Vampire Academy #6, Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead, a book review.

Hi hot cute girly (and boy) geeks of mine. The last in the vampire academy series, last sacrifice is up for my review, and again, be warned, there will be spoilers.

We left with Rose in jail for the murder of Queen Tatiana and the news Lissa might have an illegitimate sibling. With nothing to do in jail, she spends a lot of time in Lissa’s head and follows the funeral of the queen trough their bond. When suddenly, the funeral procession is interrupted by two huge statues suddenly blow up. There is also commotion in her prison and Rose is being broken out of prison by Mikhail, Eddie, Adrian, her father Abe and surprisingly Dimitri. The group leads her and Dimitri out of court where they get from Sydney, the Alchemist. Remember her? Apparently she owed Abe a favor, and this is how she is supposed to pay for it.

Rose isn’t all too happy she and Dimitri are on the run and she want to return back to court to prove her innocence. But Sydney promised to keep her save and unfortunately this means keeping her stashed in a motel Rose. But Rose wouldn’t be Rose is she didn’t try to “escape”. Dimitri catches her of course so Sydney has to come up with a new plan to keep them save. She drives them to a secret village, filled with Moroi, Dhampires and humans, who call themselves the Keepers, because they follow the old ways of their customs.

Meanwhile Rose is being visited by Victor and Robert in a spirit dream. And Rose finds out that the person who maybe has some information about Lissa’s sibling is Sonya Karp, her old teacher, spirit user and ex-girlfriend of Mikhail. The only problem is, she is a Strigoi.

Sydney finds out where she lives, after Rose explains the story to her and Dimitri and her plan to find her. Rose informs Victor and Robert about their whereabouts and they decide to meet at Sonya’s house. Robert being the only one capable of turning Sonya back to Moroi with a spirit infused stake.

But Victor and Robert aren’t the only ones who visit Rose in spirit dreams. Adrian visits Rose also. Rose can’t tell much of their plan. Adrian, Lissa and Christian are still trying to find out who really murdered Queen Tatiana. But they need time, especially since the court wants a new ruler fast. Victor comes up with a crazy plan. If they find Lissa’s sibling, she can be part of the ruling houses in court or even made queen. So Rose explains this to Adrian, leaving the sibling out of the story. Because there is a loophole in Moroi law, Lissa can enter the tests for becoming queen, but not actually queen, because she needs at least one family member. And because of this, they hope it will create a pandemonium at court, thus buying them more time.

Sydney, Rose, Dimitri, Victor and Robert meet up at Sonya’s house where they subdue her and turn her back in a Moroi. Dimitri tends after her, because the transition is quite a shock. Reluctantly she decides to help them and leads them to the house where Lissa’s sibling lives. And boy, are they in for a surprise. Turns out Lissa’s sibling is no one other than jailbait! Jill Mastrano. They explain what happens, but Jill’s stepfather called the guardians and in all the confusion Victor and Robert kidnap Jill, while Sonya, Dimitri and Rose escape.

Meanwhile at court Lissa is struggling to pass all the tests in order for not being elected queen. She does wonderful and a lot of people support her and want the rules to be changes so she can actually be elected queen.

Sonya got separated with Dimitri and Rose, but she finds them during a spirit dream. In which she also explains about Rose and Dimitri’s auras. They shine very bright when they are around each other and this means they feel a lot for each other. Sonya catches up with Rose and Dimitri. Sydney was captured by the guardians, and Sonya finds out where Robert and Victor are, with Jill.

They find them and get in to a big fight, where Rose accidently kills Victor, because she got a lot of spirit from Lissa and she couldn’t control her anger any more. After she snaps out of it, she is being consumed by guilt. The group gets to a hotel and Dimitri tries to talk Rose out of her depressing state, finally giving in and telling her he loves her, and never stopped doing so. Rose snaps out of it and she and Dimitri have sex. And again, huge disappointment. I have been reading the dark swan series by Richelle, so I know she can write these kinds of scenes much better than this.

