And if you haven’t heard of the Vampire Academy series, then let me fill you in. The Vampire Academy series is an action filled series about two young girls who have to deal with tons of turmoil, drama, and quite a bit of craziness. Rose is a kick ass vampire who is set on protecting Lissa, her best friend and also a royal vampire. To help a little with the back story, you should know that this book contains two different kinds of vampires, Moroi and Stigoi, and in addition, Moroi are seperated into two categories as well, Royals, and dhampires. Dhampires are the protectors of the royal moroi, and the royals are an elite group of vampires that govern all moroi and make and enforce laws – not much different than any other Royals.

Anyway, the story is set around Rose and Lissa, and the books are amazing. I am not going to go into too much detail, because I have already written full reviews on these books (see below).

• REVIEW: Vampire Academy Series – Book 1: Vampire Academy
• REVIEW: Vampire Academy Series – Book 2: Frostbite
• REVIEW: Vampire Academy Series – Book 3: Shadow Kiss
• REVIEW: Vampire Academy Series
• REVIEW: Vampire Academy Series – Book 4: Blood Promise
• REVIEW: Vampire Academy Series – Book 5: Spirit Bound

So, on to Bloodlines… Bloodlines is a spin off to Richelle’s amazing series, and it is told through the point of view of Sydney, who appeared in the last books of the Vampire Academy series. This is especially exciting to me, since Sydney was a really good character and I would have loved to hear more from her, and now I can!

This series also contains many other characters from the VA series, such as Jill, Adrian, and Eddie. Adrian is probably my second favorite character, and one that I am excited to see in this new series.

On Richelle’s website, the description of the book reads

BLOOD DOESN’T LIE. Sydney is an alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of human and vampires. They protect vampire secrets – and human lives. When Sydney is torn from her bed in the middle of the night, at first she thinks she’s still being punished for her complicated alliance with dhampir Rose Hathaway. But what unfolds is far worse. Jill Dragomir – the sister of Moroi Queen Lissa Dragomir – is in mortal danger, and the Moroi must send her into hiding. To avoid a civil war, Sydney is called upon to act as Jill’s guardian and protector, posing as her roommate in the last place anyone would think to look for vampire royalty – a human boarding school in Palm Springs, California. But instead of finding safety at Amberwood Prep, Sydney discovers the drama is only just beginning…

Now that sounds like a good book! If you want more information check the below links for some juicy material!

• http://www.bloodlinesseries.com/
• http://blue-succubus.livejournal.com/272455.html
• http://shelf-life.ew.com/2011/02/08/richelle-meads-new-series-bloodlines-cover-reveal-exclusive/

Here are just a few fan pictures I have run across while browsing.

Rose and Dimitri

Again… Rose and Dimitri

Another… Rose and Dimitri

The Vampire Academy Gang

Rose and Adrian

Rose, Lissa and Dimitri

The Whole Vampire Gang

Adrian and Rose

Sydney and Rose

Thats all

Rose goes on a crazy mission to save Dimitri that involves breaking Victor Dashkov out of jail. Rose and Lissa accomplish this mission and learn in the process how to save a Strigoi.

Lissa tries to train herself to stake a strigoi because it is determined that the only way to save a strigoi is to charm a silver stake with Spirit and then have a Spirit user stake the Strigoi. This kills the Strigoi side of them and restores the Moroi side of them at the same time.

Lissa and Christian get kidnapped by Dimitri and Rose and a gang of guardians go on a mission to save them. During the fight to free the two from Dimitri’s capture, Lissa and Christian use their powers to turn Dimitri back into a Moroi.

Dimitri is a Moroi again, but much to Rose’s dismay, he doesn’t want to be with her, or even see her. His guilt tears him up and he feels the only way to repay Rose for what he did to her is to stay away from her.

I love all the Fan Wear Coming Out already!

Back at court the Royals pass a law which lowers the graduating age for Dhampire’s to 16. This throws the court into dismay. Rose tries to stand up for the dhampire’s, but gets herself thrown out of the court after yelling and threatening the Queen.

Rose decides to accept the fact that Dimitri does want her and she turns to Adrian for comfort.

At the end of the book Rose is taken into custody by the Royal Guard and charged with killing the Queen. Abe comes to Rose’s rescue, offering himself up to be Rose’s lawyer in the proceedings.

At the end of the book Rose is being led out of the courtroom to be taken to jail to await her trial for high treason and murder. While waiting to be taken out of courtroom she is handed a note that tells her that Lissa has an illegitimate sibling, and that the fate of the whole kingdom rests on her finding this person and getting the Dragomir’s seat filled on the Royal Council. This note is from the Queen herself. And this is where the book ends.

There was a lot packed into this book which made for an exciting story, although I do feel that this book could have been split up into two books very easily. I am a little glad it wasn’t, but also a little disappointed about that as well, especially since there is only one book remaining in the series.

The part about breaking Victor out of jail felt a little rushed, and their could have been a little more build up to it. It seemed that she went into it with very little planning and it all happened entirely too quickly for me.

The trick to turning a Strigoi back to Moroi was expected as well, and I really liked that Lissa tried to step up her fighting skills despite Rose’s protests.

The rescue of Lissa and Christian was excellent, probably the best part of the book. I remember listening to the book and thinking “Christian needs to use fire, and Lissa needs to push Rose out of the way, step in front of her and stake him Lissa”. So when Lissa did get in the way, and Christian did use his fire to help I was ecstatic. It was a great fight scene, and it almost topped my all time favorite part of the series, which was the fighting scene when the Strigoi attacking the Academy.

Dimitri not wanting Rose was an expected twist. Where would the book go if Rose and Dimitri lived happily ever after? But I did really enjoy the part where Dimitri fought to help Rose escape the Royal Guard when they came to imprison her for treason and murder. It was sweet and showed that Dimitri really did care for Rose still.

I do wish Adrian and Rose would stay together, so when the did “get together” I was incredibly happy, even if Rose only let him bite her. It was hot and I love Adrian.

The killing of the Queen was unexpected, but putting Rose on trial is a great set up for the next book.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, it’s not my favorite book in the series, and this is due to the fact that I felt a lot of it was a filler for the last book. All in all, though, it was very well put together and flowed pretty nicely, especially for so much happening in this book.

• Spirit Bound (Hardcover)
• Spirit Bound (Paperback)
• Spirit Bound (Audiobook)
• Spirit Bound (Audiobook Rental)
• Spirit Bound (Ebook)
• Spirit Bound (Ebook)

In Blood Promise, Rose and Lissa part ways, Lissa stays back at Vladamire’s Academy, while Rose goes on a mission to find Dimitri, who was turned into a Strigoi at the end of the last book. Her intentions are to kill him, and relieve him of an undead life, which was something Dimitri had told her he wanted if he ever got turned. Rose’s mission is in Russia, where she think Dimitri went after being turned. While she has no real proof of this, its her best guess and she heads to Russia with no plans and no way of knowing how she will find him. While in Russia she meets Dimitri’s family, who doesn’t know about Dimitri’s fate.

After staying with them for just a few days, and falling in love with the entire family, Rose tells them her news and they more readily accept her into the family. She does not tell them that her mission is to find and kill him, nor does she tell anyone else of her mission, but this doesn’t stop her from pursuing it. This plot is quite simple, but it works for Mead’s stories. A simple mission, with a lot of twists and turns. I love hearing about the ass kicking Rose and her fighting Strigoi, but I do with someone like Adrian or Lissa would have come with her on this mission. It might have added a little more dimension to the book. But I guess that was sort of achieved using the bond element again. Not only can the reader see whats going on with Lissa, we can even get some good old fashioned Adrian in as well, since he can visit Rose in her dreams.

