Review: The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead (Bloodlines #6)

The Ruby Circle (Bloodlines #6)
Richelle Mead
Published: February 10, 2015 (Razorbill)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review Source: Library

Reviewed by: Amy

Rating (out of 5): 4 stars

Note: While this review will be spoiler free, it will reference the previous books in the series. If you haven’t started it yet, check out VBC’s review of Bloodlines.

The Ruby Circle begins a month after Jill’s kidnapping and no one is any closer to locating her. Sydney and Adrian’s happily-ever-after has been put on hold in the pursuit of finding Jill and because many at court do not condone their vampire/human marriage. Both Sydney and Adrian have become pariahs with Sydney confined almost solely to their rooms and Adrian left vulnerable to attacks from other Moroi.

Hope comes in the form of a visit from Mrs. Terwelliger, who brings an item magically keyed to Sydney. Upon breaking the lock, the group finds that it’s a clue to Jill’s whereabouts. Sydney jumps at the opportunity to leave her self-imposed prison to follow this lead, but to keep up appearances Adrian has to stay behind.

Adrian is kept plenty busy when it’s brought to his attention that Nina is not doing well, and we find that she’s been using a lot of Spirit in order to find out where her sister Olive ran off to. Adrian agrees to help Nina find Olive, but we know Adrian’s been battling his sanity in using Spirit, and this might just push him over the edge.

I think it’s really difficult to follow-up Silver Shadows. There were the horrific conditions of re-education that we had to read about Sydney going through and then there was the drive, on Adrian’s part, to find her. Jill’s circumstances in The Ruby Circle somewhat mirror those of Sydney’s, however, since we don’t have a POV from Jill, it’s difficult to feel the emotional impact of her ordeal.

Instead I’m drawn to Sydney and Adrian, as usual. I want to learn more about the life they’re trying to make now that they’re married. Unfortunately, any headway they can make in their future has to be put on hold in the search for Jill and the fact that they are still on the run from the Alchemists. Any big talks they need to have kind of got pushed aside and then when they were had I felt like things were glossed over a bit.

I liked that Richelle Mead split Adrian and Sydney up early on. Sydney’s trail of clues proved to be pretty interesting, and the things Adrian learns while helping Nina could have some consequences in the future. By the end of each chapter I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. Unfortunately, switching POVs kind of broke the spell each time, and I would have to build up again with each chapter.

Going into this book, I really didn’t know where Mead could take readers next, but The Ruby Circle definitely had a “best of” vibe to it, and I think that’s what made this a little lackluster for me. There was just too much Mead was trying to get done yet still leaving just enough open to delve further into this world with future series should she choose to do so.

Now talking about the series ending overall, I did enjoy that we got a lot of interaction between Bloodlines characters and Vampire Academy favorites (most notably Rose and Dimitri). At the end of the day, I liked where everyone ended up, and the promise for more to come. The Bloodlines series has been a great spin-off that, at times, outshined its predecessor.

Sexual content: sex