Gale Reads: Vampire Academy Series by Richelle Mead

Hello everyone! I'm back (hopefully hehe)! My grandpa was released from the hospital yesterday after two weeks of staying in the hospital. I am so greatful to our doctors especially Dr. Keith Gensolin our 0nco-surgeon because he monitored my grandpa everyday and when he needed to go out of the country for a conference, he even asked the head surgeon and even his dad who is also a doctor to look after my lolo while he's gone. I am really really happy that God introduced him to my family coz he is so patient and skilled that I don't feel scared of what might happen in the future because I know he will do everything for my grandpa.

Now, going back to the reason why I'm posting. I will be doing another Gale Reads. I really love reading books and it's very rare when you can't find me with a good novel in my hands.

I have finished reading the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead and I wanted to share my thoughts about these.

The series contains 6 books and I read the whole series in a week. I'm a fast reader especially if the author's riting skills is great and the story is a page-turner. And I can usually finish 1 book per day even if I only read at night.

Cover: 3.5/5 - It's just personal preference. I love book covers with drawings and sceneries like Twilight and even the Guild Hunter series. I don't really like the ones with real humans on the cover because I prefer to imagine what the characters look like instead of seing them. Seing a real live human being on the cover just destroyed my imagined look and I usually imagine a very handsome character while I read based on the description of the author haha ^_^

Overview:

The whole series is about Rose Hathaway (a soon-to-be-guardian damphir) and how she protected her best friend Lissa Dragomir (a Moroi princess) against the attacks of Strigoi (the undead and immortal vampires). This is a story about "high school" life in St. Vladimir, a training school for vampires and their guardians to be. It tackles day to day troubles of a teenage life like love (forbidden and unforbidden), friendship, insecurities and also the politics.

LOVE IT:

- Richelle Mead is a great writer. I love her writing style because the way she describes each scene is really good. I can really be inside the world she created and part of it. I was able to feel the emotions of each character and I was able to cry, laugh and hate with them. And I believe that's a great talent for a writer, being able to reach out to the emotions of your reader.

- Rose Hathaway is not your typical damsel in distress heroine. She's strong, loyal and a great fighter. She doesn't need any man to be her protector because she can protect herself. She's not a gullible woman too and I love her for that. She is what you see she is...no pretentions. I really hate it when the heroine is someone with nothing to do but cry and complain and doesn't have her own mind and guts to decide and move on. So yeah, Rose is really a breath of fresh air.

- The other characters are very fun too. Mead was able to create a good character base for each and I found myself following their individual stories too.

- The love of Rose's life, Dimitri Belikov, is a great character. He's not the typical leading man wherein he forgets everything for love. He is mature and very responsible and is the perfect match for Rose who is still immature and a little self-centered at times. He is very handsome and manly IMO hehe.

- There's a character development with each book. You can see how each of them mature and develop into an adult. And I love it when the characters learn from their past mistakes and move forward. I really hate stories where they keep on repeating the same mistakes over and over again so Vampire Academy is a really good series to read coz the story evolves.

- The transition from one book to another in the series is smooth and flawless. Every book ends with an open conclusion and it makes you excited for the next one so you'll get to know what heappened next. It doesn't give you a very irritating cliff-hanger wherein you can't help but wish they just ended the book elsewhere and started it somewhere or they just combined the two books.

- I also love the ending of the series. Even though not everyone had a happy ending (I'm sad for Adrian and Jill), at least the main characters had one. And also every conflict and all the questions o what happened where answered so no big ? at the end.

HATE IT:

- I am still not sure if I love Rose whenever she shows her bratty, immature and self-centered self. Actually I hated it whenever she do something and never cared of what the impact is to the other party.

- I wish this series has more books haha ^_^

OVER-ALL RATING: 4.5/5 - I love everything except when Rose acts so selfish and doesn't care for what others will feel becasue of her actions. Other than that, everything is perfect. It has a good blend of a YA book and romance novels.

RECOMMENDED TO:

- For everyone who loves vampires and paranormal romances.

- For those who love fighting scenes and magic.

- This book is for, I say, 16 years old and above readers because this has more mature content compared to Twilight. It talks about love, sex, death, war, etc which I don't think very young teens should read.

Thank you for dropping by! Until my next post. Bye! ^_^