it’s hopeless.”

“But when I touch you, your aura … it smolders. The colors deepen, it burns more intensely, the purple increases. Why? Why, Sydney?” He used that hand to pull me closer. “Why do you react that way if I don’t mean anything to you?” There was a desperation in his voice, and it was legitimate.”

“I know I’m not supposed to say this, but I love you.”

I totally support Chase Crawford as Adrian ;) I just want Frostbite made so we can cast Adrian…

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December Book Wrap Up!

January 1, 2014December 31, 20131 Comment

Books Pledged to Read in 2013: 200 Books

Did I Reach My Goal: Yes!

How Many Total Books Read: 203

Total Books For December: 20

Remember to click on the book title for the review. If there is no link, buy information pills there is no review. I got really lazy in reviewing toward the end of the month haha.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Teen Idol by Meg Cabot (Re-Read)

Nicola and the Viscount by Meg Cabot (Re-Read)

Something Blue by Emily Giffin (Re-Read)

Blood Promise by Richelle Mead

Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead

Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead

The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead

The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead

Fan Art by Sarah Tregay

My Life Next Door by Huntley FItzpatrick

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

Penguin in Love by Salina Yoon

This totally counts. My boyfriend got this for me for Christmas, pills because I’m obsessed with penguins and we’re in love, pharm duh! And he also got me this behind-the-scenes experience with penguins, so it all makes sense. And it counts

What to Buy the Shadowhunter Who Has Everything by Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan

The Last Stand of the New York Institute by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan and Maureen Johnson

Unbreakable by Kami Garcia

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So that was 2013 folks! Stick with me in the new year, as I delve into even more books!

How did you do on your own GoodReads challenge? Share in the comments!

The Golden Lily: A Bloodlines Novel Review

December 20, 2013December 18, 2013Leave a comment

The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

You Can Find the Books At:

GoodReads Summary:

Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, nurse 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.
Sydney would love to go to college, viagra sale but instead, cost she’s been sent into hiding at a posh boarding school in Palm Springs, California–tasked with protecting Moroi princess Jill Dragomir from assassins who want to throw the Moroi court into civil war. Formerly in disgrace, Sydney is now praised for her loyalty and obedience, and held up as the model of an exemplary Alchemist.

But the closer she grows to Jill, Eddie, and especially Adrian, the more she finds herself questioning her age–old Alchemist beliefs, her idea of family, and the sense of what it means to truly belong. Her world becomes even more complicated when magical experiments show Sydney may hold the key to prevent becoming Strigoi—the fiercest vampires, the ones who don’t die. But it’s her fear of being just that—special, magical, powerful—that scares her more than anything. Equally daunting is her new romance with Brayden, a cute, brainy guy who seems to be her match in every way. Yet, as perfect as he seems, Sydney finds herself being drawn to someone else—someone forbidden to her.

When a shocking secret threatens to tear the vampire world apart, Sydney’s loyalties are suddenly tested more than ever before. She wonders how she’s supposed to strike a balance between the principles and dogmas she’s been taught, and what her instincts are now telling her.

Should she trust the Alchemists—or her heart?

My Review:

Please keep in mind, while there will NOT be spoilers for The Golden Lily in this review, there will most likely be spoilers for Bloodlines. You can read the review for that book here. There also will definitely be spoilers from the Vampire Academy series.

This series just keeps getting better and better. With Golden Lily, you really begin to see the changes that are going through the main character, Sydney, and I think that’s a huge basis for the entire series. The Sydney that we meet in VA is someone who is willing to help out the right people, in that she helps Rose, but she’s also very adamant in her ways. She was raised by the Alchemists. She deals with Moroi because she has to, but she still finds them frightening and unnatural like Strigoi, and she feels the same about dhampirs too. She’s ingrained in this, and she is scared of it as well. I love that in this novel, you start to see the breakdown of that. She is still scared, definitely, but she is learning. Being around two Moroi (Jill and Adrian), and a dhampir (Eddie) really starts effecting some change in her, which really is going to effect the story later.

Plus, Adrian. Oh, Adrian. You can tell even more in this novel how insanely crazy he is about Sydney, and she just doesn’t see it all. I spent this entire book just dying for her to figure out, but I knew she wouldn’t be okay with it. A human and Moroi? No way. Not in Sydney’s life.

