February 2010, Puffin
464 pages, Paperback
Review Copy
Young Adult, Paranormal,
Vampires, some scenes with moderately strong adult relations, moderate violence, ups and downs of friendships, school life, lots of Strigoi, issues dealing with self-harm and mental illness,
Summary from Penguin (you can watch a trailer for the VA series & read an extract of Shadow Kiss here)
It's springtime at St. Vladimir's Academy and Rose is close to graduation, but since making her first Strigoi kills, things haven't felt quite right. She's having dark thoughts, behaving erratically, and worst of all . . . might be seeing ghosts.
Consumed by her forbidden love with her tutor Dimitri and protecting her best friend, the Moroi princess Lissa, Rose is in no state to see the deadly threat that will change her entire world - and make her choose between the two people she loves most.
Nayuleska's thoughts
Wow. It was reading this book that I figured out why the Vampire Academy series is so popular. The stories are brilliant. I think I guessed a few of the plot twists but only right before they happened when the clues had been laid down. Rose is not a happy novice guardian. She's not aloud to guard Lissa in her training exercise. I understood why this had to happen, although I was a little disappointed. I thought it would mean I wouldn't get to see much of Lissa. Thankfully that wasn't true because Rose is looking after Christian. That was hilarious considering how much she doesn't like him. The other reason why I got to see a lot of Lissa (ok, the reader got to see. But I'm a huge Lissa fan) was because Rose spends more and more time in Lissa's head. Some of the scenarios are highly embarrassing. Other occasions save Lissa's life - although the situation doesn't bode well for the other students. I liked learning more about the academy and how the school works. I also liked the changes in location when Rose, Lissa and some others get to visit the royal court. I liked exploring the new environment and learning more about life amongst the royals. Rose and Lissa's visit isn't a vacation though, and serious things happen while they are there. That is nothing compared to the dramatic end of the book. My heart was pacing and I was jumping up and down in my head over how cool the book was. Yes I was majorly upset by a lot of the events, but it's just so good! I like learning more about the life of the feeders, and how the royals are protected. I like how public opinion of certain aspects of life is being challenged. I like seeing more of Rose's mother, and how their relationship has some very sweet moments (even though there are a lot of not so sweet moments). The best thing? Well, it's that I've still got 3 books left in this series to read! Yay!
Final conclusion
The action never stops for Rose. The stakes (no pun intended) get higher with each book in this series.
Be sure to check out the previous books, Vampire Academy and Frostbite. (links to go up soon)
Everything related to this fabulous series and Richelle can be found on her website.
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