Anyway, while Rose is in Baia, she meets and befriends another Spirit user, and another shadow kissed person. While meeting with them she learns some useful information on how to tame and keep the spirit power in check, something that Lissa really needs to learn, since Spirit takes its toll on her quite a lot. This friendship will prove to be invaluable at the end, when a show down ensues between some very powerful spirit users. I really enjoyed the story of Oksana and Mark, and how they have learned to balance the powers of Spirit.

After a short stay with the Belakov’s, Rose finds she must continue her quest, even though part of her would love to stay in Baia and get lost in Dimitri’s family and lifestyle. The Belakov’s are great characters, Mead did a really good job of describing them and bringing them to life. I also really enjoyed the teaser she left with Viktoria and Rose, and how their is now a great reason to bring Dimitri’s family back into the next novel. Yeva, Dimitri’s grandmother is also one of my favorites in his family.

She decides to move on to the big city where it is said to be a breeding ground for Strigoi. While in Novosibirsk, Rose and the unpromised hunters wreak havoc on the strigoi and gain a reputation, and even strike a little bit of fear in the Strigoi community. After being there for a while Dimitri finds Rose. A fight ensues and the stronger, faster Dimitri wins over Rose and takes her hostage. This was predictable, but I really do wish that Mead had kept her hostage a shorter amount of time.

With Rose taken hostage, and out of options she gets lost in the idea of a life with Dimitri. Dimitri’s goal is to make Rose WANT to turn Strigoi and be with him. He bites her daily, using the aphrodisiac affect of his bites to dull her senses and make her not care about her mission, or anything else in the world but Dimitri. It isn’t until he tries to make her decide that she realizes what is going on and returns to her mission, remembering that Dimitri is now evil and is not capable of the love she so desperately wants from him. This part seemed to drag on a little and by the end I was glad Rose was escaping. I was starting to think that Rose was going to stay locked up and in a stupid daze for the rest of the novel and someone else was going to have to find and save her.

Rose does escape, but not without taking on quite a few Strigoi’s along the way, and even helping to kill one of the strongest Strigoi she knows of. She also manages to get away from Dimitri, and kill him – or so she thinks. You don’t find out that Dimitri is alive until the very end of the book, but with Dimitri being one of the main characters it should have been expected.

Love it that much?

After she thinks Dimitri is gone, she goes back to school to reconnect with Lissa, who has had her own turmoil while Rose has been gone. As it turns out Lissa has been controlled by Avery, a friend who came to stay at the school while Rose was gone. Avery is a spirit user as well, but kept her abilities well hidden, as well as hiding her agenda to kill Lissa and bring her back as her Shadow Kisses bondmate. Rose realizes this just in time, right after she awakes from killing Dimitri, and is able to use her bond with Lissa, and Oksana’s Spirit Abilities to fight off Avery. Adrian, of course helps in this fight, and Avery is defeated, and so is her mind and her abilities. She is reduced to nothing. I hope Avery regains some senses and comes back in the next book, it would be good to have more one on one interactions with Avery and Rose.

Rose and Lissa’s reunion has long been coming, and when Rose finally gets back to the school she is surprised to find out that she is welcomed back into the Academy, and can graduate with her class, even though she was gone for 5 weeks.

At the very end, Rose learns that Dimitri was not killed, and that he was going to be coming for her. She reluctantly agrees to continue school, even though she knows she must find Dimitri again and kill him once and for all. I expected this turn of events, especially because I heard about another book coming out, and I knew they couldn’t make another book without Dimitri, I do hope in this next book we can see more of the bad Dimitri, because the Strigoi Dimitri is the Dimitri I really fell in love with. What can I say, I have a thing for bad guys!

If you are interested in checking out the other reviews in this series, click here!

Where to Buy:

• Blood Promise (Book)
• Blood Promise (Ebook)
• Blood Promise (Ebook)
• Blood Promise (Audiobook)

So anyway, I am on the last book, and I have actually flown right through all of them in a week and a half. So I guess this means that they are pretty good. There are things that make me want to roll my eyes due to the juvenile nature of the books, but overall it didn’t bother me enough to stop reading (obviously).

