Review: The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead

I have spent a long time waiting for this book. A few years ago I got the first four books in the Vampire Academy series for Christmas and ever since I have always been wanting more, which has thankfully been delivered in the Bloodlines series. However, I have to say that I feel like I have fallen out of love with this series. Personally, I think that books can be ruined by there being too much sex and that, to me, was what happened in The Fiery Heart. It overwhelms the book and detracts from the storyline. That put me off the series in a way, but it did not in any way mean that I wasn't excited for this book - I still care about and love the characters.

Having this book from both Adrian's and Sydney's perspective meant that I felt a lot more involved in the storyline. I could know what was going on at two locations and be able to link things together when the characters may not have done. Sydney has been an inspiration to me since her first appearance in the Vampire Academy novels. She is smart and not afraid to show it, which is something that I admire because I always tend to hide my intelligence rather than flaunt it. Adrian has grown so much emotionally over the course of this series and it was particularly insightful to be able to have parts from his perspective when he was hearing his dead great-aunt talking to him and pushing him to do things that he probably shouldn't have been doing.

It was great to see the return of Alicia in this novel. She was a great villain in the earlier books, so it was a good surprise to see her return because of the power she wields and she has a real motive to get back at everyone. Thinking about the mischief she had caused brought some wonderful nostalgic memories back from the start of the series and meant that I knew, or had some sort of idea, what levels of danger everyone would be in. It brought tension and excitement in the race to save Jill.

Speaking of Jill, I feel like the characters had seemingly given up on her at the very start of this novel. There was not much detail given apart from 'we looked', which although was a good reminder that they hadn't sat around doing nothing, it was very vague and not fulfilling enough for me as a reader. Soon after the novel started though, the race to get to Jill was back on and I found it interesting to follow the clues which would eventually give some answers. I especially like how Sydney was smuggled out of Court, very clever and inventive.

I thought that having that storyline going parallel with the storyline about Olive might be a bit too much for one novel, but it provided an elegant distraction while things with Jill seemed to come to more dead ends. It also led to more discoveries about Adrian and Dimitri's families, which was an unexpected nicety. I will talk about Olive and Neil's relationship later, but I think that the possibility of couples such as Rose and Dimitri having children is something that I as a reader have always wanted, as I'm sure many other readers have, though I do have other opinions as well.

My main criticism of this book is that everything seemed to come together too well. I understand that Mead would want to tie the series off nicely, but it seemed to tie off too nicely. Almost everyone ended up as part of a couple and wanting to be married. It was bittersweet. Of course I was happy that my beloved characters had found someone and were moving ahead in their relationships, though I was left feeling that it was all too forced. A happy ending is lovely, but sometimes it's not fulfilling to a reader to have that sort of ending, especially after everything the characters have been though, the writer just finishing it off in a way that is more dreamlike than reality driven just wasn't what I personally wanted.

As well as that, I feel that I cannot not mention how unrealistic Olive giving birth alone in the woods was. Who cut the umbilical cord? How come Declan wasn't in the state that babies usually are in in such a short period after their birth? It was all just a bit too unrealistic for my liking and I know that some people aren't after that in a fantasy book, but to me it was off-putting from the storyline.

Finally, the flow of this book was not there. There were long paragraphs about travelling in the middle of chapters where it would have been better to break away from the characters, yet it just continued on, creating chapters that I felt like I was plodding through. If they had been broken up better then the flow would have improved.

Overall, I still loved this book and I am truly sad that our exploration into the Vampire Academy world is over, though I do feel like I have had a large enough taste.

(Goodreads parallel)