Vampire Academy By Richelle Mead

Title: Vampire Academy

Author: Richelle Mead

Series: Vampire Academy #1

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Vampires, Romance, Magic

Source: Kindle

Pages: 340 pages

Rating: 5 stars

Available at:

Goodreads • Amazon(.com)

Blurb: (via Goodreads)

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:
So this is a reread for me and by far, one of my favourite series of all time (there IS a reason this is turning into a movie people!). Not surprisingly, Richelle Mead is also on my Favourites List, earning a spot in both Young Adult and Fantasy categories. Now before I start the review, let me stress: THIS BOOK IS NOT TWILIGHT! While twilight wasn’t the best written book (and written by an inexperienced author) with the whole novel revolving around a huge love story, this is not the case in The Vampire Academy series. While the love story does play a role, sometimes even driving the plot along in certain instalments of the book, there are other plots and subplots at work throughout the series that have NOTHING to do with the love story within itself. Now on to the review:

Let’s get straight into how and where this book excelled, shall we? First of all, the plot is fantastic. It holds plenty of mystery, but gives you enough subtle clues so that you don’t get infuriated trying to figure everything out. And surprisingly, the plot is more complex than one would think, some minor sub plots from this book lead off to play parts in the next 5 books of the series, but that’s a tale for another review. The writing is also outstanding as well. One of the reasons so many books and series fail is because they have the perfect plot, but no writing talent to back it up. I see it ALL the time. That is not the case with Richelle at all. She is an outstanding author and her writing gets me so utterly captivated I fell like I am walking right beside Rose (the main character) the whole way through. That’s TALENT people!!

The romantic side of the story is absolutely perfect. There’s a bit of the love/hate thing going on, a complicated age difference, and a career conflict that all make the relationship impossible and forbidden on so many levels, and yet, you route for it the entire way through this book. Of course, it HAS to be complicated, it wouldn’t be fun if it were easy, but Richelle Mead writes the romantic side of this story so subtly, intricately and beautifully, that you can’t help but get caught up in it. You enjoy the book because of the fantastic plot and characters, you keep reading the series because you want to know if the love interests will ever get together ;)

Lastly, and absolutely most importantly, is character development. Each character has their very own distinct personalities that are consistent and brilliant all the way through. Not only that, but the types of characters are diverse in every sense of the word. Rose is sassy and rebellious, but has this urge to protect those she cares about and fight for what’s right. While Lissa is calm and collected and bursting with intelligence, loyalty, and wisdom well beyond her years, and yet, there is this other dark and crazy side of her that is brought out when she uses her magic that few get to see. They balance each other perfectly, and there is a whole range of characters in between that play on both sides of the spectrum.

I don’t think I can rave about this book, or this series, more than I already have. It is fantastic. And although I am well past the Vampire Craze stage when it comes to picking a new book, I would recommend it to anyone and everyone into the Fantasy/ Young Adult reading scene. Seriously people, read it!

Five stars for me, A+, no questions asked.

**UPDATE** As mentioned before. This book (series) is turning into a movie. It's called Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters that comes out February 14, 2014. You can click HERE if you want to learn more about it, and HERE if you want to read more about the series.