The plot and how they all run together is put together pretty well, there are some pretty exciting moments in the series and it kept me interested. I’m pretty sad that I can’t find the 4th book on audio tape, so I’m going to have to wait until it comes out. *UPDATE: Blood Promise NOW AVAILABLE in Audio Format!

The characters are pretty well described, and I can get a really good idea of the “type” of person each one was. I will tell you right now though, at this point in the series, I am sooo over Dimitri. I wish she would get rid of him. I get that he is the one that brings a naughty type romance to the book, but I think I could do without all of the I love Dimitri stuff. I would love to see Rose with Adrian Ivoshkov. Which by the way has his own facebook page (here) – I just learned! However I do love that Lissa is with Christian.

Their are some very creative ways the author has used magic and the paranormal. The bond is a great way to get into two characters heads in one pop. I love it. The use of “spirit” is also very creative and intriging to think about.

All in all these books are pretty good, and I would recommend them to anyone who would like a good read. I have written some more detailed reviews on my blog, so check them out! It contains some spoilers so read with caution!

As far as I can tell Audible.com doesn’t have this available yet – but they do have the other 3 that you can download right to your iPod, Computer, or other MP3 device.

Blood Promise Unabridged CD (Vampire Academy)

So readers – get ready for a new Review on Blood Promise, by Richelle Mead!

Let me first start out this review by saying that each book in this series has gotten gradually better, and I can not wait until the 4th book comes out in audio format. I don’t have time to read books much, but I do have a rather long commute to and from work, and I love listening to these books while I ride.

Now, on to the book! This book is set right before Lissa and Rose are due to graduate, they are in their last semester at St. Vladimir’s Academy, and they have a lot going on. Rose is seeing Mason’s ghost (if you remember Mason died in the last book), and she thinks she might be going crazy, and refuses to let anyone know what she is seeing.

Rose is also very much in love with Dimitri in this book, like every other book. And I still find it gross and disgusting. Then again most think Dimitri is Hot and Sexy – perhaps I’m weird. I still would love to see Adrian and Rose get together. Oh well, in addition to this though, Lissa and Christian are still together in this book, and Mead throws in a nice twist with having Rose guard Christian in their final guardian “in field” training each senior must go through.

The “in field” training is a 6 week training program where Dhampire’s are assigned to Moroi to watch and look after for 6 weeks, while the instructors sneak around and try to “get” the Moroi. The Dhampire’s must protect the Moroi against the instructors no matter what. Which is kind of fun, just thinking about being able to fight your instructors without holding back makes you go “hmmmmmm” lol.

Anyway, during the course of the book Rose becomes more and more convinced that she is seeing Mason for a reason, and tries to figure out what that reason might be. By the time she realizes what is happening its too late. The Academy is attacked by tons of Strigoi, and the Moroi, instructors, and Guardians must fight to protect the school and the Royal’s. This is a very exciting attack, not to mention the fight starts right after Rose and Dimitri “do the deed”. I would love to see this fight reenacted on film, it would be amazing!

This fight leads to the capture of several Moroi, and while on a rescue mission to take the Strigoi and save Moroi lives, Dimitri is turned into a Strigoi. This leads to a devastated Rose dropping out of school to go find Dimitri and kill him. This is the end of the book, and much like the end of this post, its way too abrupt to really be a “good” ending.

Of course ending like this really sets the tone for the next book, and I think its part of the reason why I am feining for the fourth book so much. Of course its not out in audio format yet, so we will just have to wait to see the next chapter.

All in all, this is one of my favorite books, 1, because of the Strigoi attack, it was described beautifully and it was very well thought out, and 2, because Dimitri gets turned into a Strigoi (hehe).  I would recommend this book, and this series to anyone urning for some more Vampire Love, Mead is a very talented writer, and these book seem very well thought out and they are easy on the ears.