Customer Rating: 
Summary: Eager for the next book in the series!
Comment: I am a 23-year old young adult librarian, and all the teenagers these days are loving vampires, so I've found myself reading several of the different YA vampire series, and this is by far one of the best ones. They just keep getting better too. Shadow Kiss was wonderful---as in it was engrossing and emotionally exhausting. Rose really begins to question her relationship with Lissa, and her purpose in life and place in the world. Her relationship with Demitri deepens. I love Rose, I really do, she's tough and ballsy, qualities I wish I had more of, but she's a really good person too. Plus, Rose and Christian become better friends and do some serious damage to some Strigoi, which I loved. And at the end of the book, something horrific happens, that leaves me anxious and eager to find out what's going to happen next!
Customer Rating:
Summary: I Can't Wait for the Next Book!
Comment: Grrrr! It is so frustrating to be in the middle of such an absolutely amazing series and have to wait for the next book to come out. Hat's off to Richelle Mead because she does a fantastic job of making her worlds and characters so realistic that I feel torn apart when I am removed from them. This story is filled with adrenaline pumping action. It was literally not possible to put the book down. I stayed up till 2:00 in the morning so that I could finish it. On a work night. Even so the next morning I woke up and all I could think about was the book. I reread certain parts over and over, trying to suck the marrow out of the story. Rose is really growing up, becoming more of a woman and less of a teen in each and every book. I love to try to predict where stories are headed, and I am usually right, but Richelle Mead always seems to throw me for a loop. Please read this book, and well, this series if you are at all a fan of adventure, romance, fantasy and fun.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Enthralled
Comment: This is the best book. I was enthralled and couldn't put it down, which was bad during finals week. The relationships that were developed were done with such intensity. An ending that I didn't see coming and had me crying. I had to re-read it just to make sure what I had read actually happened. I suggest that everyone read this series. It really makes you think about life and connections with other people.
Customer Rating:
Summary: simply amazing.
Comment: This book was by far the best in the series! I found that the previous two books were just okay - a good read, but a bit slow and boring - but the third, Shadow Kiss blew my mind! I loved it. I literally felt like I was inside the book. I fell completely in love with Dimitri, and at the end (I won't tell you what happens, because that would be sucky of me, but I will tell you that its not really a happy ending)I sat in my room and just bawled my eyes out for about thirty minutes straight. I loved the book, but hated it because it left me wanting so much more. Like a drug. I need another fix, and I don't think I can wait until september 2009 :(
Customer Rating:
Summary: "You will lose what you value most..."
Comment: It's Rose Hathaway's third year at the Vampire Academy where she is attempting to be normal dhampir. She is in training to become a Guardian for her best friend, Lissa - the last Dragomir princess. But along her training trouble arrises. She is seeing glimpses of people and things that should not be there. She is uncovering lost stories and is finally realizing what it truly means to be "Shadow Kissed". All the answers she recieved could make her world as she knows it end fatally.
Dimitri is her teacher, her mentor and...the love of her life. She'd do anything for him but he is a guardian while she is only a student - their love is forbidden. Rose will have to decide between three people she loves: Lissa, Dimitri or herself.
Many people interested in this series have probably read other Vampire novels in the past. Especially since the new "Twilight" movie came out in theaters there has been a huge Vampire fad going around for adults and teenagers alike. Although "Shadow Kiss" and the other Vampire Academy novels may remind you of the "Twilight" series they are very different. Of course you should still enjoy them if you liked the others.
The differnces in these books arise in the characterization of Vampires. Richelle Mead has truly changed the definition wonderfully. I'll always love the old, evil blood-sucking ones that kill 24/7 but Ms. Mead's characters will always have a place in my heart. You'll see that they are not all "bad guys". They are just like ordinary people with differnt thoughts and outlooks on lives. I hope that you enjoy the new Vampires!
Personally, I find Richelle Mead to be a very interesting and exciting writer. I honestly have no clue how she gets some of her ideas. The main plot and smaller plots are all quite complex, making you puzzled at what's really happening. Along with her highs in writing, Mead also has her lows. For example: many of her smaller problems were solved much too quickly for my taste. If two of the characters were to get in a fight somebody would say, "Please stop." and they'd just say, "Okay." I love her writing style but sometimes I believe that those parts were a tad unrealistic.
Despite that I believe that "Shadow Kiss" and all the other Vampire Academy novels are great books to try. I'm sure that you'll be surprised by the ending of this book and I truly hope you like it. The author did it wonderfully!
|