But I love the direction the story is going on. It seems like there are different conflicts in each book. In book one, it was Lee and his desire to become a Strigoi again. In book two, it was the Warriors of Light (tiny baby mini spoiler there). Which seems kind of weird, but I don’t think so, not when I’ve read book three. I think that each step in the story is creating a larger picture in the transformation in Sydney’s personality, her views and her beliefs and I think that’s where the story is leading. I think she’s beginning to transform and that her transformation is part of a larger picture. Just a guess there but thats what I’ve been getting and I’m definitely enjoying it. I think a lot more is going to be revealed in the later books and I love that.

I’m not going to lie, the last few pages of the novel were my favorite. I felt a great moment of triumph and then the quick pain of disappointment in a matter of about five pages. It was incredible that it could do that. I finished it at about 3 a.m. and I wanted to keep reading. I wanted to move on to The Indigo Spell SO badly. Just finished that book a couple hours ago (as I’m writing this) and I really enjoyed it as well. The series just keeps getting better and better.

Now I’m off to go read The Fiery Heart, to read more of Sydney and her journey as a closeminded Alchemist to a battle ready girl.

My Rating:

5 out of 5 stars

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Thursday Quotables

December 19, 20132 Comments

Thursday Quotables is a weekly feature on the blog, this Bookshelf Fantasies. You share your favorite quotes from a book(s) you’ve read this week.

I’ve read a lot this week, sildenafil so here it goes.

Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead

“He has no right to threaten my boyfriends. I’m eighteen. An adult. I don’t need his help. I can threaten my boyfriends myself.”

Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead

“She was right about something else too,” Dimitri said after a long pause. My back was to him, but there was a strange quality to his voice that made me turn around.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“That I do still love you.”
With that one sentence, everything in the universe changed.”

The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings

I didn’t have a particular quote from this book that stood out to me. But maybe a re-read of it will generate one. I did so love this book.

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

“The color,” he breathed. “When you stand in the light. They’re amazing… like molten gold. I could paint those…” He reached toward me but then pulled back. “They’re beautiful. You’re beautiful.”

The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead

“Because I can’t help doing it,” he said with a shrug. “And hey, if I keep loving you, maybe you’ll eventually crack and love me too. Hell, I’m pretty sure you’re already half in love with me.”

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I hope you enjoyed this new edition to the blog. Thanks Bookshelf Fantasies for hosting this, and That One Geek Girl for sharing it so I could steal it ;)

Happy Reading!

WWW Wednesday

December 18, 2013Leave a comment

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme, visit this hosted by Should Be Reading.

The three W’s are:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading? (Reviews to Come. I am SO behind!)

What do you think you’ll be reading next?

What are you currently reading?

Technically this is what I’m reading right now. I’m 90% of the way through it, so I’m going to be reading something different in…an hour or so haha.

What did you recently finish reading?

I finally feel like I’m back on a roll with reading. I have finished SO many books since last week.

Once I finished Blood Promise, after it being months since I read Shadow Kiss, I started BUSTING through the rest of the VA books. I think this one is my favorite of all six.

SUCH a great ending to the VA series. So many unexpected twists and turns, so much action and romance and politics and magic and fighting. I loved the end of this.

I took a break from the VA world to read the e-ARC of Lindsay Cumming’s debut novel, The Murder Complex. I’ve been following her on instagram and twitter for ages now, and was SO excited to dive into this book. I’m excited to help her promote it in the future.

I am LOVING this series. I’m reading it so fast. I call this: the series where I find myself ANOTHER fictional boyfriend. Sigh. Adrian Ivashkov. I love Dimitri from the VA series but Adrian is a whole ‘nother level.

I honestly think this series keeps getting better and better. I love Rose of the VA series more than I like Sydney BUT I like Adrian more than Dimitri so it balances out. And I will say, I love that Sydney is incredibly intelligent, and she is so different than Rose in their approach to conflicts. I am seriously loving this series.

What do you think you’ll be reading next?

I can’t imagine that I am going to finish Indigo Spell and not want to immediately read this book, so I’m 100% sure this is the next book I’ll be reading. I’m a little sad about reading it because then there will be no more to read. And I’m not good with patience.

I keep hearing really good things about this book. I was not a fan of Beautiful Creatures but I keep hearing good things about this, and I bought this a few days ago with my nifty bookstore employee discount so I’m going to read it and give it a shot.

This book caught my eye and after a bunch of VA and Bloodlines, I’m looking forward to reading more contemporary YA. I haven’t been writing much, because when I read paranormal, sci-fi, and dystopian, etc., it starts to bleed into my own story. So I’m looking forward to some good ‘ol contemporary YA.

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What are you reading this week? Share in the comments!