Blood Promise by Richelle Mead

Blood Promise is the fourth book in the Vampire Academy series. The synopsis included below includes spoilers for the first three books in the series. If you have not read the series and do not want to be spoiled - stop reading now! You have been warned...

Synopsis taken from Good Reads: 

"Rose Hathaway's life will never be the same.

The recent attack on St. Vladimir's Academy devastated the entire Moroi world. Many are dead. And, for the few victims carried off by Strigoi, their fates are even worse. A rare tattoo now adorns Rose's neck, a mark that says she's killed far too many Strigoi to count. But only one victim matters... Dimitri Belikov. Rose must now choose one of two very different paths: honoring her life's vows to protect Lissa - her best friend and the last surviving Dragomir princess - or, dropping out of the Academy to strike out on her own and hunt down the man she loves. She'll have to go to the ends of the earth to find Dimitri and keep the promise he begged her to make. But the question is, when the time comes, will he want to be saved? 

Now, with everything at stake - and worlds away from St. Vladimir's and her unguarded, vulnerable, and newly rebellious best friend - can Rose find the strength to destroy Dimitri? Or, will she sacrifice herself for a chance at eternal love?" 

Please note: This review may contain some spoilers! Read at your own risk! This review assumes that you have read the first three books in the series!

Continue after the break for my review!



It took me almost an entire year to bring myself to read Blood Promise... I know, I know. But after the events of Shadow Kiss, I knew that Rose was going to go on some big, giant quest that separated her from the world that she knows and, ugh... After Dimitri was turned into a Strigoi, I just couldn't handle the emotional stress of what was surely to come.

But, alas, I have finally finished Blood Promise and... eh... it was a 3/5 star-er for me. The synopsis that I included above is pretty adequate: Blood Promise picks up almost immediately after the events of Shadow Kiss (Dimitri and Rose finally well, you know..., a giant pack of Strigoi attack the Academy, Dimitri is turned, and Rose decides to go on a suicide mission to free Dimitri from the undead). Rose has been in Russia for some time (a few weeks to a month?), attempting to track down local Moroi and hopefully find her way to Dimitri to finish him off. Rose periodically checks in on Lissa via their connection and, other than some "dream visits" from Adrian, those are the only updates that we get about the gang still at St. Vladimir's. For the most part, Rose is on her own. After a series of events (omitted to limit the spoiler count), Rose finally finds herself with Dimitri, who gives her the choice between death or immortality as a Strigoi to rule along side with him as the leaders of a large clan.

In my opinion, Blood Promise functioned as a turning point for the entire series. The catastrophic Strigoi attack not only changes the Moroi/Dhampir view of their world but forces the main characters to, well, grow up. Each character realizes that they're not as safe as they thought they were and the strategic Strigoi attack hints that there is a much bigger and darker problem looming on the horizon (this last part is strictly me guessing). While a lot happens in Blood Promise to usher the plot line of the series forward, it also serves as a major character development book. The Rose that we knew from the first three books was immature in a lot of ways - stubborn, selfish, didn't fully think things through... But she emerges from Blood Promise as an older, wiser and much more mature young woman. How could she not? She gave up her entire world to hunt down the only guy she has ever had feelings for.

All of that being said, this book was just okay for me for a multitude of reasons. First, I simply didn't want the story to go in the direction that it needed to. The relationship between Dimitri and Rose was finally starting to get good, the craziness revolving around Lissa's spirit magic was finally under control... The dust had just settled... and then Shadow Kiss happened and everything was ripped away from me. I simply was not in the mood for an epic journey and that is basically what Rose embarks on. Secondly, the book is just so dang long. A lot happens and I'll give Richelle Mead that... but there were certain points of the story that felt stretched out and this made it difficult for me to retain my interest. Lastly, there is no freaking conclusion! I'm not going to go into too much detail... but I hoped that Blood Promise would wrap certain things up so that the characters could move on and move forward... but does that happen? Nope, not at all. Instead, I have to read another two books to figure out how everything ends!

Will I read Spirit Bound? Of course. I've already started *grumble grumble*. I just hope that I like this book better than Blood Promise. We'll see, I guess!

Have you read the Vampire Academy series? What'd you think? Would you like to see a series wrap up/review once I finish the last two books?

Happy reading,

Alyssa

P.S. - Could someone please tell me how to pronounce Vasilisa?!