The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead

2/12/2015

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.

Thoughts

The story takes place a month into Adrian and Sydney's marriage. They are safely protected by Queen Lisa at the Moroi court from the Alchemists. In Silver Shadows, the story ended with the abduction of Jill in Palm Springs, days before she was due to come home to the Moroi court. They suspected as much that the Alchemist had a hand in it, to lure Sydney out of court maybe? But none of them knew that for sure.

Locked up in the suites had taken its toll in the Sydrian marriage, and Daniela Ivashkov's constant presence is not helping either, which is kinda permanent since standing by her son in marrying a human cost her and Adrian to be cut off from their fortune and their standing in society. Daniela had walked into a middle of a Sydrian romantic moment. Adrian had hurriedly prepared a surprise for Sydney while she was showering to celebrate their monthsary.

“It’s only been one month.”

“Hey, don’t say ‘only,’” I warned. “It’s still monumental. And I’ll have you know that I plan on celebrating every month for the rest of our lives.”

Seriously, five years in in our relationship, and we still do the monthsary celebration thing. We eat out or eat in (buy food from somewhere). This gesture could do nothing but endear Adrian more to me.

You'd think they'd be happier now that they are always together, but of course not everything is perfect. One constant issue that Sydney and Adrian argue about is using spirit. Sydney suspects that Adrian still hears Tatiana in his head, which is a hundred percent accurate. In the previous books, Tatiana was this annoying bee that kept buzzing in Adrian’s head. I like her now, by the way. She’s a riot! I guess now that Adrian hasn’t been fighting her off and even having conversations with her, she became bearable? Not so sure about this assumption but not hearing her in thought would feel quiet and lonely, no?

Darling, Aunt Tatiana whispered to me, you were starting to lose it long before this.

Begging your pardon, but these cheesy lines are… are… I don’t even have words for them. But cheesy or not, knowing the things Sydney and Adrian had been through and their love story, knowing what they mean to each other, knowing everything about this two character, melded into one name- Sydrian, those generic, cheesy lines… THEY TOTALLY BROUGHT IN THE FEELS.

I touched my heart. “I never am. I always feel you in here.”

“My life didn’t even begin until I met you.”

Surprisingly those lines were by Sydney. She’s steadily catching up to Adrian’s tally of generic cheesy lines.

While still in the subject of feels, Daniela brought in some of that as well when she sort of expressed her approval of Sydney as daughter-in-law.

“I’d be lying if I said that I’d ever, at any point in my life, wished for you to marry a human,” she said after a moment of consideration. “I do, however, know that the road you walk in life isn’t an easy one. It never has been. It never will be. I’ve realized that since you were a child. And I’ve also known that whomever you end up with would have to be someone very special, someone capable of facing those challenges with you. This girl? Sydney? She’s someone like that. I’ve gathered that much in this last month. And I’d rather you have a worthy partner who’s a human than a Moroi who can’t help you share your burdens.”

Ansabe, right?

The most fun parts are the road trips, albeit tiring for the characters, especially the RoMitri and SyDrian trip. It’s just fun imagining them in their rental cars and what kind of music must they be listening to or little chit chats they’re making and most importantly how they decide on where to find a place to grab a bite. Crazy, I know! #DerangedFangirlModeOn

Out of the whole thing, I guess the most shocking revelation is that Adrian and Dimitri are cousins! First degree cousins! Dimitri, an Ivashkov! It took me a good whole minute to recover from this. Somehow, that bit of information just made me really, really happy! Speaking of adding a family member to the Christmas gift list, the second shocking thing is having a baby involved. Actually, I got spoilt when I was reading through Neil’s background in the VA wikia page and it outright said on the first paragraph that he will give Adrian his and Olive’s baby. Darn it! So reading it actually happening in the book was kinda meh. Bummer, right? The one time I slipped up…

The Ruby Circle, being a last installment to the series was really a short read- just 19 chapters! Surprisingly everything was settled, though. Probably not everything ‘cause I’m wondering about what happened with the group of Morois that Christian and Mia led that used their magical abilities for defense against strigoi. Did that plan of making it a course in vampire schools ever pass?

I hate that it was that easy for Sydney to be rid of the Alchemists. It was plausible but I hate the course it took. I was really expecting a lot of adrenaline rush from slipping away from the Alchemists. Even in the way Alicia was defeated. The fight they had in Indigo Spell doesn’t compare to this one in The Ruby Circle, if you could call it a fight. The encounter. Whatever. Wolfe and his Chihuahuas, really?? Arrgh!

I’m a wee bit disappointed in the life that Adrian and Sydney chose. Sydney got to go to college, yeah, but I always thought it would be where she originally wanted it, in Greece or somewhere in Europe. I love living a simple life, but that’s me. We’re talking about Adrian and Daniela here. They are Ivashkovs. It’s wrong to associate them with flashy and grand things, but that’s how they were programmed in my mind. This is fiction for Pete’s sake! Couldn’t have Miss Mead write a distant relative giving them a villa somewhere in Europe? Okay, I guess I’m really, really disappointed with the living condition part. But they’re happy. The characters I invested so much feels on are happy. They finally have their happy ending and that should be enough.

*Breathe in, breathe out.

The last word of the book, the series, killed me.