Rose still has to tell Adrian about this and she also gives Dimitri a choice. Rose accepted what happened with Victor and she forgave herself, but Dimitri still hasn’t forgave himself for what he did as a Strigoi and she tells him he has to in order to get the relationship working. Rose tells Adrian in a spirit dream for Mikhail to meet them outside of court, and of courseAdrian tags along. He witnesses her and Dimitri kissing. But there is no time to explain. Jill is being brought to court and Rose puts the puzzle pieces together from what she learned from Lissa trough there bond and from Sydney, who is being held by court guardians. She knows who killed the queen.

Lissa got through all the tests and is making her final speech, Rose and her team infiltrates this gathering by using spirit disguise from Sonya. And when the court tells Lissa she can’t be queen, Jill is being revealed. Also Rose exposes herself, along with Dimitri and she explains to everyone, who the real killer is. Tasha! Because she hated the queen for lowering the age of graduating for Dhampires and not letting Moroi fight side by side with Dhampires against Strigoi. Also Tasha holds a grudge against Rose for Dimitri, because she is in love with him also.

The guardians try to take down Tasha, but she produces a gun and grabs Mia, who unfortunately is sitting beside her. Lissa tries to compel Tasha by running forward to her, but Tasha shoots. Rose see’s this coming and jumps before Lissa, catching the bullet meant for Lissa. Her final glimpse, before the world turning dark, are the faces of Lissa and Dimitri.

A few days later Rose awakes with Dimitri by her side. She lived and Dimitri and she are being fully stated to their guardian status. Only Dimitri being Christian’s guardian and Rose being Lissa’s guardian. Only Rose finds out the bond is gone between her and Lissa. She also finds out that Lissa is being elected queen.  But Rose has one more thing to do, having a conversation with Adrian, so she and Dimitri can be together. The book ends with Lissa being crowned and Rosa and Dimitri finally together and happy.

Sigh, where to begin. Again, I love the books. I loved the fact Dimitri and Rose are growing closer in this book and even the tension between them is getting back. Also Sonya has her happy ending, turning Moroi again and being back with Mikhail. I am a sucker for happy endings. I didn’t see Jailbait happening though, but it’s cool and she and Sydney get their own series! So we don’t have to say goodbye to the vampire academy world. Even Adrian has a big part in this one. Ahh Adrian, I feel for him. You grow to like him throughout the books. First being obnoxious, drinking and smoking, but having his heart in the right place.

And Lissa, being crowned queen! Awesome. Makes you wonder what you would do if you have been elected queen at a young age. And another big surprise was Tasha. Didn’t see that coming either! She was so nice and loved by everyone and she even helped Lissa and Rose! See, you can’t even trust your nearest and dearest.

So pick up this book, actually, buy them all! Rate it 8 out of 10! Oh and sorry about the long review, lol!

Love, your hot cute girly geek, Mendy

Vampire Academy #5, Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead, a book review.

Hi hot cute girly (and boy) geeks of mine. Here’s another book review. And I’m getting behind on my reviews. After this one, I still have 2 more to do, if I get them done before I finish the book I’m currently reading, but enough said, look out for spoilers ahead.

Last time we left Rose getting a note from Dimitri, that he isn’t dead and he will be killing her when he sees her again. She is back in school and thinking about what Oksana and Mark said back in Russia, that a Strigoi can be healed by a spirit user. Problem is, the spirit user who did this, turned out to be Victor Dashkov’s half brother Robert, and Victor is in a Moroi prison.

Rose is about to graduate and she has to pass her final test. An obstacle course where she has to lead a Moroi, played by a guardian, to safety, while being attacked by Strigoi, played by other guardians. And it turns out, the guardians made it extra hard for Rose, because she has real world experience and they are confident she can handle it. All of her friends and family came to watch, even her mother Janine and her dad, Abe Mazur, also known as Zmey, or old man, as Rose likes to call him. Needles to say Rose passes her test and finally graduates from St. Vladimir Academy, getting her Promise mark.

I realize I didn’t explain the tattoo’s in the other reviews, so here is a quick update on the Dhampire tattoos:

Guardians are given a molnija mark for every Strigoi kill they make. Molnija is “lightning” in Russian and as you can see from the picture each mark is a small lightning bolt. Rose gets her first two molnija marks in Frost Bite after decapitating two Strigoi in Spokane and saving two Moroi lives.

