Review: Shadow-Kiss by Richelle Mead

by First Mate Keira

Title: Shadow-Kiss (Vampire Academy Series, Book 3)
Author: Richelle Mead
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 443
Grade Reading Level: Grade 9+

Summary: Lately Rose has been seeing her dead friend around St. Vladimir. Mason’s ghost, if that was what she was really seeing was messing with her and screwing up her trials. Nobody else saw him. So her only explanations were crazy or incompetence. Neither she wants to own up to, but given her lack of options there’s only one way to really go. On top of that, Victor Dashkov is being tried for his crimes but without any of the key witnesses there! If only Dimitri or somebody could get them to the royal court to ensure he was sent to Moroi prison. Oh and Moroi around the school were showing up bruised and injured, but to a one, they are all quiet about what happened to get them that way. What on earth is going on?

Why I started this book:

It’s the next in the series and I had read the previous two. Mead does a lot of exposition and telling in the first couple of pages so anybody can hop into the series at any point in time and know without a doubt what was going on both in story arc and world building.

Likes:

Who wouldn’t love getting to beat up on a teacher? Rose and her fellow dhampirs get to do just that with all their training instructors during their trials. Rose gets matched up with Lissa’s boyfriend, something she’s not happy about and when Mason’s ghost shows up causing her to lose focus and get Christian ‘killed’ it causes big, big trouble for her.
Adrian. Love him. He gets the quartet (Rose, Christian, Lissa, and Eddie) to the royal court so they can testify against Victor.
Rose and Dimitri lying at court. Victor smirking knowingly in the background and his parting shot.
SPOILER… I’m probably the only weirdo who will like this but I was glad when Dimitri was changed into a Strigoi. It sucks. It’s super angsty. It totally means more drama. For those reasons I love it. I also know somehow, probably with spirit, Dimitri will be changed back into Dhampir or at least Moroi. But this is conjecture. I have more books to read before I can know this for sure.

Dislikes:

The Moroi torture brigade at the school all trying to figure out how to use compulsion. Now if we’re going to talk about crazy that’s crazy and also beyond stupid…in more ways than one since they are the reason the Strigoi can access St. Vladimir’s in the first place. I was surprised that Rose didn’t go kick all of them in the teeth when she learned that.
I’m not a big fan of the whole head-hopping business. I get that it’s part of Rose’s shadow-kiss abilities, but I’d much rather focus on her and her story than Lissa’s.

Buy: Shadow Kiss (Vampire Academy, Book 3)

Rating: 4 Treasure Chests