Books

Vampire Academy is a best-selling series of six young adult paranormal romance novels by an American author Richelle Mead. It follows the story of a young dhampir (half vampire, half human) Rosemarie Hathaway, who is a student at St. Vladimir's Academy for young dhampirs and Moroi (good vampires). Rose is training to be a bodyguard for her best friend and a Moroi princess Vasilisa Dragomir. She learns how to defeat Strigoi (evil vampires). In the meantime, Rose falls in love with her instructor, Dimitri Belikov.

The story is interlaced with both romance and action, and so much more. Rose is a strong young woman, who won't back down in front of anything, even if the enemy she stands in front is a big bad vampire (or her friend). Her life is complicated - forbidden love, problems with parents, undying friendship and also betrayal. How can she survive in the world of vampires?

Vampire Academy is the first in the books series of the same name. It was written by Richelle Mead, an American author, and came out August 16, 2007. It has 332 pages in total and is classified as "young adult, urban fantasy, dark fantasy & paranormal romance" novel.

Rosemarie Hathaway, a young dhampir, and her best friend, a Moroi princess Vasilisa Dragomir, are dragged back to St. Vladimir's academy, from which they've run in the past. Lissa is to finish her studies there, but Rose was almost kicked out - that's when Dimitri Belikov, a young guardian, steps in and defends her in front of Headmistress Kirova. She got to stay at the academy, though she had to attend more classes to catch up with her dhampir schoolmates.

During her extra training sessions with Dimitri, Rose realizes she falls in love with her instructor. This forbidden love haunts her for a while, but then many things happen and she almost forgets: her best friend is having problems with her magic, which is different from other Moroi. Lissa can heal wounds, compel people and she also can bring a dead animal/person back to life. There is an enemy at the school, who tries their best to find out if Lissa has those powers - an enemy, who succeeds in the end. In the meantime, Lissa finds herself in love with Christian Ozera, an outsider but also a royal Moroi. They often meet each other in secret, and they were alone when Lissa was kidnapped.

Victor Dashkov takes Lissa, who is almost a niece to him, and forces her to heal his genetic disease. Rose gets there a second later, and rescues Lissa from now all-healed Victor. Victor is taken in prison at the St. Vlad's Academy, but he tries to escape, forcing his own daughter, Natalie Dashkov, to turn into Strigoi by killing a living person.



Vampire Academy 2: Frostbite is the second book in the VA series, written by Richelle Mead. It has 336 pages in total and came out April 10, 2008.

Rose is about to pass her dhampir novice/guardian exam with Dimitri, when they find a whole family of Moroi dead. They were killed by Strigoi, evil vampires, but there is something strange with the whole scene - it had to be many Strigoi there to kill all the Moroi and dhampirs living in the house, and they also find out that humans had to collaborate with them. This strange behaviour was never seen with Strigoi before, they mostly attack alone, they're lone wolves, not a pack. Those times are gone, though, and Rose with the other guardians has to deal with that.

The attack made the whole Moroi world nervous. One whole family was killed by a pack of evil vampires. They even had guardians, they were protected. Protection was not something every Moroi had. Who was to be next? Children from the St. Vladimir's Academy are about to go home for Christmas, which would not be safe - so the school organizes a ski trip to a lodge, where the families can gather and everyone would forget about the attack.

But that does not happen, because another family is killed, altogether with a mother of one student, Mia Rinaldi. Mia was no friend of Rose and Lissa, but they develop a close friendship over those unhappy events. The three of them with Mason Ashford and Eddie Castile (both Rose's dhampir schoolmates) spend some time together, thinking about those attacks.

In the meantime, Rose meets a young, mysterious and also a royal Moroi guy, Adrian Ivashkov. He likes her from the first sighting, though Rose is all about Dimitri, so she is unable to like him back. She soon forgets about all her trouble, love included: her friends, Eddie, Mason and Mia follow the track on Strigoi and get themselves into a dangerous situation. What should Rose do? Probably run to her mother or Dimitri, but that's exactly what she doesn't do: she takes Christian and they go after their friends, hoping to catch them in time before something happens.

Even though they were on time, on their way back to the bus station they were ambushed by Strigoi and taken to their base. They lived with them for several days, the whole school looking for them, but unable to find them. In the end, Rose tries to fool the Strigoi and she succeeds. Altogether with her friends, she tries to escape but is stopped by the Strigoi leaders, Isaiah and Elena. While Eddie isn't able to help Rose fight the Strigoi, Mason tries, but pays the price. Rose, with the help of Moroi water-user Mia, manages to kill the two Strigoi, and escapes exactly when the school guardians rush to their help.

Rose receives two molnija marks, each for one Strigoi killed. She becomes famous amongst her schoolmates after this, a young girl who managed to kill two Strigoi all on her own isn't often seen, but she doesn't agree with her friends. Killing isn't something you are happy about - you have to do it, but it won't make you happy.



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Richelle Mead announced she has another spin-off series in her mind, giving no other clues. She didn't confirm writing another spin-off, though I think we can cheer from afar. Let's hope that when she is done with Bloodlines, she'd want to continue in this journey and explore the VA universe some more.