The Promise Mark is awarded to Dhampir’s upon their graduation as guardians. It is usually placed in the center of the nape of the neck. All the graduates receive their tattoos together during the graduation ceremony. Only a select few Moroi are invited to the celebrations.

The Zvezda mark (battle mark) is given to guardians who have killed many Strigoi. Rose receives her zvezda mark in Shadow Kiss after battling the Strigoi who entered the Academy and kidnapped many of the guardians and Moroi.

After graduation with high marks, Rose and her friends travel to court, so they can begin their lives outside of the Academy and in to the real world. Rose made a promise to Adrian in the last book and is now currently in a relationship with him, although not everyone is too happy about it.

Rose, still occupied with Dimitri, also made a promise to Lissa, that if she ever wanted to take off on another adventure, Lissa is bound to come. And boy, is there an adventure. Rose plans to “rescue” Victor from prison, in order to get to his half brother, so they can learn about the healing of Strigoi and maybe saving Dimitri.

So, with the help from Lissa, and Eddie, another one of Rose fellow graduates (and the guy who also was kidnapped together with Rose, Mia, Christian and Mason in Frostbite) they spring Victor from his prison and head over to Las Vegas, where Robert lives. They learn that a Strigoi can be healed only by a spirit user, staking a Strigoi with a stake infused by spirit. Rose is against this plan because Lissa is too weak to stake a Strigoi.

Adrian also turns up in Vegas, because Rose used a credit card she got from him in the last book. Victor and Robert escape them. During a Strigoi attack, lead by no other than Dimitri. Rose misses her chance again to kill him.

Back at court Rose is being punished by running off with Lissa again and her chances to becoming her guardian get slimmer and slimmer. Lissa and Christian are off to visit the college she will be attending next fall, together with two guardians the Queen appointed. Lissa and Christian trick the guardians in to teach them how to stake a Strigoi.

While on their visit, the group gets attacked by Strigoi and Dimitri, and Dimitri kidnaps Lissa and Christian in order to lure Rose to him. Rose is still bound to Lissa and she and the other guardians at court go on a mission to rescue them.

During this rescue, Lissa gets the chance to stake Dimitri with a spirit infused stake and… he turns Dhampire again. Dimitri is taken back to court and prison to find out if he really is Dhampire. But because he is saved by Lissa he feels obligated to her. And he has a huge remorse over what he did to Rose, so he won’t see her, and when Rose finally sneaks in to his prison, he tells her he doesn’t lover her any more. Rose is heartbroken by this. (And so was I when I read this.)

What’s also going on at court is that the queen is trying to lower the age of the dhampires to graduate, in order to protect the Moroi from Strigoi. Rose is even lured in to one of the council meetings, without telling what it is about, so she can tell everyone about the Strigoi she attacked in Frostbite. So basically telling them at an early age she was ready to kill and protect. The queen uses her testimony to lower the age and Rose is really pissed off about this, calling the queen a bitch in open court and threatening her. (Wouldn’t it be cool though if Richelle plays the queen if there is a movie?)

Rose bumps in to Dimitri, who is finally set lose from his prison, when Rose is being attacked by other guardians, in order to arrest her for the murder of the Queen. Dimitri fights with Rose, but she tells him not to, because she is worried about his status as a new Dhampire, so she gives up and is being lead to prison. She gets a hearing where there will be decided is there will be a trial or not, and of course there will be. So her ass is being hauled back in to prison.

Ambrose, the queen’s ehh, pet dhampire, if you know what I mean, slips Rose a note from the queen. Where the queen explains that she knows she is in danger and where she reveals that Lissa has a sibling no one knows about. And with this sibling Lissa can claim a seat in the royal counsel, so Lissa can help balance things out.

Ehh, what?! This book is extreme! Rose breaking in to prison. Not getting caught, Lissa staking Dimitri. Dimitri not Strigoi but Dhampire again. Breaking Rose’s heart, but still fighting for her. Rose being imprisoned for something she actually didn’t do and a surprise sibling for Lissa. O my, this is a true rollercoaster. And I love it. Although the prison break of Victor was a little too easy. A couple of 18 year old breaking in to maximum security prison? Little farfetched if you ask me, but it was needed for the story. And thank god Dimitri is Dhampire again. SO maybe, there will be a chance they get together somehow. (I already know, I read the books a couple of times, but I won’t tell, so either read the books yourself, what I highly recommend, or wait for my next review)

Rate: 8 out of 10.

