Book Club Disclaimer:
Spoilers ahead! I'm not recapping these chapters in Bloodlines and The Golden Lily, but I do refer to some things that happen in them. These posts are to give some commentary and behind-the-scenes info for people who want to read along (or re-read) with me or walk down memory lane. If you haven't read the books, you might have some surprises ruined. So maybe go grab a copy and read along as we count down to The Indigo Spell! :)

THESE POSTS ARE NOT ABOUT THE INDIGO SPELL! You're safe if you've read the first two books in the series.


Bloodlines, Chapter 5

I love the relationship between Adrian and Jill and how he looks out for her like a little sister. You might remember me setting up his protective attitude in Spirit Bound, and it’s one of our first signs that maybe he’s not the carefree party boy he always acts like. And I like how she’s a source of calmness for him in the turbulent storm of his life.

Today’s fun fact: I had no idea how modern boarding schools worked. I’d seen magical boarding schools like Harry Potter’s and vampire ones like St. Vladimir’s, but how do they really function in the 21st century when people aren’t practicing magic and working around supernatural creatures? I researched various private school websites and modeled Amberwood’s three-campus layout on one I read about in California. That was also where I learned about off-campus privileges and how they deal with students with cars. These seem like mundane details, but they’re things I have to have a grasp on in order to write about my characters’ daily lives.

And here, also, we face one of the series’ most controversial topics: Sydney’s body issues. I said yesterday that you can’t always trust your narrator, and she’s no exception. Maybe she’s telling us this story, but she’s not all-knowing (no matter how smart she is) and certainly not perfect. She hardly ever ate in the Vampire Academy series, and those habits have carried over. Is it the right thing to do? Absolutely not, and I’m in no way endorsing that kind of view or saying that everyone needs to be a size two. Sydney, for all her book smarts, is deluded when it comes to her own body, and it’s an issue I seeded in the last series to be addressed in this one. For more thoughts on this, check out this post.

Tomorrow I’ll do chapters six and seven, since we’ve got to make up a little time to get both books done by The Indigo Spell.