We're back in Sydney Sage's head this book, and what a horrible place to be. She's pretty much the same as she was in Bloodlines; social inept, too book smart for her own good, and boring. It's constantly mentioned how much Sydney cares about everyone and 'has too many feels' which is just laughable. This doesn't really change much and I found myself constantly rolling my eyes at her 'logic' and actions. 
 The book takes place a month after the end of Bloodlines so we can skip past all the boring Spirit magic experiments that were promised and jump right into the action... except there isn't any action. The plot is barely existent in the Golden Lily, even more so than it was in Bloodlines. Once again, small scatterings of the main conflict are tiny and littered throughout the book, pushed aside to focus on more important things, like Sydney's new boyfriend. *eye roll* Crazy Clarence's vampire hunters are real, and they're after Sonya because they think she's a Strigoi. You don't find this out until about halfway through the book, then they're only mentioned in one other scene and the climax at the end. Basically, the hunters (called the Warriors of Light, how pretentious) are a group that broke away from the Alchemists and want to kill every Strigoi, Moroi, and dhampir in the world, although they're going after Strigoi first. Considering how horribly Alchemists think of all three groups, I'm surprised Ms. Mead even bothered with the hunters and didn't just make the Warriors the Alchemists' secret assassins or something. Anyway, they're almost invisible in the majority of the book and they're supposed to be the villains. 
 But who cares about silly stuff like conflict and plot! Let's talk about more important things! Sydney gets a boyfriend that her friend Trey sets her up with, who is about as interesting as a houseplant (which, amusingly enough, everyone else tells her). He's pretty much male Sydney, so you would think the two of them would be a perfect match (and in reality, they probably would be), but no, Ms. Mead is pushing the 'opposites attract' trope hard, just like she did with Dimitri and Rose. At least the two dhampirs have a ton in common, just different attitudes (Rose is outgoing and crazy while Dimitri is more reserved and thoughtful), but Adrian and Sydney have absolutely no common ground. Sydney likes spending time with Boring Brayden because he's just as smart as she is and challenges her intellectually but she wants all-encompassing passion; funny for someone so analytical. Most of the boyfriend stuff is a waste, since she'd rather ditch him to spend time with Adrian for no real reason at all other than 'the love story dictates'. She drives him to San Diego to see his father rather than just letting him borrow her car (she has an obsession with cars to the point of making me pinch the bridge of my nose in frustration), ditches Brayden at a dance to take care of a drunken Adrian, has Sonya and Dimitri talk to Lissa so that Adrian's dad will stop being such a dick to him, and cancels dates to go cater to some need that Adrian could take care of himself. 
 Sorry, but Adrian's interest in Rose was cute; his interest in Sydney is ham fisted, shoe horned and nauseating. (Just to be clear; I am not an Adrian and Rose fan any more than I am an Adrian and Sydney fan. I just find that some of my favorite characters become ruined once they're in a forced relationship.) Other than her aura, which is yellow and purple (and I swear the purple is just from her being a witch - a spell casting one, that is - because she's as far from spiritual as you can get) that he finds fascinating, she's as fun as watching grass grow. Sometimes I think he just likes watching her reaction to things because it's extreme and awkwardly hilarious. His affection often leaks into Jill, who gushes about how wonderful Sydney is to her face and the doofus brushes it off as a weird quirk. Hello, you know about their bond, take a hint! I shouldn't really expect too much from our oblivious heroine. Anyway, Adrian buys a new car; a classic with a stick shift because he knew she would like it. Even though he can drive stick, he plays dumb so she'll teach him and he can be around her. He practically wears himself out in the sun, knowing it's bad for him, to hang out with her. He even goes to some shifty self defense class with her when she could have Eddie teach her, all because Ms. Mead wants the two of them together, no matter what backwards reason there is. Sydney has no real reason to hang out with Adrian and vice versa, yet they always do. It's mind boggling. 
