Review of Vampire Academy

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
Official Website
Description: Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess: a mortal vampire with an unbreakable bond to the earth's magic. She must be protected at all times from Strigoi; the fiercest and most dangerous vampires--the ones who never die.

The powerful blend of human and vampire blood that flows through Rose Hathaway, Lissa's best friend, makes her a Dhampir; she is dedicated to a dangerous life of protecting Lissa from the Strigoi, who are hell-bent on making her one of them.

After two years of illicit freedom, Rose and Lissa are caught and dragged back to St. Vladimir's Academy, hidden in the deep forests of Montana. Rose will continue her Dhampir education. Lissa will go back to being Queen of the elite Moroi social scene. And both girls will resume breaking hearts.

Fear made Lissa and Rose run away from St. Vladimir's--but their world is fraught with danger both inside and out of the Academy's iron gates. Here, the cutthroat ranks of the Moroi perform unspeakable rituals and their secretive nature and love of the night creates an enigmatic world full of social complexities. Rose and Lissa must navigate through this dangerous world, confront the temptation of forbidden romance, and never once let their guard down, lest the Strigoi make Lissa one of them forever...

Review: I went into the Vampire Academy series... wait for it.. late. I mean, the last book, Last Sacrifice
is already out, and people have reviewed that, and here I am, reviewing the first book. But uh, yeah, enjoy :)

Vampire Academy tells the tale of Lissa Dragomir, vampire princess, and her guardian, Rosemary Hathaway. Best friends, they fled the school a couple of years ago, and now they've been caught, and were sent back to St. Vladimirs for one or two more years. I forgot if they're juniors, or seniors but you get my drift. The blame all goes on Rose, because her being the guardian meant that she should have been putting Lissa's best interests at heart instead of doing risky things. But the headmistress and teachers  don't understand that Rose was keeping her safe from the school. That reason for that, you'll just have to find out.

Rose and Lissa used to be the popular ones, and now that they're back, they're treated like dirt. Even Moroi princess Lissa, who should be with the other Royals, is keeping to herself and new found friend, Christian Ozera, whose own family has a sketchy backstory. (Backstories!!!) Then theres bitchy Mia, who is spends her time split between trying to fit in with the Royals, and making Lissa's life a living hell.

A reason I liked this book soo much was because of the unbreakable friendship between Lissa and Rose. Rose will always be there for Lissa, and fight for her, not even because of the bond they have, or even because of her being Lissa's unofficial Dhampir, but because they are truly best friends. Rose was there when Lissa's parents and brother died. She was there for Lissa when she wasn't developing her powers, even though vampires are supposed to by then. In conclusion, they are very close. So close, in fact, that they have this bond that allows Rose to shift into Lissa's mind, so that she can see what Lissa sees. And this helps in the end.

Vampire Academy is a supernatural, romance, mystery type book. The supernatural part is, well, obvious being that the book is about vampires. The mystery starts in pretty early. Lissa starts receiving weird 'presents' in her room, that include a beheaded rabbit, and a slaughtered fox. The person leaving these gifts knows something about an incident that occurred with Lissa and Rose. It was kinda a shock to me who did it, and the story behind why they did it, but it tied in very nicely. Here's a clue: Family is very important to the Moroi Vampires.

There is also a little romantic undercurrent between Rose and her trainer/teacher Dmitri Belkov. At first its gentle flirting, but throughout the book it progresses until one scene where something actually happens between the two. However, Dmitri is very dedicated to his job as Dhampir, and he won't allow romance to get in the way. But it's cute nonetheless. I'm curious to see how far Richelle takes this relationship.

In the meantime, I'll be steering clear of Goodreads and any other spoiler-y reviews, because I really like this series, and do not want to know what happens in book seven when I'm only on the first.

"Stop her before they notice, before they notice and take her away too. Get her out of here.

I hated carrying this secret, mostly because I didn't know what to do with it. I didn't like feeling powerless. I needed to protect her from this - and herself. And yet, at the same time, I needed to protect her from them, too.

-page 163 Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead