Author: Richelle Mead
Publisher: Razorbill
Publication Date: August 16th, 2007
Genre: YA, Paranormal Fantasy
When Rose and Lissa return to St. Vladimir’s Academy, they are the talk of the school. Although St. Vladmir’s may seem like an average high school, it is actually a boarding school for vampires. While Lissa is a vampire with distinct powers, Rose is half human and must train to become a bodyguard for a vampire like Lissa. Rose happens to share a rare and special bond with her best friend, and intends on doing anything to protect Lissa. But the girls are more in danger at St. Vladimir’s than they ever were on their own. The Strigoi, a vicious breed of vampires, are out to get Lissa. When Lissa’s special abilities might put her at risk, Rose will have to be the one to protect her friend.
This was recommended to me by an anonymous follower, and I’m very grateful for the recommendation! I never would have read this on my own, based on the title, the cover and the genre. Which shows you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, sine Vampire Academy was quite good. A lot of people who do not normally read vampire sagas enjoy this book, and I can see why. I liked how St. Vladimir’s felt like a normal high school: it had the drama, the mean girls and the parties. That aspect of the book was a lot of fun and made it feel real. The vampire lore was intriguing and worked well as the backbone of the novel. The plot was well paced and I loved how the author held back information to keep suspense. I managed to guess who was after Lissa, but there were some things that I didn’t see coming. Initially, I thought I was going to prefer Rose to Lissa. Lissa just seemed so submissive, while Rose proved herself to be brave early on in the novel. However, I ended up disliking Rose after she meddled with Christian and Lissa’s relationship. I did like how she had a strong personality, but some of the things she did were too much for me. Dimitri was an uninteresting love interest who felt very dull (I preferred Mason.) Despite this, I found the plot to be engaging, especially the story line concerning Lissa and her abilities. The flashbacks worked well and I loved how there was a bit of a mystery element to the book.
Overall, I thought that Vampire Academy was a great story and a good start to the series. It was definitely entertaining. If you don’t usually like vampire sagas or paranormal romance, you might like this anyways. Due to the interesting vampire lore, I think this could be a good read this Halloween.
3.5/5
“It's worth it. It's worth giving up the sun and magic.”
Rose will definitely grow on you, I think! I liked the second and third books too. It goes a little downhill (I think) after that but it's still a fun and entertaining series.
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