2.5 to 3 stars 
 The Bloodlines series continues to disappoint. It's even more disappointing to me because I've been a huge fan of Richelle Mead. I absolutely adored Vampire Academy. Far and away one of my favorite series. And Mead's adult series have held my interest as well. I think one of the things that kept my interest was the fact that Mead writes strong, complex female characters. While Sydney has definitely grown in this installment and is much more complex than she was in Bloodlines, she is still boring. 
 The fact that virtually nothing happened in the first half of this book added to my frustration of the Golden Lily. It took me weeks to read it, which would never have happened if it held my interest. Really, nothing interesting happened until the last quarter of the book, when we saw not only action, but emotion from Sydney, Adrian and even Jill and Eddie. 
 Is Mead trying to slowly build up to some kind of character metamorphosis, say over 3 or so books? Because that's how it feels. 
 Although predominantly disappointed with this book, it was still enough for me to finish it and give it more than 3 stars. No question, Richelle Mead is a very accomplished writer. Her prose are flawless, and when she writes dialog, it's usually pretty great, especially when Adrian is speaking. But even Adrian takes a backseat to bland, vanilla Sydney. 
 My favorite part comes towards the end of the book, and, of course involves Adrian (whom I've loved since VA). We finally get some emotion. 
 "But perhaps the best part of all was that I, Sydney Katherine Sage, guilty of constantly analyzing the world around me, well, I stopped thinking. 
 And it was glorious." 
 And- from Adrian: 
 "No, you will listen. For once, you're going to hear something that doesn't fit into your neat, compartmentalized works of logic and order and reason. Because this isn't reasonable. If you're terrified, believe me - thus scares the hell out of me, too. You asked about Rose? I tried to be a better person for her - but it was to impress her, to get her to want me. But when I'm around you, I want to be better because.... well because it feels right. Because I want to. You make me want to become something greater than myself. You inspire me in every act, every word, every glance." 
 Now, this is the passionate Adrian I remember from VA. The only problem? In this case, I don't believe it.