Love, your hot cute girly geek.

Vampire Academy #4, Blood Promise by Richelle Mead, a book review

Hi hot cute girly (and boy) geeks of mine, here’s another book review about Blood Promise, the 4^th book in the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead, and as always: Spoilers!!!

The last book left us with the big disappointing sex scene and Dimitri being attacked by Strigoi and vanishing. Rose can do only one thing and that’s going after Dimitri. A while ago they discussed what would happen if they by some fluke get turned Strigoi. And they both agree that they rather be hunted down and get killed instead of living like a murderous Strigoi.

Rose waits till she turns 18 and checks out of school, only a couple of months away from graduating. Her only clue is to find Dimitri somewhere in Siberia. She figures he’s gone back to his old hometown. Rose got her money from Adrian, who is still in love with her, for a promise that when she returns they try to get together. Although Rose isn’t in love with Adrian, she still takes his money for the promise and leaves St Vladimir academy.

She travels to Russia and starts looking for Dimitri. Killing every Strigoi she can get. But she gets noticed by Sydney, an Alchemist. (Remember that name, because Sydney gets her own books after the vampire academy novels are done.) Alchemists are bound to protect the human world from finding out vampires exist. They also have some need tricks, like a potion to dissolve Strigoi bodies.

Rose teams up with Sydney, who happens to know the name of Dimitri’s hometown Baia. They both travel together and meeting Strigoi on their way. But not only Strigoi, they also run in to Abe Mazur, or as he is called in Russia, Zmey. And he has an interest in Rose.

Rose finally meets Dimitri’s family and has the hard task of telling them what happened, because somebody forgot to tell the family about his “death”.  But she also keep tabs on Lissa trough their bond and finds out that she’s made a new friend, Avery. And something is wrong with this girl.

Rose also stumbles on another spirit user and her shadow kissed partner:  Oksana and Mark. And she learns more about being shadow kissed.

Abe wants her out of Baia, so Rose teams up with other young dhampires to hunt down Strigoi. And finally she finds Dimitri. To stunned about how he looks, she forgets her training and Dimitri defeats her and abducts her to his “lair.”

Dimitri has a big plan for Rose. He wants her to be a Strigoi, just like him, but she has to volunteer. He showers her with gifts, kisses and takes blood from her. Rose “donated” blood before to Lissa, when the both of them were on the run and it was fantastic. But a Strigoi bite is so much more. She truly becomes an addict. (I swear, these bite scenes are more erotic than the “sex scene” in the previous novel).

Finally Rose deiced to choose for living instead of death and escapes Dimitri. They have a big fighting showdown, resulting in Rose killing Dimitri, but did she really kill him? She gets back to Baia and to Mark and Oksana, only to find out that Lissa is in great danger. Avery turned out to be another Spirit user and she wants to kill Lissa in order to make her shadow kissed. Together with Mark, Oksana and Adrian, Rose stops Lissa from being killed.

She also learns that a Strigoi can be healed by a spirit user, and the spirit user who done this before is no-one other than Robert Doru, Victor Dashkov’s half brother, and Victor is the only one who knows where to find him.

Rose is being reunited with Lissa and she tells all about her adventure in Russia. Rose’s mother Janine turns up and she reveals that Abe is her real father! Big surprise. All her friends and her mother persuade her to enroll back in to school to graduate, in order to becoming Lissa’s guardian when they graduate.

But the book doesn’t end with another big surprise. Dimitri is alive and sends her a note, saying the next time they meet, he will kill her…

Again, I love this book. We learn more about Dimitri and we have some steaming Rose and Dimitri scenes when she is captured by him. You just know that their sage isn’t coming to an end when Rose learns about healing Strigoi. Dimitri can be saved! Maybe. Richelle is such a good author and my only complained is the fact that this is a YA book, so it’s a little bit soft (especially if you are used to the Anita Blake books). But I love the fact that we get to know Sydney and more about Russia. Makes you want to book a flight out there to see if there are real life Dimitri’s walking around!

