Book Review: Vampire Academy: Blood Promise

                                                          Blood Promise Review 

Blood Promise is the fourth book in the Vampire Academy series and this book starts off several months after the events of the last book with Rose looking to find Dimitri who has recently turned into a strigoi(an evil vampire) since they promised each other that they kill the other if either of them were ever turned. Rose has decided that keeping her promise to Dimitri is more important than her future and Lissa so she has dropped out of school and given up her chance to be Lissa guardian in the future. The only lead that Rose has about where Dimitri is, is that he was in Russia which leads Rose to believe that he will go back to the village he grew up in but the only trouble is she can't remember it's name so this leads to Rose killing a lot of strigois but being nowhere near catching up with Dimitri. 

The first real break Rose gets in her mission to find Dimitri is when she encounters an alchemist(person that cleans up after guardians and have some small amount of power that they must use to help the guardians and the moroi) named Sydney who has been cleaning the strigoi bodies Rose had been leaving around the city. Sydney doesn't really want to help Rose find Dimitri's village but her bosses thinks it's a good idea so she has to help Rose out anyway. Once Rose gets to the village she tells Dimitri's family that he's dead and then spends a good amount of time deciding whether she just wants to mourn him or if she wants to still find and try to kill the strigoi version of him and probably die herself in the process. 

In this book we also get to see how Lissa is doing with Rose missing and she is understandably not doing so well with having no idea were her best friend who is currently on a suicide mission and refuses to contact anyone at the academy is and rather dislikes that their bond only goes one way since she's unable to sense whether or not Rose is alive or not. Lissa ends up making friends with a new girl named Avery who encourages Lissa to be a party girl which is what she was like before her and Rose ran away but it doesn't quite seem like the character we have known for the last three books. 

Overall I liked this book although I will admit that I preferred Lissa's storyline to Rose's since I don't ship Rose and Dimitri and her whole storyline this book was being consumed by that relationship which only made me dislike it more. I thought it was a bit strange how many scenes from the past they add in this book about Rose and Dimitri's relationship that don't feel like they have a place in the first three book because while I don't like Rose and Dimitri's relationship I know that most of the fandom does so I was surprised by the level of insecurity this showed an the author's behalf about how underwritten this relationship really was in the previous books. Please tell me your thoughts about this book or series as a whole in the comment section below. 

Top 10 Books I Read in 2019

1. The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue: This book is a historical adventure novel that is also a really good coming of age story in great character introspection and relationships that develop wonderfully as well. This book is the one that surprised me the most and I love it all the more for it.
2. Archenemies: This book is the second book in the Renegades series and it does great job expanding the story and the world of the first book. I continued to love the characters and I loved the main romance as well even if it wasn't the main focus of the story.
3. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: This book is one that focused on the life of a very complicated character that I didn't always liked but was always interested in what she was going to do next which is something that I actually quite enjoy in books.
4. Shadow Kiss: This book is the third book of the Vampire Academy series and everything expect the main romance of the series really worked for me in this book. This book had a bit more of a stronger plot than the previous books in the series and I liked how this book expanded upon the world's mythology as well as developing the characters and their relationships in this book.
5. The Blood of Olympus: The final book in the Heroes of Olympus reminded me once again why I love the world that these stories are told in and assured me that I still love this characters and that I want to follow the next spin off series as well.
6. Fallout: This book is the last book of the Crank series and set almost twenty years after the second book and instead deals with Kristina's children and shows how they turn out after having Kristina for their biological mother and not really being a part of their lives. This book is once again told through poetry like most Ellen Hopkins books are.
7. The Luxe: This book is the first in a series of books that deals with the life of wealthy New Yorkers in the late 1800s and I find that enjoy reading about their scandalous lives more than I expected that I would.
8. P.S. I Like You: This book is a really sweet love story that has to do with secretly sharing love notes with someone they don't know the identity of.
9. If I Stay: This book is one that is really sad but one that also really does a good job at keeping your attention.
10. The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy: This book is the second book of the series that started with The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue but this book focus on Felicity that wants to be a doctor in 1700s and how her attempts to become one ends with her getting involved with pirates.

