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)

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.