ONLY A TRUE BEST FRIEND CAN PROTECT YOU FROM YOUR IMMORTAL ENEMIES...

Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess: a mortal vampire with a rare gift for harnessing the earth's magic. She must be protected at all times from Strigoi; the fiercest vampires - the ones who never die. The powerful blend of human and vampire blood that flows through Rose Hathaway, Lissa's best friend, makes her a dhampir. Rose is dedicated to a dangerous life of protecting Lissa from the Strigoi, who are hell-bent on making Lissa one of them.

After two years of freedom, Rose and Lissa are caught and dragged back to St. Vladimir's Academy, a school for vampire royalty and their guardians-to-be, hidden in the deep forests of Montana. But inside the iron gates, life is even more fraught with danger... and the Strigoi are always close by.

Rose and Lissa must navigate their dangerous world, confront the temptations of forbidden love, and never once let their guard down, lest the evil undead make Lissa one of them forever…

By God, why is this book so hard for me to review?!

Um . . . so, this damphir main character . . . Rose Hathaway. I liked her, I thought she was quite different from other main characters. Like, I really loved badass female characters, but Rose was just really focused on other things in the beginning of this book that kind of annoyed me. Like, I understand Rose is a girl that wants to have fun, but honestly with the whole thing about damphir women being “blood-whores” I was hoping she’d be defending that more. BUT: Rose doesn’t let anything get in her way:

“‘Screw you,’ I told him in a low voice.

 

‘Are you offering?’

 

‘From what I've heard, there isn't much to screw,’ I shot back.”    

So, I got the hang of Rose after! :D

I liked the whole idea of vampires and royalty and the halfs, but for a bloodline that is meant to protect royalty, you’d think the vampire royalty would bother treating some of these damphirs with more respect. But, once again, I was happy with the fact that Rose didn’t let anything get in her way. I can also see room for character development, so that’s great! :D

The romance, I thought was weird and awkward and wrong at first. Dimitri is like . . . seven years older than Rose is?! And I was glad that he himself mentioned it somewhere throughout the book. But honestly, I was okay with it at the end, and even saw a bit of the chemistry.

“‘No. If I let myself love you, I won't throw myself in front of her. I'll throw myself in front of you.’”   

Overall, Vampire Academy was an okay book, though I really enjoyed it towards the end. The main character is quite different from other main characters, and the high school setting felt pretty stereotypical to me, but I feel like this series can get SO much better! So, I currently have Frostbite on hold, and maybe after finishing that book, I’ll see if I want to continue this series! :D

Thanks for reading this review and I hope you all have a great day! Until the next one! :D