Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead

Title: Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy #5)
Author: Richelle Mead
ISBN: 9781595142504
Publisher: Razorbill

Summary:
"After a long and heartbreaking journey to Siberia, Dimitri's birthplace, Rose Hathaway has finally returned to St. Vladimir's -and to her best friend, Lissa Dragomir. It's graduation, and the girls can't wait for their real lives outside of the academy's cold iron gates to finally begin. But even with the intrigue and excitement of court life looming, Rose's heart still aches for Dimitri. He's out there, somewhere.

She failed to kill him when she had the chance, and how her worse fears are about to come true. Dimitri has tasted her blood, and she knows in her heart that he is hunting her. And if Rose won't join him, he won't rest until he has silenced her... forever.

But Rose can't forget what she learned on her journey - whispers of a magic too impossible and terrifying to comprehend. A magic inextricably tied to Lissa that could hold the answer to all of Rose's prayers, but not without devastating consequences. Now Rose will have to decide what - and who - matters most to her. And in the end, is true love really worth the price?"
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First Lines:

"There's a big difference between death threats and love letters - even if the person writing the death threats still claims to actually love you. Of course, considering I once tried to kill someone I loved, maybe I had no right to judge."
Page 11 (aka the first page of the story)
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Review:

I've decided that the Vampire Academy series is my absolute favorite vampire story... vampire romance... vampire action... everything. From the first book to this one, the story just continues to get better and better.

I think one of the things I really love about this story is that Rose is a lot less of an angsty teen than in most young adult vampire books. I mean, it's written into the story that the dhampir lifestyle forces people to grow up really fast and be more mature than other people. So when Rose is faced with some possibly seriously teen moment, it's usually taken on with force and total girl power :). In Spirit Bound, there is a little more of the angsty-ness showing through, but I think that's because of the situation Rose has found herself in. And that situation is very much a "boy trouble" situation.

This fifth installment was pretty action packed from the beginning. I didn't quite expect so much to happen within the first few chapters of the book. But I'm glad it did - started off with a bang! There are parts in the story where I expect things to not work out, but then they do... and other things seem obvious that they would happen, but then they don't. This book (and whole series, really) will absolutely keep you on your toes.

I was discussing this series with one of my regular teens at the Library today - she was telling me that Vampire Academy is just massively better than *other vamp series that everyone loves.* She said she gets excited when other people agree. Me too! There's just something amazingly wonderful about the writing and the way things pan out. It's just all well done - and I'm absolutely itching for the next book! This one leaves you seriously hanging... irritating. But I'm still absolutely hooked. I'm ready to read it!!

I'm actually shocked to see that the next book is coming out in December!! That seems like it wouldn't be too far away! See, I found it on Richelle Mead's website. You should go check that out!
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Other Blog Reviews:

Frankie Diane Mallis (watch for spoilers)
Tynga's Reviews
Alpha Reader

Probably there will be more reviews cropping up starting tomorrow. I look forward to seeing what everyone thought of it!