Book Review: Vampire Academy: Shadow Kiss

                                                         Shadow Kiss Review

This book is the third book in the Vampire Academy series and takes place a few weeks after the last book ended. Rose and the rest of the guardians are starting their field training by guarding their assigned Mori to follow around for the next few weeks in order to gain experience that they need in order to graduate. Rose assumes that she will be guarding Lissa since she's going to be Lissa's guardian after they graduate but she was instead assigned to Christian and her friend Eddie was assigned to Lissa which makes Rose angry but it's explained to her that the school wants her and Lissa to know what it's like to guard/be guarded by someone who you don't share a psychic link. Rose's field experience training was already off to a rough start but things get even worse when she starts seeing her friend Mason's ghost around campus which cause her to freeze up when she usually wouldn't.

At the start of this book Lissa also starts to use her spirit magic again which is something Rose worries about greatly since the last time Lissa was using it regularly it drove her crazy although this time it looks like it might be driving Rose crazy instead. This book also includes Victor the Mori from the first book who kidnapped Lissa and tried to make her agree to heal him over and over again finally being sentenced for his crimes which leads our characters to the royal court. The queen seems to be taking an interest in Lissa and thinks that she could have a career in politics if she spends her time with the right kind of people. On campus there is a group of  royal Mori who think that they are changing how their society work by using their magic on each other but are really just causing trouble.

This book also has Rose deal with how she will be giving up a lot of things in her life by being Lissa's guardian and having her actually think about whether or not it is worth it. I like that in this book Rose is thinking about all the things that she isn't really allowed since her life has to be devoted to Lissa rather than her only really feeling like she's missing out on a relationship with Dimitri because the Mori have to come first. I was also super happy that Rose and Dimitri's relationship finally started to work for me in this book even though I still don't love them, I'm glad that I at least care enough to want it to happen one day.

Overall I thought this book had a much better sense of plot than the first two books in the series and I thought that the characters were great as always. I really liked that this book once again had more focus on Rose and Lissa's relationship and Lissa and Christian's relationship which were my two favorite relationships in the first book that didn't have a lot of focus in second book. I liked that we got to see more of Adrian and I actually find his relationship with Rose more interesting than her relationship with Dimitri. I liked how this book expanded upon the mythology of this series as well. Overall this was a good read that I had a fun time reading, please tell me your thoughts on this book or series as a whole in the comment section below.

Top 10 Books I Read in 2018

1.Renegades: Renegades is a book that actually does something that feels new involving superheroes which is something that I really enjoyed. I liked seeing a society that is now ruled by superheroes because they are the ones that brought society out of an age of anarchy and I like that this society is shown to be a flawed one. I liked that Nova our heroine is actually a-lined with the villain side of things which isn't something that female leads often get to do and I liked that Adrian our male lead is with the heroes but still see flaws in their current system. I really loved the world that was created in this series and the characters and the relationships that they developed with each other.
2. Holding Up the Universe: This book is a really good character driven story that follows Libby an overweight teen who is going back to school for the first time in years and is doing her best to not let other people's opinions about her get her down; and Jack a well liked student who is secretly dealing with face blindness which is making his life much more complicated that it has to be and making him feel like he has to do things that he's uncomfortable with in order to appear normal. I really loved Libby and Jack as individual characters and I also loved the relationship that they developed with each other which made this book a great read.
3. This is What Happy Looks Like: This book is about teens Ellie and Graham who start emailing each other accidently and discover that they have a bond with each other despite having very different lives with Ellie being a normal high school student in small town Maine and Graham being an up and coming Hollywood actor. I really loved this book I really loved both of the main characters and I found myself rooting for them to end up together.
4. The Fill-in Boyfriend:  This book was I really sweet and fun romance that involved fake dating with leads that were likable yet flawed which made the book all the more interesting. I also thought that the book a few surprising things with the friendship conflicts in the book which is something that I really enjoyed.
5. Turtles All the Way Down: This book was the first book in 2018 that I read that I actually loved which makes me love this book a little more than I would have otherwise. This book has an interesting main character who is very stuck in her own head because of her fears of germs which affects her life in many ways in that it causes conflict in her friendship and makes her feel that she can't be in a relationship. There was also some interesting going on with her old friend and then briefly boyfriend and his family that added something to the story as well.
6. Vampire Academy: This book was a good introduction to a new type of vampire mythology and had an interesting cast of characters which made this book great fun to read. I really Rose and her relationship with Lissa and I loved that even though it's Rose's job to protect Lissa that the love and protectiveness that they feel for each other is mutual. I also really loved the romance that developed between Lissa and Christian. I thought that this book had a good plot to it despite this book not being too focused on plot.
7. Glass: This book was a good sequel to Crank and it was beautifully written despite being about the very ugly continuing descent that Kristina experiences into meth addiction, it isn't a fun read but I feel like it is a worthwhile read.
8. To All the Boys I've Loved Before: This book was another romance book that involved fake dating that I really enjoyed but I feel like it was a bit less fluff than The Fill-in Boyfriend probably because this book is book one of a series so it's a lot less clear whether or not Lara Jean and Peter will actually end up together. There is an emphasis on Lara Jean's relationships with her sisters that I really enjoyed and I think it added a lot to the book. For as much as I liked the book I must say that I actually love the movie more because it was clear from the start that movie Peter was into Lara Jean and I liked that Josh didn't end up having romantic feelings for Lara Jean in the movie these things just really improved the story for me.
9. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight: This book isn't actually as romance centric as one would think it would be based off the title but it is still a good story about a girl coming to terms with her father get married to the woman that he cheated on her mother with and her figuring out if she still wants her father in her life or if he even really wants her to be part of his new life. There is also a sweet romance that starts to develop between our main character and boy she sits by on the plane to her father's wedding which is a relationship that I quite enjoyed even though not a lot of focus was on romance in this story.
10. Frostbite: The second book in the Vampire Academy series has a less focused plot than the first book and less focus on Rose's relationship with Lissa which makes me a bit sad. This book did introduced new aspects to the world and it's characters and to some new characters as well which made the book all the more interesting. I liked this book a whole lot but I found it wasn't as good as the first book in the series.

