Frostbite by Richelle Mead

Vampire Academy #2

Genre: Young Adult Urban Fantasy

Copyright: 2008

Pages: 372

I made the choice to listen to Frostbite rather than read it after the issues I had with spelling errors in Vampire Academy & I'm so glad I did, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Frostbite picks up where Vampire Academy finishes; Rose Hathaway is in her senior year at St. Vladimir's & in a few months she'll be a qualified guardian to her best friend, Lissa, a Moroi Royal & last surviving member of the Dragomir family.

Rose accompanied by her instructor Dimitri leaves the academy to take her Qualifier exam with legendary guardian, Arthur Schoenberg. On arrival for her test, Rose & Dimitri are instead faced with the massacre of a royal family & their guardians & the evidence that Strigoi have banded together for the attack. On high alert St. Vladimir's organise a holiday break in an exclusive Moroi ski resort in an attempt to keep the students and their families safe. After yet another attack on a Royal house a horrifying and undeniable realisation occurs that Strigoi are teaming up with humans to destroy Royal Moroi.

As we follow Lissa & Christian's flourishing relationship, we are also entertained with the romantic tension, & angst between Rose & Dimitri, Rose & Mason, and Dimitri & Tasha (Christian's aunt.)I thought Adrian Ivashkov & Tasha were an interesting & enjoyable addition to the cast of characters. Adrian another Moroi Royal is one of the rare Moroi, like Lissa, who use the element of Spirit.

I really enjoyed seeing the growth in Rose's character over the two books & learning more about her strained relationship with Janine Hathaway, Rose's absent guardian mother. Rose's trademark smart mouth, sarcasm & impulsiveness remain in evidence which I found both believable & entertaining but there is also evidence of a growing maturity, giving the reader moments that are touching & sensitive. There was one part towards the end of the book that actually moved me to tears, & I know I'm a bit of a sook but I really did find it quite emotional & real.

A little excerpt that was particularly entertaining occured between Mia & Rose after Rose took a beating in training with her mother. (Rose had broken Mia's nose a month previous.)

Mia: "Fortunately it [my nose] was only broken by a psychopathic whore & not anyone actually related to me."

Rose: I gave her my best psychopathic smile, "Too bad, family members hit you by accident, psychopathic whores tend to come back for me."
 
Once again I found Mead's take on Moroi/Dhampir/Strigoi vampire society fascinating & I loved the whole exploration of elitism in the Moroi/Dhampir class structure. I hope Tasha's fiery discussion regarding the defence of the two species will bring about some significant changes for the survival of Moroi & Dhampir & I have my fingers crossed we see these changes in Shadow Kiss.

Blood Promise, the 4th Vampire Academy book will be out in August 2009. Richelle Mead's blog Even Redheads Get the Blues is a fun place to visit with news, competitions & polls & you can get information about her adult series on her website

Click on the link if you'd like to read my review of Vampire Academy