Rating, again 8 out of 10!

Love, your hot cute girly geek!

Vampire Academy #3, Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead, a book review.

Hi hot cute girly (and boy) geeks of mine, another book review. This time, Shadow Kiss, the third novel in the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead, and beware, there are spoilers ahead!

Oh, how I both loved and hated this book. This is about the 4^th time I read it and I know what’s happening in the end.  But more of the end, later.

Rose is kinda depressed on what happened since she is back from the Strigoi attack. She blames herself of Mason getting killed. Even her secret love with Dimitri isn’t distraction enough. And to make matters worse, Adrian came back to the academy, to learn more about Spirit together with Lissa.

Meanwhile graduation is coming up and Rose and the other guardian students need to do a field test, where they get assigned a Moroi to protect the next couple of weeks and where the guardians are doing sneak attacks. But Rose is distracted, she is seeing the spirit of Mason and feels like she is losing her mind. And not getting assigned to be Lissa’s guardian isn’t helping, She is assigned to protect Christian and isn’t happy with this, so she throws a big fit.

Rose also learns that Victor Daskov hasn’t had a proper trial yet and that the date for the trial is set, but she, and the others aren’t invited to testify. Rose keeps begging Dimitri to let them attend.

While her fellow students are “under attack” from the guardians to collect point for their field test, Rose isn’t. But finally she get’s attacked and… freezes. She is seeing Mason again and she spaces out, not able to react. The other guardians take this seriously and she almost gets kicked out of school for this. But Dimitri convinces them to give her another chance, but Rose can’t even tell Dimitri what really happened.

Finally they get called away to court for testifying against Victor and it turns out Adrian arranged it, because he is the Queen’s nephew. So Rose, Lissa, Christian, Dimitri, Eddy and the others are on a plane to the court. And as soon as the plane is in the air, Rose get’s splitting headaches and nauseating visions of spirits. With a painkiller she finally falls asleep and when the plane touches the ground, the headache is gone.

When arrived at the court the find out Mia is also staying there and that she is training, in secret, with some guardians to protect herself from Strigoi attacks. And Mia has a message for Rose, turns out Victor found out that she is testifying and he wants to see her and Dimitri in order to try to blackmail them. He claims he’s is gonna tell about their secret relationship.

The Queen has interest in Lissa and pursues her to attend a college nearby the court after graduation. Victor is being sentence to life long prison and everyone is going back to the academy. But again, as soon as the plain is in the air, Rose gets again her headaches and because there is bad weather they have to land on another airfield. Her headaches are too much to handle and finally Rose looses conscious. She wakes up in the school’s clinic and can no longer stay silent about seeing Mason. So she tells and the school decides that she needs to see a counselor and that her field training is cut in half.

Finally Rose gets to prove herself in an attack and Dimitri is the “Strigoi” attacking her, and she wins! Meanwhile Lissa is attacked by her classmates in order to get her to use compulsion for a secret society the royal Moroi are attending and Rose finds out trough her bond with her. She takes off and Dimitri follows her. When they reach Lissa in the woods Lissa is attacking her attackers and Rose tries to take her anger in her and succeeded. Only now she is crazy with anger. Lissa is being taken to the school nurse and the other Moroi are taken to the headmistress. Dimitri takes Rose away, barely containing her. He brings her to the cabin in the woods where they finally kiss and.. have sex.

When they return to the school they are attacked by real Strigoi and while Dimitri holds them off, Rose is running back to the school to warn everyone. The attack is going on and the guardians, novices and Christian fight side by side to ward them off. When the attack is over, a couple of students and teachers are taken and Rose finds Mason to tell them where they are.

Turns out the Strigoi are just behind school grounds hiding in caves and they decide to a rescue missing. Including some Moroi to distract the Strigoi with magic, so the guardians can kill them. Everything seems to going alright, until they retreat and Dimitri is attacked by seven Strigoi. Rose is being hauled back to school and to safety and when they do another sweep of the caves they don’t find Dmitri’s body. And that is where it all ends.

