Spirit Bound-Book Review

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Title: Spirit Bound

Author: Rachel Mead

Genre: Young Adult Dark Fantasy

"Salvation has its price. The words stunned Adrian for a moment, but he kept going. "You're lying. What you're describing is impossible. There's no way to save a Strigoi. When they're gone, they're gone. They're dead. Undead. Forever."

WeReflect: After tedious and disturbing journey to Siberia, Rose Hathway is now back in St. Vladimir's Academy and given a chance to finish her graduation. However, Dimitri gave Rose the ultimate choice. But she chose wrong. Though a little wary about the plot being slow, I started this one immediately nonetheless. My curiosity is on peak to know whether Strigoi can be really turned back to their original form.

Rose Hathway takes pre-graduation trial and passes with flying colors. Now Lissa plans to go to regular college near Royal court. Rose toys with the idea of being a guardian to her royal friend. Before she could do that, she has another duty to fulfill. She steals important prison files and sneaks out of court with Lissa and Eddie. Here they hatch a plan to break the maximum security prison in Alaska to free their enemy Vicort Dashkov and succeeds. In return Victor leads them to his brother, Robert, the only spirit user who knows how to restore Strigoi. In Las Vegas, Lissa gains theoretical knowledge of how to restore a Strigo with spirit infused stake; however, Rose is completely against this idea for the fear of Lissa's safety.  Adrian joins them and is pretty miffed on Rose's attempt to stay connected to Dimitri. Here, they are attacked by Dimitri and a bunch of Strigois. Losing Victor and Robert in the chaos, they return to the royal court. Rose is punished for endangering the Moroi and put on rigorous physical labor as a disciplinary measure. Dimitri then kidnaps Lissa and Christian as a bait for Rose. Rose leads other guardians to their hide out with an intent to kill. A battle ensues between guardians and Strigois. Will she succeeds killing Dimitri this time? Will Lissa be able to turn him in to a Dhampir? What is the changing political dimensions in Moroi society? 

The most irking thing in this book is the love triangle between Dimitri-Rose-Adrian. Rose is heartbroken and devastated by Dimitri's presumed/assumed death, which turns out to be false, thanks to his threatening love letters. At the beginning of the book, she is Adrian's new girlfriend. Yet, she leaves on a mission to find a way to save her ex-boyfriend. All is good. But she uses Adrian's credit card everywhere to further her goals. I am starting to lose respect for the well-established character here. I understand writer's intent to keep the romance, passion, eternal love alive for young adults. And why Adrian lets himself to be treated as a doormat? However, I loved Rose's gutsy argument with Queen when she decides to stand up for all Dhampirs on underage decree. As usual, the book ended in massive cliff-hanger. Fortunately I have the next book on hand and I'm already on it.

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.