Review: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Goodreads Summary:

St. Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school—it’s a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They’ve been on the run, but now they’re being dragged back to St. Vladimir’s—the very place where they’re most in danger...

Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy’s ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi—the world’s fiercest and most dangerous vampires—make Lissa one of them forever.

My Review:
Why did I wait so long to read this series? Of course I'd heard of the series, I like the author's other series. (Well, at least for the first few books)  I guess the main reason I didn't start reading this series was I didn't want to make a commitment to yet another series. But a few weeks ago, a Feature and Follow question asked something like, "Which character would you most like to see jumping out of your birthday cake?" A lot of the answers were about character(s) in this series. So, I bought the book- and buying an ebook is a major commitment for me, so I started reading it right away. The Verdict? This is one of those cases where when a lot of people like it, there's a reason that they like it- pretty much because it's really good.

Rose... Rose makes me think of this song:

I have this song on the brain because it's part of a playlist I just made for my son who just ended a relationship with a girl...who is now semi-stalking him and harassing him online. Let's call it the "Angry Breakup" Playlist, agree that this means that yet again, I'm not going up for the "Mother of the Year Award".

Back to the book...Is it just me or is the relationship between Rose and Lissa just a little creepy. I get that Rose is Lissa's bodyguard, but Rose just seems overly clingy and jealous. I guess because Lissa had to feed off of her? In any case, it's just one more issue to add to Rose's pile of emotional baggage. Which was already stacked pretty high. But it does make you feel for her and relate to her. I mean, who didn't have some issues in their high school days?

I think one of the best things about this book is the characters. I feel that Mead did a good job with even the secondary characters. Which is a real weakness for a lot of authors. I think she has a real "touch" with creating great bad characters and that she created a variety of them with different reasons and motivations. That some aren't really "bad" or evil- that the characters do things that end up being "bad" because of lack of self-esteem or weakness. In other words, there's a complexity to Mead's characters...and yet she manages to leave enough unsaid- enough mystery- about them that I want to read the next book in the series. At least for me, the most important factor in determining whether I keep reading a series is great characters. Even if there's a cliffhanger, if I don't care about the characters, then I don't really care to keep reading to find out what happens to them next.  So, this is a series I plan to keep reading- I already have the next few books in the series.

Overall  Rating: 3 1/2 stars
Genre Rating: 4 coffins

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Vampire Academy's Ning site