I know this is a long review, but so much is happening, and I didn’t even cover all of it. There is a lot of politics going on in this book, so you get more insight in how the Moroi world works. Dimitri and Rose finally decide to give in their feelings. And I know this is a YA book, but the big sex scene is so disappointing. There is a lot of tension being build up for two and a half books and then it’s like, they kiss, they get undressed and moments later! What! This is it! All those moments and stolen kisses and this is what we get? Disappointment all around.

And the end, when Dimitri is taken down by seven Strigoi. You know something is happening, and the first time I read it I was in tears. No, not Dimitri! It can’t be! And Rose feels the same. And I still get angry every time I read the book, even though I know what happens in the other books.

So with some disappointments this is still a must read, And again I give it 8 out of 10.

Love your hot cute girly geek.

Vampire Academy #2: Frostbite by Richelle Mead, a book review.

Hi hot cute girly (and boy) geeks of mine. Another day, another book review. Oh my, I read almost faster than I can post reviews, oh well. Here is my opinion on the second novel in the Vampire Academy series.

Rose is still being taught by Dimitri, because she is also still behind on her guardian classes. In order to move further she has to take the Qualifiers Exam. Dimitri takes her to see a friend of him, the legendary guardian Arthur Schoenberg. He will be the guardian helping Rose with her exam. When they reach his house, they found out Arthur and the family he protected are all murdered.

As it turns out, the house was warded and a human used a stake to break the wards on the house so Strigoi could enter and slaughter everyone.

Because the attack is done by more than one Strigoi, everyone in the Moroi community is panicking, because Strigoi are supposed to hunt alone, not in groups. Christmas holiday is around the corner and the school decides it’s safer to bring everyone to a luxurious, Moroi sky resort, instead of everyone traveling to meet their family. Our leading characters are excited to go.

Rose knows she and Dimitri can’t be together so she takes advice from her best friend Lissa and teams up with a dhampire classmate of hers, Mason. Although she is not in love with him. But he is all googly eyes on her. And Lissa is still dating Christian, so it’s kind of a double date vacation.

During their vacation Rose meets Adrian Ivashkov, a royal Moroi, who drinks a lot and constantly smokes clove cigarettes. Adrian is following Rose around, trying to win her over. Even though he finds out, there is something going on between Rose and Dimitri and Rose kind of dating Mason. Adrian plays the character of spoiled, rich student very well. But that’s not all. Adrian is also a spirit user, just like Lissa. And he can enter the dreams of other people. Like Rose’s dreams.

Christians aunt Tasha,  is also on this trip and she is trying to persuade the other Moroi royals to stand up for themselves and learn how to fight side by side with their guardians, because the number of dhampires are getting lower, and their aren’t enough of them to protect everyone.

Rose finds out Tasha asked Dimitri to become her guardian and even father of her children. Naturally, she isn’t happy about this news and she turns to Mason, trying to forget about Dimitri. But her own body betrays her, as she isn’t getting the same feeling with Mason, as she had being with Dimitri and she and Mason have a huge fight.

Mason then decides, after another Strigoi attack, to go after the Strigoi himself, with help from his classmate Eddy and a Moroi girl Mia, whose mother died during the last attack. When Rose finds out, she asks Christian to help her going after them.

Christian and Rose finally find the runaways and she convinces them going back, but then they get lost and are all kidnapped by humans, who take them to a house in the middle of nowhere and they are being locked up in the basement.

It turns out the house is being inhabited by the leader of the Strigoi attacks and his flunky girlfriend. The leader gives the Moroi Mia and Christian the choice of murdering one of their friends and becoming Strigoi or dying. While he uses Eddy as his own blood bank.

After a couple of days, the Moroi are weakened and Rose finally comes up with a plan. They get lose and try to escape. Christian, Mia and Eddy make it out okee, but Rose and Mason don’t. The leader of the Strigoi murders Mason and goes after Rose, and with the help of Mia who returned she kills both Strigoi.

In the end, Rose gets her two Molnjia, marks for killing a Strigoi and Dimitri admits that he turned down Tasha’s offer, because he is in love with Rose.

