3.5 stars 
 Judging from the not-so-good rates and reviews by others of Bloodlines, I admit, my anticipation and over-enthusiastic eagerness to read this had kind of sloped down. Note the 'kind of'. But it wasn't a surprise at least. After all, Bloodlines was the first book in VA's spinoff. That was a cue for me to brace myself for the 'adjustment' I was about to invest, a defense mechanism in my part to not totally ruin my love for the VA series (if it would ever come to that), especially when I had become so greatly attached with our controversially formidable VA's narrator, Rose Hathaway. I initially made myself promise not to be overly disappointed and entirely give up if ever Bloodlines would turn out as a flop as what others had been rambling on about. After being done with the book, luckily enough, I could now conclude that Bloodlines was not a total disappointment! Yes, there were some let-down points in the book, but they weren't that bad. Others said Sydney was annoying and wasn't really a good narrator, but believe me when I say I don't think so. Sydney, despite her lack of combat skills and all those kick-ass agility that Rose possessed, she was on her own self, she was true, she was ridiculously smart (which was only a good thing that could be told about her as others pointed out), she was completely different from Rose which was all known and should be braced upon by then. I understood her, understood her 'they-are-monters-don't-let-yourself-be-fooled-by-them-this-is-part-of-my-mission' trait because that was what most of her life growing up to strongly believe with. With all honesty, as I was reading through her perspective, I kind of connected with her, and I find her to be likable as opposed to annoyingly despicable narrator. I won't let myself be dwindled by others' opinions though but I respect them. Jill, well, I kind of hate her. LOL. I still don't have hard reasons why but let's just see if it ever changes in the next installment. And Adrian, well, it's pretty obvious that I love Adrian and I am more than relishing his role here because he was the only character who hadn't changed, although I still couldn't explain why I felt deprived of his character. One of the big let-down points I'm going to point out was that, the plot was a bit predictable, some new certain characters were hinted at so soon I was able to have right assumptions as I reached the 'revelation' parts. In reading, I don't like not to be surprised. Bloodlines compared to VA was boring because of the lack of actions yet I know Richelle still has other up-her-sleeve heaves that she was just righting when to throw at. Let's just all be positive and be more open to embrace the new spectacle and learn to adapt with Sydney. This was just the beginning of the spin-off. ;)