REVIEW - VAMPIRE ACADEMY

Author: Richelle Mead
Pages: 332 pages
Publisher: Razorbill
Published: August, 2007
Form: Paperback
Series: Vampire Academy #1
Book Depository: Buy
Adlibris: Buy

A world of living vampires where the good go to school to learn elemental magic, where the dead hunt the living for their powerful living vampire blood – and where Guardians are standing between the two.
Rose is a guardian in training or she was until she escaped with her best friend Lissa a living vampire called the Moroi. Their two year escape has come to an end as Dimitri, a Guardian, finds them and brings them back to the Academy where they are protected against the Strigoi, the vampires who kill and feed on the Moroi, with spells and wards.

As safe as St. Vladimir’s Academy is there are still dark forces stirring trouble for Lissa and Rose, the trouble they originally escaped. And trouble that has been waiting for them to return, not everyone is happy they are back, and schools are notoriously catty, and there is the wicked tongues spreading gossip and rumors and causing trouble for both the quiet and timid Lissa and bad tempered, not-shy-to-sock-you Rose. While Rose has to tip toe around the evil “high school” students and their malicious plans, to stay with Lissa, whom she has a special bond with, see they cannot be apart for Rose can feel Lissa’s emotions and more which makes her her ideal guardian to come.

This bond comes in handy when things begin to go seriously awry, dead animals show up on Lissa’s life someone trying to shock her and make her reveal that there is more to Lissa than a timid observer of events – she might have not specialized in one elemental magic yet but there is something about her…

Dimitri who originally took them back to school, also has Rose’s extra training in his hands, she has two years to catch up to, and also he’s appointed Lissa’s Guardian while she’s in school, which means Rose and Dimitri spend a lot of time together and it’s hard to stay completely professional, which is really all they can ever be, but there is electricity between them and it grows harder and harder to ignore.

So I suggested to Dimitri that maybe he should let me off this time. He laughed, and I was pretty sure it was at me and not with me.
"Why is that funny?”
"Oh," He said, his smile dropping. "You were serious.”
"Of course I was! Look, I've technically been awake for two days. Why do we have to start this training now? Let me go to bed," I whined. "It's just one hour.”
He crossed his arms and looked down at me. His earlier concern was gone. He was all business now. Tough love. "How do you feel right now? After the training you've done so far?”
"I hurt like hell.”
"You'll feel worse tomorrow.”
"So?”
"So, better to jump in now while you still feel…not as bad.”
"What kind of logic is that?" I retorted.
But I didn't argue anymore as he led me into the weightroom. He showed me the weights and reps he wanted me to do, then sprawled in a corner with a battered Western novel. Some god.

I highly recommend this book! It’s a school of vampires who live like teenagers do with the drama of who slept with who, whose parents are scum, whose life is all drama and who are the cool kids or in their case The Royals - but they also deal with the constant threat of Strigoi and the heavy training schedule of the twining race of Dhamphir, half-vampire, Guardians.

Very entertaining Young Adult read even for a us who are getting closer to thirty!

If you see me in the library today it’s because I’m picking up “Frostbite” the Book #2 of Vampire Academy series.

Rating :

~Excerpt~

“Ten feet from the car, a man stepped directly into our path. We came to a screeching halt, and I jerked Lissa back by her arm. It was him, the guy I’d seen across the street watching me. He was older than us, maybe mid-twenties, and as tall as I’d figured, probably 6’6” or 6’7”. And under different circumstances - say, when he wasn’t holding up our desperate escape - I would have thought he was hot. Shoulder-length brown hair, tied back into a short pony-tail. Dark brown eyes. A long, brown coat like horse riders wore, not quite a trench coat. A duster, I thought it was called.
But his hotness was irrelevant now. He was only an obstacle keeping Lissa and me away from the car and our freedom. The footsteps behind us slowed, and I knew our pursuers had caught up. Off to the sides, I detected more movement, more people closing in. God. They’d sent almost a dozen guardians to retrieve us. I couldn’t believe it. The queen herself didn’t travel with that many.
Panicked and not entirely in control of my higher reasoning, I acted out of instinct. I pressed up to Lissa, keeping her behind me and away from the man who appeared to be the leader.
“Leave her alone,” I growled. “Don’t touch her.”
His face was unreadable, but he held out his hands in what was apparently supposed to be some sort of calming gesture, like I was a rabid animal he was planning to sedate.
“I’m not going to—”
He took a step forward. Too close.
I attacked him, leaping out in an offensive maneuver I hadn’t used in two years, not since Lissa and I had run away. The move was stupid, another reaction born of instinct and fear. And it was hopeless. He was a skilled guardian, not a novice who hadn’t finished her training. He also wasn’t weak and on the verge of passing out.
And man, was he fast. I’d forgotten how fast guardians could be, how they could move and strike like cobras. He knocked me off as though brushing away a fly, and his hands slammed into me and sent me backwards. I don’t think he meant to strike that hard—probably just intended to keep me away—but my lack of coordination interfered with my ability to respond. Unable to catch my footing, I started to fall, heading straight toward the sidewalk at a twisted angle, hip-first. It was going to hurt. A lot.
Only it didn’t.
Just as quickly as he’d blocked me, the man reached out and caught my arm, keeping me upright. When I’d steadied myself, I noticed he was staring at me - or, more precisely, at my neck. Still disoriented, I didn’t get it right away. Then, slowly, my free hand reached up to the side of my throat and lightly touched the wound Lissa had made earlier. When I pulled my fingers back, I saw slick, dark blood on my skin. Embarrassed, I shook my hair so that it fell forward around my face. It was thick and long and completely covered my neck. I’d grown it out for precisely this reason.
The guy’s dark eyes lingered on the now-covered bite a moment longer and then met mine. I returned his look defiantly and quickly jerked out of his hold. He let me go, though I knew he could have restrained me all night if he’d wanted. Fighting the nauseating dizziness, I backed toward Lissa again, bracing myself for another attack. Suddenly, her hand caught a hold of mine. “Rose,” she said quietly. “Don’t.”
Her words had no effect on me at first, but calming thoughts gradually began to settle in my mind, coming across through the bond . It wasn’t exactly compulsion—she wouldn’t use that on me—but it was effectual, as was the fact that we were hopelessly outnumbered and outclassed. Even I knew this would be pointless. The tension left my body, and I sagged in defeat.
Sensing my resignation, the man stepped forward, turning his attention to Lissa. His face was calm. He swept her a bow and managed to look graceful doing it, which surprised me considering his height. “My name is Dimitri Belikov,” he said. I could hear a faint Russian accent. “I’ve come to take you back to St. Vladimir’s Academy, Princess.”

Read Chapter 1 HERE.