Although there are less Rose and Dimitri scenes in this one, the tension is still there, and it’s sizzling. I also love this book. And how well Richelle gets in the minds of teenagers. How they think and act. Reminds you of how you where when you had that age. And Adrian.

On the one side you kinda hate him for being obnoxious, but he doesn’t give up. I also can’t wait how he turns out on screen. SO another must read, from me and I rate it 8 out of 10. Go pick up a copy of your own!!!

Love, your hot cute girly geek.

Vampire Academy #1 by Richelle Mead, a book review.

Hi hot cute girly geek (and boys) of mine. Another book review. Seeing I have a lot of free time at the moment I going through my books like crazy, so be prepared for some spoilers!

The story is told by Rose Hathaway, 17 years old and a dhampire, as it turns out, half Moroi and half human. A Moroi is a good vampire and we also have Strigoi, evil vampires. Dhampires are sworn to protect the Moroi from Strigoi attacks. And Rose, still learning to be a guardian, is protecting her best friend Vasilisa Dragomir, also known as Lissa.

We meet up with the girls while they are on the run. They are in high school in Portland when they are found by guardians from their former school St. Vladimir’s Academy. And there is where we meet Dimitri Belikov, a young Russian guardian who is assigned to Lissa for protections, since Lissa is the last of her family and member of the one of the twelve royal families. The guardians bring back the girls to school and Rose is being punished for endangering Lissa by taking her of school grounds for almost 2 years. Because Rose didn’t train for during the years on the run she has to do extra training and being grounded for the rest of the year. Her trainer is Dimitri.

Ahh, Dimitri, 24 years, well respected by the other guardians, a slight Russian accent. He is 6’7”, has brown eyes, shoulder length brown hair, tanned skin and the body of a god, as Rose likes to call it. And I totally agree on that one with her. Richelle has a way of writing that you picture Dimitri in your head, and please god, can he be real? There are a lot of rumors going around on the Internet that the vampire academy books are being turned in to a movie, and I for sure can’t wait to see him in real life.

Ok, back to the review. So Rose is being trained by Dimitri, a lot, and there is a lot of sexual tension between these two. And although nothing really happens between them, they spark, and how! But they both know nothing can happen, but Rose’s point of view is really funny. Seeing her go all mushy on Dimitri.

Rose also turns out to be connected to Lissa trough a mind bond, she can see what Lissa sees and feel what she feels. This happened a couple of years ago, when Lissa brought back Rose from the dead during a car accident, where Lissa’s parents and her brother died.

All the Moroi have magic and they can wield, earth, wind, fire or water. But not Lissa, it turns out, she has Spirit magic, which is really rare. She is also good at compulsion, a side effect of using spirit, just as healing people.  The downside is that using spirit drains Lissa and makes her depressed. And can turn her crazy in the end.

Lissa’s uncle, Victor Dashkov, finds out Lissa can use spirit and forces his daughter to lure Lissa out, eventually kidnap Lissa and tormenting her in to healing him, because his is terminally ill. While distracting Rose and Dimitri are under a strong lust spell. This, I think is to bad, is broken off by Dimitri. And they end up saving Lissa from her uncle.

While he waits to be picked up by the royal guardians and is in prison at the school. Rose decides to talk to him about the lust spell. Because Dimitri told her, he has no feelings for her. Victor explains the lust spell can only work on what feelings are already there, when they are interrupted by his daughter, who turned Strigoi in order to be stronger and save her father from prison.  Victor escapes and his daughter is killed by Dimitri.

Dimitri has a long talk with Rose, or Roza, as he likes to call her. That they can’t be together. And you really feel for them.

I know this is a short summary of the book and I didn’t cover everything. But I feel that if I will, my review will be as long as the book.

I really loved this book. It’s not that long but it keeps you longing for more. I read this about 4 times now, but I still like to pick it up again and again. The romance between Rose and Dimitri. The original story about dhampires, Moroi and Strigoi appeals to me a lot. I like original vampire stories. And I find it hard to put this book down. A must read indeed.

I rate it 8.5 out of 10.

Let me hear your thoughts about it, if you read it.

Love, your hot cute girly geek.