Audiobook Review – The Fiery Heart (Bloodlines, Book 4) by Richelle Mead (4.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Length: 438 pages
Publisher: Razorbill
Release Date: November 19, 2013
ISBN: 978-1595143204
Stand Alone or Series: 4th book in the Bloodlines series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

This is the fourth book in the Bloodlines series and was an excellent continuation of this story. There are six books planned for this series and the fifth book, Silver Shadows, is scheduled for a July 2014 release.

I listened to this book on audiobook and the audiobooks for this series have been very well done. They have separate narrators for Adrian and Sydney; both narrators do a very good job capturing emotion and having distinct voices for different characters.

Sydney is still trying to balance her work as an Alchemist, her relationship with Adrian, the magic she is learning, and her effort to break the Alchemist tattoo. Things have gotten even more complication now that Sydney’s sister, Zoe, is living with her on campus. Now to make things even worse Sydney’s parents have decided to divorce and Sydney’s dad is coming to visit..he expects her to take sides.

This series has turned into a major soap opera, which isn’t all bad. There is just soooo much drama between all the characters and who loves who and all the secrets being kept.

Sydney’s life has become extremely complicated. She is keeping secrets from so many people that I am not sure how she keeps track of them all. Her and Adrian are keeping their relationship a secret, and with Sydney’s sister so close it is not easy. Sydney is also trying to keep her magical training under wraps, Adrian knows about it but no one else does. She is desperately trying to find a way to seal her Alchemist’s tattoo so that it can’t be re-inked. I didn’t like Sydney much in the first couple books, but in this book she finally won me over…she has a lot more metal and really starts to think independently in this book.

There is just a lot going on here. As with previous books there is a lot of Adrian angst going on. Adrian is struggling with the darkness that his power over Spirit brings in a big way. It is even more prevalent because he has some really good times where he has things under control in this book and some really bad times when he spins completely out of control. I get sick of all the whining and angsting Adrian does, but I guess it’s who he is.

I love how both Sydney and Adrian have changed and grown as characters throughout the series. I have also enjoyed how Sydney’s use of magic has grown throughout this series.

We meet some other witches in this book and they were awesome characters. We also end up back at Court for part of the book so Lissa, Dimitri, and Rose all make cameo appearances.

I didn’t like how things ended, it’s a pretty big cliffhanger, but it wasn’t an unexpected ending. The horrible thing we have all known was going to happen at some point has finally happened….and I expect it’s going to be even more awful in the next book.

Overall this was a very enjoyable read, I really liked it. The story is progressing nicely and I am finally starting to love Sydney as a character. Both her and Adrian grow and change a lot in this book. I still get kind of sick of Adrian’s angsting and his long overly emotional complaining…I also did not appreciate the cliffhanger ending. However, I am hooked on this series and will definitely read Silver Shadows when it releases. I still think the Vampire Academy series was better than this one. I would recommend this book to fans of the Vampire Academy series and to fans of paranormal young adult books.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– 150+ Reading Challenge
– Audio Book Challenge