Shadow Kiss

Shadow Kiss ( AVampire Academy Novel)
By Richelle Mead
2008
443 pages (paperback)
Book 3

Summary: Rose has finally started her exams as a guardian and she’s excited to spend some more time with Lissa. However, when she is assigned to Christian instead, Rose unwillingly must learn to protect someone without the power of the bond. What does it matter right? It’s just a training exercise...until Strigoi show up and capture Dimitri. Now Rose must decide, go after Dimitri and risk Lissa or stay and protect Lissa and lose Dimitri forever.

Review: This was a much slower paced novel than the first two. Mead gives a lot of attention to dealing with the outcome of the last books and preparing the way for the rest of the series. The result is a novel that for the most part feels like filler. That’s not to say a lot of good things didn’t happen and that there wasn’t any action, but the good stuff was really pushed to the last part of the book. This change in pacing, however, did really leave room for character development, especially with Rose, Dimitri and Adrian. While not my favourite book of the series, it definitely left me wanting more.

Other books in the series: Vampire Academy (2007), Frostbite (2008), Blood Promise (2009), Spirit Bound (2010) and Last Sacrifice (Dec 2010)

If you liked Vampire Academy you might also enjoy: The Darkest Powers series by Kelley Armstrong, Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins, A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray, Evernight by Claudia Grey and Blue Bloods by Melissa De la Cruz

Additional Info: There is a graphic novel version and the movie rights have been sold, so expect to see Rose and Lissa on the silver screen sometime in the future.

Author website: http://www.richellemead.com/index.htm

Rating: W3/4 C4/4 P3/4 O3/4 PP3.5/4 CR2/4
Grade Level Interest: high J or S