 Putting my hatred for the Sydney/Adrian 'love story' (and I use the term loosely) aside for the moment, we'll move on to another useless addition to the story; Angeline. If you read Last Sacrifice, Angeline is a Keeper, (a group of mountain folks that are Moroi, dhampirs, and humans that all live and reproduce together) and contributes absolutely nothing to anyone. Her presence lets Sydney get her own dorm room and hints that she's Trey's love interest, but that's about it. She constantly gets in trouble, is an academic failure, has no common sense and won't leave poor Eddie alone with her overbearing flirting. She's basically there to be annoying and probably to show how kind hearted and super smart Sydney is, since she's always bailing Angeline out of trouble. 
 Sydney's passiveness with her teacher, Mrs. Terwillinger, is back in full force, even more now that you find out Sydney is a witch. (At the end of Bloodlines, Sydney used a fire charm to attack a Strigoi and that's how she found out she can use magic.) Mrs. Terwillinger is constantly making Sydney learn spells and charm making, even though Sydney thinks magic is evil and shouldn't be used by humans. Unfortunately, she never stands up for herself, or asks to be transferred to another teacher for her independent study, or does anything but grit her teeth, complain in her head, and do it. In fact, she keeps making charms and using spells, even going to Mrs. Terwillinger's house (with Adrian in tow for no reason, once again) to use a spell to find Sonya and later whines that its wrong and it can't keep being forced on her. What a hypocrite. 
 Sonya and Dimitri are present in the book, but barely. Since Lee couldn't be turned into a Strigoi again after being restored, the Moroi Court and the Alchemists want experiments run to see if some type of immunity to becoming Strigoi could be made. Most of this is downplayed and a waste of time since they never find anything substantial. Their presence is mostly so Sonya could get kidnapped by the Warriors and we can all pretend there's a plot in this book. 
 Speaking of, let's talk about that now. I hope you weren't expecting some big, epic fight scene, because silly goose, this is Bloodlines, not Vampire Academy. It turns out Trey is a Warrior and takes Sydney to their super-secret headquarters to make a case on Sonya's behalf. As you might expect, that backfires and a fight breaks out as Alchemists and Guardians bust into the compound to free Sonya and Sydney. Sydney gets cut off from the attackers and to no one's surprise, Adrian finds her (what is he even doing there? He's a non-combatant!). His appearance is a waste since Sydney and her magic potions save the day and him, since he can't do anything. You don't see the fight except right at the beginning and then it's just Sydney and Adrian running away and then everyone meeting up at Clarence's so Sydney can throw a fit about being kept out of the loop. (No one told her about the plan to attack the compound, probably because they knew she'd give it away and didn't have the heart to tell her.) 
 The book ends with Adrian professing his undying love for Sydney, because it must be true love, he's known her for a whopping two and a half months and is so over Rose because she was, what, four months ago? Everything about the last chapter made me cringe, with the exception of Adrian calling her out on her eating disorder. Her reaction to his kiss was just so over the top I was making gagging sounds in my head as I read it. I cheered when she turned him down, even though I knew it wouldn't be permanent, sadly. 
 There are three inconsistencies I found this time. The first points back to the first book and Trey's reaction to Sydney's tattoo; the Warriors know all about the Alchemists (this is how one identifies her when she's out with Sonya), so why does he think her tattoo is from Nevermore and helps her cheat at schoolwork? I'm wondering if "Trey is a Warrior of Light" was added later and his reaction in the first novel was overlooked. The second is Sydney saying Adrian is twenty-one when his birthday was in August and considering he's been twenty-one since Frostbite that makes him twenty-two. (To be fair, in Adrian's Lost Chapters, which takes place between Last Sacrifice and Bloodlines, Ms. Mead has it starting on Adrian's twenty-first birthday, so she herself probably forgot his age. Keep your material straight!) The last is that Sydney says Adrian is five inches taller than her. It was established way back during the Vampire Academy series that Adrian was just a smidge shorter than Dimitri, who is six feet, seven inches and many people peg Adrian between six feet, two inches and six feet, four inches. Sydney is five feet, seven inches, so once again, she's failing at math. 
 Golden Lily is about the same as Bloodlines for me, and that's boring. In fact, GL might be slightly worse because of Sydney's magic hypocrisy and Adrian's crush. At least when I'm reading an uninteresting book I'm just yawning and not cringing as I watch my favorite character slowly gets destroyed. (And it gets worse, oh does it get worse).