Blood Promise-Book Review

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Title: Blood Promise
Author: Richelle Mead
Genre: Young adult dark fantasy

"Bound by love, But sworn to kill"

Blurb: The world thought Dimitri was dead. And to a certain extent, he was. But I hadn't been able to forget a conversation he and I had once had. We'd both agreed that we'd rather be dead - truly dead - than walk the world as Strigoi. It was time to honor our words.

After devouring 'Shadow Kiss', I moved on to the next in series 'Blood Promise' pretty quickly. As story sets in different country, I was hopeful for some action-packed drama with a little bit of romance and mystery.   

WeReflect:  Rose Hathway leaves St. Vladimir at the end of Shadow Kiss in search of Dimitri, the love of her life, now-turned Strigoi. Mason's ghost leads her to Siberia, which is Dimitri's hometown. She manipulated Adrian to sponsor her trip and other expenses on a promise that she will give him a fair chance when she returns. In St. Petersburg she meets a girl named Sydney, an alchemist who was ordered to accompany Rose to a Dhampir village. She meets Dimitri's family and bonds with them easily. A mysterious Moroi mobster pressurizes her to return to US. After falling out with Dimitri's sister, Rose goes off with unpromised Dhampirs to Novosibirsk to get a lead on Dimitri. In between, this group kills a lot of Stirgois and the news reaches Dimitri. He kidnaps her and gives her a choice to be awakened, that being turned into Strigoi.

A parallel story of Lisa, Adrian, Christian, and a new girl Avery in St. Vladimir runs through Rose's vision into Lisa's mind. Will Rose be able to keep her promise to Dimitri? That promise being to kill him if he ever turned into a Strigoi? Or her love for him and the desire to be with him forever wins? What is that twist at Lisa's end?

The book is slow in the beginning and picks its pace in later part. The most annoying thing is Rose and Dimitri's encounters narrated in flashbacks, which were not in the first three books. I know the writer has to maintain Dimitri's presence felt as he makes his appearance only in the second half. I loved how the story of Rose-Dimitri and Lisa-St.Vladimir moves alongside perfectly. There are few new characters added in the series like Sidney, Abe, Dimitri's family, Mark-Oksana (shadow-kissed couple), and others. Mead's writing is simple and elegant. I loved the ending and excited to start off the next one in the series.