Read Our Lips! Book Review Blog: Halloween Vampire Week: Book & Movie Review–Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy #1) by Richelle Mead

Prepare to be Tested.
The story that kicked off the international #1 bestselling Vampire Academy series is NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE.
Hit Theaters February 7th, 2014!
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.

I’ve been holding onto this review FOREVER! LOL First, because my hubby didn’t want to go see it at the theaters, so I had to wait for it to go to video.

Then, since I waited so long, I thought I might as well save it for our favorite week leading up to Halloween. That’s right, y’all – it’s Halloween Vampire Week!

My Review:

Since I had to wait until the movie made it to video, I read Vampire Academy first. I gotta tell you; I was pleasantly surprised. I encountered an action packed read that I just couldn’t put down! Just when I thought, Okay I’m getting off this ride, Richelle Mead (RM) sucked me back in with the next sentence. Every complaint I had or any notion I read that seemed too far fetched would be immediately explained neatly and precisely. It totally made a believer out of me. Smile

~BOOK~

Vampire Academy starts out with Rose, a dhampir (half human, half vampire) and Lissa, a Moroi vampire, and not just any regular Moroi, she’s royalty. Why Moroi? Because there are several types of vamps in RM’s world. Moroi are vamps with a conscience (sometimes) while on the opposite side of the spectrum are Strigoi.

Strigoi are completely uncivilized, mindless beasts who have killed a human they drank from. They have no thoughts except to kill and do harm. At least that’s what Moroi vamps are taught at the Vampire Academy.

Vamps in RM’s world are born and as they mature, they are sent to this school to hone their skills. Each one is born with a magical ability and they are able to control one element: wind, fire, earth, or water. As they progress through school, their talent is discovered and they train and test themselves.

Dhampirs are their appointed guards. Being half human gives them the advantage of being able to walk during the day and they are stronger and faster. Dhampirs are instructed at the Vampire Academy as well, though their studies focus more on the physical aspect of training to protect their charges.

Rose and Lissa are best friends and they share a psychic link. You see, Lissa’s magical ability has never materialized – at least that’s what everyone thinks. It’s a closely guarded secret that Lissa actually has the power to heal someone (and she also can persuade anyone to do what she wants). But once she heals them, she is psychically linked to them. That is precisely what happened to Rose and Lissa after an accident.

After the accident, Rose senses Lissa’s in danger and in order to keep her safe, Rose and Lissa leave the academy and decide to go at it alone in the human world. The one big disadvantage to this is they have no human donors where Lissa can drink blood from. Rose offers her blood to nourish her friend, but there’s a drawback.

Getting bit by a Moroi is extremely pleasurable and there are scores of dhampirs who are addicted to the bite and become sexual slaves or lovers of Moroi. This carries a huge negative connotation in their world, and Rose wants to rise above it and become a guardian instead of a blood whore. But, Lissa’s bites are making that more difficult.

They go on the run for some time, but they are eventually caught by none other than one of the best dhampir instructors, Dimitri.

From the moment they meet, there’s an instant chemistry between Rose and Dimitri – who by the way, though he’s slightly older than Rose, is incredibly sexy and irresistible.

The girls go back to the academy where there is a lot of social going ons, and though they might seem trifle in the grand scheme of things, they truly impact them and make their lives difficult. There is also that matter of dead animals showing up at Lissa’s room. What’s that about?

Before they can uncover the mystery, Lissa stumbles upon a loner named Christian. They quickly hit it off and Lissa finds that he’s “the one” for her, though he comes from a family who gave up being Moroi and became outcasts as Strigoi. As you can imagine, the social pressure, especially since Lissa’s royalty, is not easy to deal with.

But through all the social problems, the Strigoi threat and Lissa’s life being in constant danger looms over everyone. Can Rose – with her snarky and loveable attitude – prevail through it all? Can she make up for the lost training time and keep up to par with the indomitable Dimitri who’s so hott it hurts? And who’s really after Rose? Will her secret ability be discovered?

~MOVIE~

I’m happy to report that the movie version of Vampire Academy sticks pretty close to the book. I truly had no complaints with the story itself. *applauds* If you loved the book, you’ll definitely appreciate the movie.

The only drawback for me was in choosing the character, Dimitri. It was definitely a hard sell for me – going from the description in the book. Don’t get me wrong, everything was going great.

UNTIL – he took off his clothes!! WTF? Where’s the six pack abs, the rock hard muscles I was hoping for? LOL I really expected something more mouth watering. Sad smile

Well, if Vampire Academy #2 ever gets green lighted (they are asking for fans to fund the remaining cost. Go here to add your coins to the cause!) the actor better werk it out! LOL I hope that at this moment he’s working on his abs somewhere as we speak! LOL

Other than that, the movie did a great job and all the actors embodied the characters to a T. Rose, especially, was awesome. I didn’t know if they were going to be able to pull off all her sass and snarkiness, but they did!

Now onto read book 2 – Frostbite!

Vampire Academy features