Book Review: Vampire Academy: Frostbite

                                                                Frostbite Review

Frostbite is the second book in the Vampire Academy series and in this book Rose along with Dimitri is one of the first people to encounter a massacre of a prominent Mori family that was being protected by a legendary guardian who also have been killed. This event is something that puts Rose world in more danger that it usually is since it shows that the Strigoi is becoming more of a threat since they are now working in groups with each other and with humans. In this book Rose also has to deal with her almost always absent mother coming to the academy since the mori that she is a guardian for wanted to visit their own child which is something Rose's mother isn't all too interested in doing herself.

This book is one that I feel like is mostly made up of a bunch of smaller plots that build the world and the characters but doesn't really add up to all that much in terms of a many plot for the series yet although it is clearly building towards one in the future. One of the main things Rose deals with in this book his her attraction to Dimitri and how she feels insecure about how he sees her as someone childish since he's so much older than her which makes her jealous of women who are Dimitri's age and she also tries to date her good friend Mason in order to try and get rid of her feelings for Dimitri. Another thing that is going on in this book is Lissa taking meds that keep her sane but keep her from practicing her spirit magic which makes her a bit unhappy. There's also the introduction of the character Adrian Ivashkov who is an older Mori who is a bit of a bad boy and also seems to have spirit magic. There's also a subplot about the Mori's learning to use their magic to fight rather than constantly relay on the guardians to keep them safe from the Strigois.

Overall I really did enjoy this book maybe not as much as the first one since there was a little less focus on Rose and Lissa's friendship and a lot less of Lissa and Christian's relationship which are my two favorite relationships in the series. This book was enjoyable but it's a bit hard to really define what happened in this book because it was a bunch of little things that really made up most of the book with big events happening towards the beginning and end of the book. Please tell me your thoughts on this book in the comment section below.

Book Review: Vampire Academy

                                                      Vampire Academy Review

Vampire Academy is about how Rose Hathaway, a dhampir(a half human, half vampire- protects moroi) and Lissa Dragomir(a royal moroi vampire) have returned to St.Vladimir's Academy after they have ran away a year ago since Rose believed that staying at the academy was no longer safe for Lissa since she has developed healing powers. This book is mostly about Rose and Lissa dealing with being back at the academy after their long absence which is something that has made them the subject of much gossip since leaving the academy and living among humans is something that is simply never done. Rose decides that it would be best for her and Lissa to keep a low profile which Lissa is fine with at first since she doesn't like being a center of attention but is a bit harder for Rose who loves attention, a good party and has trouble keeping out of fights due to her short temper.

A low profile is something that is made nearly impossible for Lissa to maintain after she keeps finding the bodies of dead animals left in her bed back at school which is something that terrifies Lissa and worries Rose because she believes this means someone knows about Lissa's healing abilities. After a rumor is started about Rose letting guys suck her blood Lissa decides that she has to protect her by getting in with the popular group which she does by using compulsion that works on dhampirs and morois alike but also takes a toil on Lissa's mental health which worries Rose a lot but she is unable to stop her from using it.

There are romantic subplots for both Rose and Lissa in this book with Rose falling for an older guardian who works as her instructor named Dimitri who makes it clear that nothing can ever happen between them since he's so much older than her and because guarding their moroi's will always have to come first which means there's no room for romance in their lives. Lissa ends up bonding with Christian Ozera who is an outcast at the academy since his entire family decided to turn into strigoi(bad vampires who are stronger than morois and dhampirs) and then were killed when he was very young. Since both Lissa and Christian are last surviving members of their families and now that Lissa doesn't feel like she fits in with anyone else(expect for Rose) at the academy the two of them connect and develop romantic feelings for each other very quickly.

Overall I really liked this book it had good characters, an interesting and while the book felt a bit light on actually plot I felt like this worked well with introducing us to the world and the characters. I really loved the friendship that Rose and Lissa share with each other and I also really enjoyed the romance between Lissa and Christian as well. Also an unpopular opinion I have is that I think that movie actually did do a pretty good job at adapting this book. Please tell me your thoughts on this book in the comment section below.

Top 10 Books That Have Been on My to Be Read List for the Longest Time

1. Grave Mercy: His Fair Assassin: This book has been on my to be read list since it first came out and while I do still want to read this book I also didn't remember that this book existed until I went back and looked at my old to be read lists.
2. Born Wicked: This was another book that I forgot about until I went back and looked at my list but once I saw the title I remembered what it was about and then I got really excited about reading this book someday, again.
3. A Touch of Power: I'm pretty sure I actually started reading this book but I stopped for some reason but since I don't remember disliking it and I remember the description being good I'm going to still put this on the list.
4. Dash and Lilly's Book of Dares: I have owned this book for years now and I really don't know why I haven't bothered reading it yet but now that I remember that I have this book hopefully I'll read it soon.
5. Will Grayson: Another book I own that I've had for awhile now that I don't understand why I haven't read especially considering that John Green is one of the authors for this book and I'm a big fan of his work.
6. Wither: While I do still want to read this book, I actually do get why I haven't read it yet because honestly I remember being only mildly interested in reading this book but I also quite loved the cover for the series.
7. If I Stay: This is another book that I already own that I haven't read but I was never too terribly interested in reading this book and since my only real interested in this book came from the fact that everyone else was talking about it, I think I'm going to skip it since it really doesn't sound like my kind of thing.
8. Entwined: Yet another book I already own that I feel like I should read but since I can't actually remember what it was about I don't see myself reading it anytime soon.
9. The Gathering: I've wanted to read this book since I finished reading The Darkest Powers series since this book is set in the same universe and since I got this book for Christmas hopefully I'll be able to start reading it soon.
10. Vampire Academy: This is another book that I hope I'll be able to start reading rather soon since I also already own this book.

Movie Review: Vampire Academy

                                                         Vampire Academy Review

Vampire Academy is based off a book series which I haven't read and it's about girl named Rose Hathaway(Zoey Deutch) who is a guardian in training who is tasked with the job of protecting her best friend Princess Lissa Dragomir(Lucy Fry) who is a Moroi which is a good vampire. The two girls have left their school that is for their types of people a year earlier because they believed that Lissa was in danger from someone at the school who might want to use her for her powers which are very strong but since she hasn't chosen a type of magic to focus on there are still a bit out of control. Rose and Lissa are brought back to school a year after they ran away and it appears that there is still a threat to Lissa's life as well as a lot cruel pranks being played on her by her fellow classmates. The film spends time dealing both the high school problems and the more dangerous supernatural threats that the girls face.

In subplots both Rose and Lissa are also given romantic interest who they develop bonds with throughout the although in different ways due to their differing personalities. Rose develops a crush on the head guardian  Dimitri Belikvo(Danila Kozlovsky) who is quite a bit older than her and is her trainer in fighting. Lissa ends developing feelings for Christian Ozera(Dominic Shorwood) who is an outcast at the school because his parents choose to become Strigoi(bad vampires) and the two of them end up developing a mutual flirtation after they bond over loosing their families shortly after meeting.

Overall I really loved this movie I thought that it was a lot of fun. I really liked the characters, the mythology of the world and the relationships that the characters had especially the bond that Rose and Lissa shared with each other. Please tell me your thoughts on this movie.