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Last Sacrifice: A Vampire Academy novel by Richelle Mead

Last Sacrifice is the sixth and final novel in this popular series about Rose Hathaway. Rose’s life is on the line and the odds are stacked against her. Can she defend herself against the forces that threaten to take her down? Will her best friend, Lissa Dragomir take her rightful place in the Royal Council? Will the love between Rose and Dimitri be powerful enough to overcome the dark forces that have kept them apart? And how will the series end?

As a recap, in case you are unsure what vampire series this is, in the Vampire Academy series, two races of vampires walk our world. The Moroi are alive and wield elemental magic, while the Strigoi are undead and evil, feeding on the innocent to survive. The main character is Rose Hathaway, a seventeen year old child of a vampire father and a human mother. She has been sent to the Vampire Academy for training as a bodyguard for a Moroi princess. Learning to decapitate and stake is hard enough but her real danger may be in the illicit romance she has with one of her instructors, a Strigoi named Dimitri.

It is a series that must be started with the first book which is unsurprisingly called Vampire Academy. If you are interested in reading the series, but have not read the previous book, do not read any more of this review.

As fans will know, Rose has always played by her own rules and sometimes that meant breaking the laws of vampire society like falling in love with her handsome, yet off limits instructor Dimitri, or defying Queen Tatiana, leader of the Moroi world. Now the law has caught up with her, but maybe surprisingly it is for a crime she hasn’t committed.

Rose is in prison for the worst offence imaginable, the assignation of a monarch, and therefore in more peril than she has ever been in. If she is to be saved she will need both Adrian and Dimitri to help her find the one living person who can stall her execution and force the Moroi to acknowledge a new candidate for the throne, Vasilisa Dragomir.

Time is running out for Rose, she knows that the world of the dead wants her back and that this time she is out of second chances. It is an unforgettable climax to this saga about vampires, love and making choices.

RRP 26.00
Published and distributed by Penguin Group under the Razorbill title.

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Vampire Academy 5: Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead

Spirit Bound is book five in a six novel series. It is also a series which requires starting at the beginning (Vampire Academy) and working your way through them. In case you don’t know, Vampire Academy is one of a number of paranormal romance novels. In fact Richelle currently writes there such series herself, although Vampire Academy is the only one that is aimed at young adults rather than the adult market. It, like so many other books (and TV series) around at present features a girl who has poor impulse control, is in love with at least one vampire, torn between, two groups of supernatural beings (in this case alive vampires and undead vampires) and two love interests that put readers in one team or the other.

In the Vampire Academy series, two races of vampires walk our world. The Moroi are alive and wield elemental magic, while the Strigoi are undead and evil, feeding on the innocent to survive. The main character is Rose Hathaway, a seventeen year old child of a vampire father and a human mother. She has been sent to the Vampire Academy for training as a bodyguard for a Moroi princess. Learning to decapitate and stake is hard enough but her real danger may be in the illicit romance she has with one of her instructors, a Strigoi named Dimitri. .

If this series sounds like it interests you, and you haven’t read the previous books yet, stop reading this review now and pick up the first book. If you have read the other four books however, it is safe to know about this one.

It starts with the strangest death threat anyone could receive. One which the writer pronounces his love for his intended victim, has warm wishes and expresses the writer’s regret at being forced into the situation. The writer is Dimitri of course and it is written to Rose. She has made the wrong choice.

After a long and heartbreaking journey to Dimitri’s birthplace in Siberia, Rose has finally returned to St Vladimir’s and to her best friend Lissa. She is a little wiser and bent on finding a way to restore Dimitri to his previous state or destroy him in the process. First though Rose must get through her guardian trials. While she seems to be a physically invincible and talented guardian, her less than stellar record might mean that she can’t be Lissa’s guardian after all. She also still hasn’t accepted the fact that Dimitri’s soul might have been lost forever. There are also the confused jumble of feelings she has for Adrian.

These combined with the politics of court, and the situation concerning the interactions between Moroi and dhampirs means that there is plenty of drama in this instalment, although readers might find it is more caught up in politics and less action focused than the previous instalments. Readers will continue to be torn though as Rose makes important decisions and faces heartache after heartache and gets into more trouble along the way. If you have read the other books and enjoyed them, you will undoubtedly love this one and wait in eager anticipation for the last novel, Last Sacrifice, to see how the saga concludes. If, however vampires aren’t your thing, you are sick of these books that turn what were villains of horror stories into love interests or have not read the previous books in this series, you will not enjoy this novel.

RRP 25.00
Published and distributed by Penguin Group under the Razor Bill title
 

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