Shadow Kiss - Review

Title: Shadow Kiss
Author: Richelle Mead
Part of a series? Yes, the third in the VA series.
Rating: 4 ★

*This review will contain spoilers for Vampire Academy books 1-3*

After reading Shadow Kiss,  I finally understand why everyone loves Vampire Academy, and I finally understand why people ship Romitri! I think the more I read VA books, the more I love them. It's taken me a while to get used to Richelle Mead's writing style again, but I'm almost there.

My favourite scene from this book would have to be when Christian and Rose were fighting the Strigoi together. Richelle Mead writes fight scenes really well,  so I could picture them easily. I loved the way they became friends (ish) in this book.

Onto Dimitri, Lissa and Rose! They were so good together, and I would have cried about Dimitri if my friend hadn't told me that he became a Strigoi. Lissa and Rose's farewell nearly did make me cry as their friendship is so strong and Lissa relies on Rose completely. It'll be interesting to see how she manages without Rose in the next book.

One thing that I really didn't like is the way Rose treated Adrian. In case you hadn't spotted this in my review of Frostbite, I love Adrian. A lot. He is one of my favourite male characters, probably out of every book I've read. So it upset me when Rose tried to flirt with him just so he would help her. She even says that it's "low of her", and I was so annoyed with her!

All of the threads in the story were interesting: the Măna, the Queen's plans for Adrian and Lissa, the Dhampirs preparing to be Guardians.  I especially loved how Rose can see ghosts now,  and how seeing Mason helped her accept she wasn't fully responsible for his death.

I have about three more books to read before I go back to this series and read Blood Promise, but I'm excited to continue with it.

Frostbite - Review

Title: Frostbite
Author: Richelle Mead
Part of a series? Yes, the second in the Vampire Academy series.
Rating: 3.5 stars


*This review will contain spoilers, so if you haven't read the first or second VA book and want to, do that and then read this!*


The highlight of this book for me was Adrian Ivashkov, because...well, he's Adrian Ivashkov! Having read the Bloodlines series before starting this, I was expecting him to be in Vampire Academy, so it was nice to be reunited with a familiar character. I think the fact that I read Bloodlines first effected how much I enjoyed Frostbite, because I sort of knew what the plot twists would be. For example, I was frustrated when it took Rose ages to figure out that Adrian was a spirit user as it was common knowledge in Bloodlines, and I had to keep reminding myself that they didn't know that. And, as I managed to wind up reading Last Sacrifice first (it was years ago, and I unfortunately didn't realise that it was the last in the series until about halfway through, and then thought, oh well, I won't ever read the other books. Thanks past me!), I knew that something bad happens to Mason. However, I thought the scene of his death was really moving, and I loved how Rose refused to let him go.
 
Ah, Rose. On my short Goodreads review, I put that I liked how she was a strong protagonist, and I do still like that, but there were times when she irritated me. I felt like that the sections of her analysing either what just happened or what could happen were at times too long. I'm also still not loving Romitri as much as I thought I would, though I couldn't say why.


Plot-wise, I thought Frostbite was just as exciting as Vampire Academy, if not more so. The idea that strigoi will now have help in taking down moroi sets up other books well, and the events in Frostbite matured and effected Rose clearly as the story continued. All of the new characters (Tasha, Rose's mother...ADRIAN...).


Overall, I liked this book, but I think if I hadn't have read the Bloodlines series (and if I didn't have a best friend who really loves these books), I may not have carried on with this series. But I'm currently reading Shadow Kiss and enjoying it more, so hopefully I'll end up loving VA like I love Bloodlines!


Thanks for reading(: