Frostbite (Vampire Academy #2)
by Richelle Mead
Summary: Rose loves Dimitri, Dimitri might love Tasha, and Mason would die to be with Rose...
It’s winter break at St. Vladimir’s, but Rose is feeling anything but festive. A massive Strigoi attack has put the school on high alert, and now the Academy’s crawling with Guardians—including Rose’s hard-hitting mother, Janine Hathaway. And if hand-to-hand combat with her mom wasn’t bad enough, Rose’s tutor Dimitri has his eye on someone else, her friend Mason’s got a huge crush on her, and Rose keeps getting stuck in Lissa’s head while she’s making out with her boyfriend, Christian! The Strigoi are closing in, and the Academy’s not taking any risks... This year, St. Vlad’s annual holiday ski trip is mandatory.
But the glittering winter landscape and the posh Idaho resort only create the illusion of safety. When three friends run away in an offensive move against the deadly Strigoi, Rose must join forces with Christian to rescue them. But heroism rarely comes without a price.
Source: I won a paperback copy of this book in a giveaway hosted by a fellow book blogger.
Review:
Since I had the second book in the Vampire Academy series, I decided to continue reading despite being a bit on the fence about the first book. People recommend this series all the time and I wasn’t quite ready to give up on it. I'm glad I read it because the series is getting better and I found myself enjoying Frostbite quite a bit.
I felt like the plot thickened in Frostbite and the characters grew a lot. Rose spent about half of the book still being a bit immature and snarky, but she was trying to grow up a little bit and do the right things and she was still a major improvement from book one. Rose's mother made an appearance in book two and I really enjoyed her character and what her presence did to Rose. At first, it made Rose really angry, but as time went on, I felt like she had a large part in Rose's maturity level rising.
Frostbite began with a pretty major conflict in the vampire world involving the Strigoi and escalated a bit throughout the book, making the plot extremely interesting to me. The conflicts involving the Strigoi have a direct impact on the lives of the Moroi and their guardians, which tends to have an impact on the romance angle involving Rose and Dimitri. I like how the events sort of intertwine and have a direct impact on the characters even when it is least expected. I like how complicated everything is involving Rose's life. In the beginning of the book, Rose said "This changes everything." and while she was referring to the way the attacks by the Strigoi were, I felt like Frostbite was full of moments that changed everything.
I am definitely invested in the series at this point. Rose's quick rise in maturity really changed my feelings about the series for the better. Also, I loved Adrian's character and I'm glad I finally got to meet him, since so many people talk about his character and I kept wondering who on earth he was. I was happy to get more insight into Dimitri’s character, too. Frostbite got better and better with each page and the series is headed in a direction I like.
If my library didn’t have the rest of the series, I think I’d still continue the series, but perhaps not right away. In fact, I didn't have book 3 on hand and ended up reading book 4 because I happened to have it on my Kindle. Fortunately, as I’m writing this, I’m devouring and loving book four, so I’m glad I was able to continue the series, even if I skipped a book. So, I definitely recommend the series and it IS getting much better with each book.
Labels: paranormal romance, Review, sequel, YA
