Book Review: The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead

The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead
Series: Bloodlines #6
Published by Razorbill
Published on February 10th 2015
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Love & Romance, New Adult, United States, Young Adult
Pages: 348
Format: Paperback
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The epic conclusion to Richelle Mead's New York Times bestselling Bloodlines series is finally here...

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.

After their secret romance is exposed, Sydney and Adrian find themselves facing the wrath of both the Alchemists and the Moroi in this electrifying conclusion to Richelle Mead’s New York Times bestselling Bloodlines series. When the life of someone they both love is put on the line, Sydney risks everything to hunt down a deadly former nemesis. Meanwhile, Adrian becomes enmeshed in a puzzle that could hold the key to a shocking secret about spirit magic, a secret that could shake the entire Moroi world.

SUMMARY

Sydney and Adrian search for a kidnapped Jill but are sidetracked by various obstacles. Someone’s out to get revenge on Sydney while Adrian tries to limit his magic use.

WORLDBUILDING

What can I say about Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy world that I haven’t said before? I’m taken with it. Smitten. If a fake world and I could have babies, I’d choose this one to be my life partner. Everything feels so real, even when the supposed secret world of vampires is actually known about by a hundred other factions in the supernatural world except regular humans. AND UM OH MY GOD THAT TWIST I DID NOT SEE IT COMING.

42.0% “WHOA WHOA WHOA WHAT THE FUCK? Who would have ever saw THAT coming?!”

CHARACTER

Sydney is perfection. I love her. I identify with her the most out of any character I’ve ever read. To top it all off, in this book she and Adrian quite comfortably call each other husband and wife. It brings back all the happy memories of my own wedding. I can also identify with Sydney on another point, apart from being smart and analytical and bookish and vaguely clueless about boys – she’s now the carer for a husband with a mental illness. I am too, and surprisingly, it only came about when the later books in this series were being published, just as we were discovering that Adrian actually had a mental illness. I know the angst of caring for someone just like Adrian.

And Adrian – I love him. I’m not on the SYDRIAN 4EVA ADRIAN HAVE MY BABIES bandwagon, but I do admire his complete character turnaround and the amazing, brilliant, caring young man he becomes throughout this series. Sydney’s influence on him is just incredible to watch – he’s a really beautiful person, and I mean on the inside. I was really worried for a while that this book was spouting anti-medication to help Adrian’s bi-polar disorder, but I was pleased to see that wasn’t it at all. In fact, even though Lissa eventually went off her depression meds in Vampire Academy, Adrian was willing to go back on his for his wife, which is the exact same boat I am in at the moment with my own husband.

So you can see, I identify A LOT with Sydney and Adrian as a couple and the struggles they’ve gone through, not just as a human/vampire couple but with the other conflicts in their life as well.

RELATIONSHIPS

Once more I’m in love with Sydney’s rock-solid relationship with Eddie. Eddie was one of my favourite minor character in Vampire Academy and I’ve loved watching him develop into the capable, brave, resourceful young guardian he is now. I love Adrian’s relationship with Jill, even if it’s not very visible in this book. And I love that there’s no hard feelings between Rose, Dimitri, Adrian and Sydney, even though by all accounts there still could be. The one relationship I wished we’d seen more development from is Lissa and Christian, but they are firmly minor characters in this series.

5.0% “Once again my heart beats for badass Eddie, and it’s painful how much I can relate to Sydney. She’s the literary character I have most in common with, you know, without all the vampires and magic and stuff.”

OVERALL

That being said, and as much as I admire this series, I still have questions. Who are the humans who help the Strigoi by removing stakes around protected areas? Whatever happened to the Strigoi vaccine? Are Lissa and Christian going to get married? And with the major plot twist introduced in this novel, will Adrian and Sydney ever have babies?

I admired this novel, loved it even, but those unanswered questions are going to haunt me until Mead announces another spin-off starring Angeline or Mia in the fight against the Warriors of the Light.

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