Vampire Academy [Paperback]

Rose and Lissa are best friends who share an unimaginable bond, even by vampire standards. Now, after time spent on the run, they have been returned to the school from which they escaped to face ridicule, speculation, and danger.

Welcome to St. Vladimir's Academy, a private high school for vampires and the half-bloods who are bound to protect them. The Moroi are vampires, and the descendants of Moroi royalty are the social elite of St. Vladimir's. The Moroi are at constant risk, though. The Strigoi, the fiercest vampires, are out to get them, any way they can. The Moroi are protected by Dhampirs, guardians who are sworn to lay down their lives to assure that the Moroi bloodlines continue.

Rose is a Dhampir and Lissa is the last of the Dragomir line of Moroi royalty. Rose and Lissa share a special bond; one that nearly assures that Rose will be Lissa's guardian for life. Returning to school, however, proves to be more difficult than either of them imagined. The social politics have changed during their absence and Rose and Lissa are both the topic of several rumors. Their sudden disappearance, their time on the run, and their return are all subjects for speculation. In some instances, the truth may cause them more harm than rumors ever could.

In addition to the social pressures, Lissa may be in even more danger than anyone could have imagined. In addition to being Moroi and royalty, Lissa seems to have special abilities that haven't been seen among the Moroi in centuries. Abilities that make her an even more tantalizing target to the Strigoi.

VAMPIRE ACADEMY is a thrilling adventure that draws you along and makes you continue to turn the pages. As the danger to Lissa gets closer, it gets more difficult to put the book down. In a world that seems saturated with vampire books, Richelle Mead has created characters and a world that is both unique and believable.

Reviewed by: JodiG.

I haven't read Twilight. The last book I read about vampires was...over a decade ago, back when I was school. It was The Vampire Promise by Caroline B Cooney. I was petrified when I read it, and gave up on vampires. Then, there was Buffy. I enjoyed vampires after that, yet still never ventured into vampire fiction. I didn't get the deal with Vampires, why they made such cool characters, why everyone raved about them. That was until Vampire Academy.

Vampire Academy is the first in a trilogy, already out across the pond in the United States of America. It's the story of Rose Hathaway, unofficial guardian to Lissa Dragomir, a vampire Princess. The only survivor in her family.

For reasons I will not divulge, the story begins with Rose and Lissa as runaways from St Vladimir's Academy. The guardians at the Academy unceremoniously drag them back to school. However, it isn't as safe as all believe it to be.

The Academy is home to other royal vampires, and novice guardians. There's the usual school atmospheres: cliques are formed, popularity is uppermost in most students' thoughts. Superficial friendships related to the constantly run popularity contests run alongside more recreational relationships. Surrounded by this, and the real threat of expulsion which will keep Rose away from Lissa forever if she caves in to her wild nature, is the mysterious bond the two girls acquired after the accident two years prior to their escape.

It's a bond on a physic level, one which neither will tell the teachers about. The bond saves Lissa's life countless of times. There's more than just the bond that's kept secret: Lissa, although she doesn't show particular aptitude in any of the four magical elements which the students study, has another skill, one which forced the two to run away from the Academy. Now they're back, the skill begins to consume Lissa, changing her from the sweet, vampire princess she used to be into a literally manipulative princess. She has many redeeming qualities, the level of compassion she has for anyone, or anything hurt, and the way she's not keen when other students exploit Feeders - humans who enjoy being fed off.

Rose definitely holds the crown for snarkiness - the story is told from her point of view - but Lissa doesn't keep her fangs hidden when issues she care about arise.

That's what drew me to Vampire Academy: the fact that it wasn't told from the POV of the princess, but from her friend - her unofficial guardian (technically Rose is still in training). I don't see this happen a lot in fiction, at least not the books I've read up until now. I've always wanted to know the stories behind the protectors, how they developed their fighting skills, how they strengthened their minds to protect their charges no matter the cost.

Rose believes that she can take on the Stirgoi, the type of vampires who never die. Think super-tough, with abnormally fast reactions and pure evil minds. The scariest thing about them? They can keep their nature hidden for a while.

Dimitri, Lissa's personal guardian, volunteers to help train Rose. He pushes her hard, but not as hard as she pushes herself once she learns the reason behind the seemingly useless exercise.

relationships raised the paperclip level to three. There's some coarse language, a fair amount of innuendo and a little detail on adult relationships.

That didn't stop me from sitting glued to my book, oblivious as my parents kept picking up and putting back oven gloves on my lap this evening. The way sensitive topics that until not long ago were a taboo area are addressed makes me want to hand Vampire Academy out in schools around the country. Depression and self-harm are portrayed in a startling accurate manner. It shows the view from the close friend, seeing what the sufferer is doing to themselves, not quite understanding it, but accepting that it's a part of them. I won't spoil the outcome of that story line, but its one which touched my heart.

Vampire Academy has opened up a new genre for me - Vampires. (Yes, I may now go and read Twilight. Maybe). You can guarantee that I'll be waiting for the post when the second installment, Frostbite comes out in October. It's bound to have more plot twists and edge of chapter page turners than this one.

This is the first in the Vampire Academy series and it's an amazing start. I was instantly drawn in to Rose's world and her desire to keep Lissa safe and the lengths she'd go to, to acchive it.

Rose is sassy and rebelious, but with an edge that clearly shows she understands a lot more about being an adult than you would iniatially assume, but she doesn't always show it. The world created here is vivid and realistic, something easy to get lost in. All the characters are developed well and you can get a really good sense of them in a short space of time. I love the relationship between Rose and her teacher, Dimitri Belikov and the way it's created. It is a forbidden romance, but it's not all consuming. They grow closer as they train together through discovering more about the other and who they are. Although romance is a big theme here, it's not the main one. It's the major subplot, and becomes a little more in the third book, but it's not the focus of the book, nor does Rose spend all her time mooning after Dimitri.

The plot flows quick and easily, making it a very hard book to put down. The writing is good and with a sharp sense of humor that creates a few laugh out loud moments. You can really feel the ups and downs as Rose does, keeping the tension up until the last moment.

Anyone who's looking at this having read Twilight and looking for another YA vampire book, read this. In my opinion, it's massively better. The characters more interesting and far less annoying with a much bigger, more rounded, and darker story around it. Fantastic work, and the series only gets better. 4.5 stars.