Book Review: Vampire Academy - Richelle Mead

Pub. Date- December 20th 2013 Publisher- Penguin Aus. Pages- 352 

Series- Vampire Academy #1 Genre- Fantasy/Young Adult Rating- 4 Stars

I received this courtesy of Peguin Aus. through 

Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Goodreads - Book Depository

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 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, where vampire royalty and their guardians-to-be prepare for a life fraught with danger. Rose and Lissa must navigate their treacherous world and never once let their guard down, lest the evil undead make Lissa one of them forever. But soon Rose finds herself gripped by temptation of forbidden love, leaving Lissa exposed to Strigoi attack.... Now she must choose between the best friend she lives for, and the man she can't live without.

So yes, this is a vampire book. Yes it was made into a not so great movie, but when given a chance it kicks off a wonderful series and certainly stands out from the crowd of vampire novels in only good ways.

The idea of what makes a Vampire gets a whole meaning in Richelle Mead’s addictive world. There are three main races in the book; the Moroi a race mortal vampires who are connected to the earth through elemental magic, the Strigoi vicious dead vampires who were turned by force or drank enough blood to kill someone and lastly there are the Dhampir’s half Moroi and half Human, a guardian race that lives to protect the Moroi.

This book follows Lissa and Rose two teenage girls who share a bond that makes them closer than sister. After running away from an unknown enemy they are brought back to St. Vladimir’s Academy by Dimitri a God of a guardian or so he’s called by Mason. Rose is in training to hoping be Lissa’s guardian and Lissa is just trying to specialise in a gift that is if you put aside the fact that someone’s threatening their lives.

Rose and Christian are some of my favourite characters ever, they are both very quick witted and snarky, you can’t help but laugh. Lissa’s often caused great frustration I found, she was so overly compassionate to everyone that it was almost painful to read at time. Rose made up for this in many ways being nearly Lissa’s opposite, together they made one well balanced person.

Richelle Mead's writing is so simply to understand even when things are get complex. There is such a steady flow that it is ridiculously easy to knock this book out in a day. Even with the unfamiliar idea such as Strigoi or the Morois' royalties systems everything is explained in detail or given enough background for it to just feel normal.

With the current trend in most YA books of romance be the driving force behind the pacing and plot development getting old, Vampire Academy is a big refresher from that. I definitely was shipping both Rose and Lissa with their counter parts but the whole story wasn’t balancing on them being together. This has everything a good book needs; a touch of fantasy, badass girls, thrilling suspense and just a hint of romance.

Theres so much more I want to say but so many small thing eventually lead to important elements in the plot I want to be as spoiler free as possible. Basically its just a awesome book with badass characters and a killer premise.

Have you read this, what did you think? Is this on your TBR?