INFORMATION:
Title/Author: Blood Promise by Richelle Mead
Series: Vampire Academy (#4)
Publisher: Penguin Razorbill
Release Date: August 25, 2009
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Paranormal
ISBN: 9781595141989
SYNOPSIS:
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 vow 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?
MY THOUGHTS:
This book was so good that it caused me to fall into a book slump! And that book slump wasn’t just after the book, it was also during the book. But, after a year without a slump, I knew that it was about tie that one would come along.
I would say that I loved this book, but there were many parts of it that I didn’t like. But that didn’t stop me from giving this book 5 beautiful stars. For this review, I’m actually going to list pros and cons of the book instead of just talking about each characters and how much I loved the story.
PROS:
- We got to finally visit Russia and Siberia (Dimitri’s homeland)!
I have been waiting a SUPER long time for Richelle Mead to finally take us outside of the US. The first places she ended up taking us to were Russia and Siberia. Hilariously, I have never read a book that took place in any of those places, but it was super neat to explore some new places! Richelle took us all across Russia and Siberia to places like St. Petersburg, Baia and Novosibirsk. And we got to meet Dimitri’s family!
- There was a new group of characters?!?
YUP! You read that right. So far, the only people that were in the series were Moroi, Dhampirs, Strigoi and of course Humans. But, we finally got a glimpse of Sydney Sage, an alchemist! I’ve actually been so excited for Sydney’s appearance in the series and cannot wait to see her in the rest of the series. (and Bloodlines!)
- Rose was such a badass character! (Though, when is she not?)
If there’s anything I love reading about in books, it’s a female heroine who can stand up and fight on their own. Because females are seriously as good of fighters as males. And truly, I don’t think Rose ever needed Dimitri to SHOW her how to fight.
- There were new new spirit users?!?!
This literally made the novel SO MUCH MORE eventful. Don’t you ever read a novel that lacks a bit of “entertainment?” Well Blood Promise became SO MUCH MORE entertaining after the reveal of a new spirit user! Oksana and Mark were super nice characters and definitely played an amazing part in this novel. Especially the ending.
CONS:
- Dimitri is a Strigoi?!?!?!
Whata What What? No, I did not just write. (*mentally shakes head*) Yup, you read that correct. I absolutely loved Dimitri in the first three books but I couldn’t help but hate him in Blood Promise. Me liking Dimitri just wasn’t going to happen. He was just… gross in this novel. Like seriously, you don’t have to make your “past” girlfriend a blood whore. That’s just wrong.
- There wasn’t a lot of romance.
I am an absolute sucker for romance and this book didn’t have much of it. Of course we got a glimpse of romance between Christian and Lissa, but other than that there wasn’t much. I started to miss Dimitri and Rose’s relationship in this book. But, I have high hopes that something big will happen between Dimitri and Rose in future books.
- New villains = New conflicts
Throughout the first three novels, the only villains were the Strigoi. Now, we have the Lazars to worry about too. Avery Lazar, her brother, father, and guardian were all introduced and holy, aren’t they just an evil bunch of characters? Avery didn’t seem too suspicious in the beginning, but her silent guardian and brother definitely did. But the ending was evilly insane! I would’ve never expected Avery to be another spirit user.
Overall, I ended up giving this book 5 stars. I originally was only going to give it 4 stars because of all of the problems I had with it, but my mind told me to give it 5. And I definitely chose to follow my wandering mind.
THAT’S IT FOR TODAY! I hope you enjoyed this review and definitely let me know if you liked this review format better. Don’t forget to like, comment and follow for more posts!
Happy Reading!
~Alaina
An Infinite Book World 