Review: The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead

The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Goodreads summary:

In the aftermath of a forbidden moment that rocked Sydney to her core, she finds herself struggling to draw the line between her Alchemist teachings and what her heart is urging her to do. Then she meets alluring, rebellious Marcus Finch--a former Alchemist who escaped against all odds, and is now on the run. Marcus wants to teach Sydney the secrets he claims the Alchemists are hiding from her. But as he pushes her to rebel against the people who raised her, Sydney finds that breaking free is harder than she thought. There is an old and mysterious magic rooted deeply within her. And as she searches for an evil magic user targeting powerful young witches, she realizes that her only hope is to embrace her magical blood--or else she might be next.

My review:

This is where I breathe that happy exhale of a beautiful book, a wonderfully complete story....






...and then let lose a primal scream because I have to wait wait wait for the next one in the series.






November, I tell myself, I only have to hold on until November. I can do that.








Now...onto the review.

I'm usually pretty critical when I read and as I sit here I'm trying really hard to find something to comment on, something that felt off or didn't resonate with me.

I've pretty much got nothing.

One of the things I see authors fall down on, especially in multi-book series. I don't mean trilogies - that formula's pretty basic. Same with a continuing series (one of indeterminate length where each book is its own story.) The challenge is a series that's 5-6 books long. You have the 6-story plot arc *and* the book story arc - one needs to be furthered while still keeping some mystery, the other needs to have a beginning, middle and end.

For Indigo, there was also the third plot element - the relationship between Sidney and Adrian. It had to have some movement to keep the readers engaged, but too much resolution too soon can make the second have of the story lose its pull.

All three. Perfectly executed. Sidney's questions about the Alchemists (and Marcus), her own position within that community, her magical abilities, the subplots with Eddie, Jill, Angeline, and her relationships with her father, her sister and Adrian. This entire mix of plot elements were all woven together in a story that made me laugh, made me angry, and made me sigh.

It also made me nearly pickle myself in a hot bath so I could finish reading it undisturbed, but that's not important right now.

I desperately want to fangirl-gush, but I can't do that without spoilers. But the gushing. It would be like spring thaw in the Rockies and my fangirl is the runoff.

Then there's that lovely little wrench at the very end, but that was covered in the primal scream.

A definite reread for me. Several rereads. And about fifteen-twenty Kindle bookmarks.