Saturday, August 29, 2009

Vampire Academy

Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy, #1) Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Book 98 of 100 for the 100+ Reading Challenge
Book 29 of 50 for the New Author Challenge
Book 1 of 4 for the RIP IV Challenge
Award: YALSA Top Ten

Series: Book 1 of 6 (Vampire Academy)

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I seem to be on a little run of books everyone else loves, but I don't. It's making me feel like a stick in the mud! Twilight was the first vampire book I had ever read. After all this time, I decided to give another vampire series a try.

Vampire Academy actually has a really good plot. Lissa is a mortal vampire and Rose is her half-vampire guardian. They had escaped from their school because of a perceived danger there, but after two years they are found and brought back to the academy. Integrating back into normal life is difficult for them as vicious rumors swirl about them both. Lissa develops an unlikely friendship with an outcast vampire whose parents chose to be evil immortal vampires, while Rose develops a crush on her brooding guardian trainer. However, Rose knows that whatever was threatening Lissa before is still there, and she needs to find out who it is before something happens to them both.

I almost gave up reading this book a couple of times. But, I am glad I stuck it out. The ending was wrapped up well, and the cliffhanger isn't too bad for a series. But the execution was a little too sexual for my taste, and the writing (choppy) and editing (typos and grammatical errors) left something to be desired. I can see why teens love this series, but the sex, drugs, angst, and foul language took me right to my tolerance limit.

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Source: Library

9 comments:

Alaine said...

Don't worry Tricia, that's happened to me to. I didn't much like A Great and Terrible Beauty or Wicked Lovely but everyone else loved them, they were ok, but I haven't read any more in the series and not sure that I will. We all have such varied tastes. I hope you find some great books soon though, I've been on a good book roll lately, I love it when that happens!

Traci said...

The twilight series was the first vampire book for me too. I am thinking about reading this series after I am done with the House of Night series. I am really enjoying that series but there is nothing that is out there that is going to be as good as the Twilight series. I hope you find some good books too.

Chantele Sedgwick said...

I didn't like A Great and Terrible Beauty either! It was a little too weird for me. Vampire Academy was okay, and I might read the next book in the series, but it's not high on my list. I am hesitant to start some YA series now, since they are full of stuff I don't really want to read about. I just finished The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong though, and I actually liked that one, surprisingly enough. I hope you find some good books soon!:)

Tricia said...

I didn't like A Great and Terrible Beauty either! :)

Melissa O. said...

No worries, my friend! I think all of us run into books that everyone else seems to love and we don't feel the same way. I know it happens to me, so I certainly can understand it happening to others. I happened to like this series, and I do think it got better with each book, but I also think I'm a bit vampire-obsessed sometimes, so that may play into it a little bit :-)

Hope you enjoy your next book more!!

Serena said...

for some reason the cover of this one reminds me of angelina jolie.

Tricia said...

Serena: It totally reminded me of her too!

Linda Nguyen said...

I still have the first book in the series and haven't read it yet. I'm not sure, but it hasn't quite captured my attention yet.

By the way, I'm giving away a copy of The Tale of Despereaux. Swing by when you have the time.=)

NanaBuni said...

The Twilight series was my first read of vampires since highschool (mid 40's) when I snuck a read of Dracula while doing a stint as Librarians helper for extra credits. Two weeks ago my Grand Daughter Tiffany Arena, got me hooked on the House of Night Series and I finished five books in 7 days. Mother & Daughter co-authored?????? Nearly blew my mind. Very poor editing, mispelled words, bad grammer. The story line held me until Book 4 and then I came close to quitting, but hung in. One more boyfriend and I'd have been out of there. I literally waded through Book 5 but things picked up in the last three chapters and I understand Book 6 is coming out soon. I'm tongue in cheek on this one.