Richelle Mead blows readers away with her newest addition of Vampire Academy.
Artwork by Anna Becker
The wait was finally over when Richelle Mead’s fourth installment of the hit series Vampire Academy “Blood Promise” hit bookstores August 25th. The third book left fans hanging with a surprise ending and drove readers crazy wanting to know what happens next.
This series is a little different from others, as it has supernatural characters who readers wouldn’t encounter in other books. The series includes characters that are “Moroi”, “Dhampir”, and “Strigoi”, Morioi’s are mortal vampires (a.k.a. the good ones), who master in one of the four elements: water, air, fire, or earth. Dhamirs are half human and half vampire and were trained to become guardians to protect Moroi from Strigoi. Strigoi are immortal vampires who only care about killing and nothing more.
The series begins with Vampire Academy, Frostbite, then Shadow Kiss, and follows the lives of Rose Hathaway and her best friend Lissa Dragomir. Lissa is a Moroi princess and the last in her family and must always be protected by the blood sucking Strigoi. Rose is her best friend and also her guardian who is sworn to protect her. Rose learns all her fighting skills by her older, sexy mentor, Dimitri Belikov. Throughout the series these two battle out the difficulties of love and their duties to protect the Dragomir princess.
Years before Lissa knew she had mastered spirit there was an accident where Lissa lost her whole family and almost lost Rose. Lissa brought her back to life and now they are forever bound together, or “shadow kissed”. Rose can see into Lissa’a mind and know what she is thinking, seeing and feeling. During the series, Lissa and Rose encounter another spirit user, Adrian Dashkov. As Lissa and Adrian teach each other the mechanics of a spirit user, he becomes a good friend to both Rose and Lissa.
Shadow Kiss ended with one of the biggest Strigoi attacks behind the iron bars of the academy. Lives were lost and some were taken hostage and turned into one of their own. One of the few lives that was changed was Dimitri, the love of Rose’s life. They both swore that they would rather be dead than turn into a Strigoi. Rose drops out of school and leaves her best friend behind to keep her promise to the man she loves most. Mead left readers shocked and anxious with lots of unanswered questions like will Rose find Dimitri and have the courage to kill the one she loves most and will Lissa fall apart and lose control without Rose by her side to protect her?
Blood Promise begins with Rose traveling through Russia in search for Dimitri’s home town. She surprisingly runs into an Alchemist who knows exactly the place she is looking for. As Rose gets into town she coincidently runs into Dimitri’s family and stays with them for awhile while she figures out what to do next. Rose seems to get attached to the Belikov family and she seems to forget the whole reason why she was there. I felt like Mead kept Rose staying with the Belikov’s longer then she really needed to be there. Eventually though Rose leaves and the story continues.
While Rose struggles with finding Dimitri, the bond between her and Lissa still holds strong, constantly giving Rose feedback about the goings on of the Dragomir princess’s life. Jealousy overwhelms Rose from Lissa’s new acquainted friend, Avery Lazar. Lissa also struggles with Rose’s departure and the dark emotions caused by spirit. Without her shadow kissed friend to protect her physically and emotionally, Lissa grows up and learns to take care of herself. I personally haven’t liked Lissa throughout the series; in my opinion Lissa is weak, fragile and, just plain annoying. She always expected Rose to fix the messes she made. In this book though with Rose gone she becomes a stronger person and she even learns to throw a punch or two.
As the book goes on, Rose leaves the Belikov family in favor of a group of rebellious Strigoi hunters to continue her search for her loved one. Her search finally ends when she encounters Dimtri in a large Russian town, which is known to have many Strigoi inhabitants. This is the most thrilling part of the book and will leave readers breathless and craving for more until the very end.
Richelle Mead leaves her fans loving every second of the series, including how she delivers so much thought into her characters. The chemistry between Rose and Dimitri is both frustrating and forbidden. Readers can almost feel the connection between the two of them. Rose’s sassy attitude brings amusement to Mead’s fans.
Mead is an invigorating author. She does not disappoint readers with this long awaited book. Blood Promise is a thrilling roller coaster, containing unexpected events and keeps readers on their toes until they reach the end.
Readers who fell in love with Rose, Lissa, and Dimitri, won’t want to miss the much-anticipated fourth book of the Vampire Academy series.
