I have loved all of Richelle Mead's stories, especially Vampire Academy. I was very much looking forward to reading Bloodlines, so when I finally got it I was super excited. Before I read it I made sure not to compare it to VA because I knew it would be different as Sydney was the narrator instead of Rose. But it was really hard not to compare Bloodlines to VA, and I will start off by saying that it was interesting reading Sydney's view on the Vampire world and her way of thinking, but I just felt like it was missing that 'badass' Rose commentary from VA. 
 *SPOILERS* 
 There was only one small scene with Rose at the start and pretty much no mention of Dimitri at all until the last couple of sentences of the book. Even though I knew Bloodlines was focused on the side characters, I was hoping for a few scenes of Rose, Dimitri, Lissa and Christian, but we didn't get them - which disappointed me from the start. 
 I was also expecting more action and a better plot than what was in Bloodlines, so I was a little disappointed after reading it when it only had the small action scene at the end. All of the VA books have been constantly action packed and on the go all the time and I felt Bloodlines didn't quite live up to them. The only real exciting part was the last 20 or so pages and I guess at times I was tempted to stop reading it. I was also hoping something would happen with Sydney and Adrian because I just wanted Adrian to be happy again after what Rose did to him in the last VA book. There were those few moments in the book where I thought there was some romance between Sydney and Adrian but it never went anywhere, but luckily at the end after the attack with Lee and the Strigoi we saw that Adrain and Sydney may like each other. 
 So overall I would read it Bloodlines again, and I would probably rate it about 3 1/2 stars, but I honestly was expecting alot more out of the spin off series and more ROSE AND DIMITRI scenes at least should have been put in! But even though I may have said alot of negative things about Bloodlines, I did enjoy reading about the side charcters, mostly Adrian and Sydney's relationship (which I hope develops into something more) and also how we were introduced to Dimitri again, who will be working with Adrian in the next book to help research what makes the restored damphirs and morois immune to strogoi turning them.