I wasn't going to read this one, but another LT member mentioned it, and I thought: Why not? It's not like I have anything else to do with my time right?

So I picked it up, as well as the next two books. A major issue I need to work on, because what if the first books sucks, right? That was not the case with this book. I was hooked from the first page.

It's another take on the vampire world, and it's nicely done, an interesting take. The storyline is something that I've seen before, but the character's make it magical.

Make sure you pick this one up. ( )

My thoughts...I must have been living under a rock because out of all the YA vampire novels I have read, this is one of my favorite. I do not know why I waited so long to read it. Vampire Academy introduces us to Rose, a kick-butt heroine who would sacrifice herself to defend her friend Lissa. Rose is drawn to her trainer, Dimitri who is not only kick butt, he's sexy. Readers are also introduced to several other characters in the story. I liked Chirstian from the start. I hope we see more of him in future books.

While there are similarities to other YA vampire novels, Richelle Mead puts her own spin on the story and makes it unique and interesting. Once I got to about the 50th page, I devoured the story. While the majority of the characters in the story are teenagers, they are mature. They find themselves in dangerous situations, but they still manage to use common sense. There are a few scenes of an adult nature, but they are tastefully written and not very graphic. The story provided quite a bit of background about the Vampires and Dhapirs without boring the reader. The ending left a great lead into the next book, Frostbite.

The cons...I have none. This book far exceed what I expected and I can't wait to continue in the series. ( )

I had heard good things about this series, then got the 4th book of the series as a birthday gift last year. Picked up the 1st 3 of the set after that, and got around to picking this one up the other day. Not quite the typical teen angst vampire setting- though close. Ms. Mead draws some distinctions between different classes of vampires, and those "related" to them. There are living vampires, dead vampires - called Strigoi - and a mix of human and vampire - Guardians - who are dhampir. The Guardians protet the vampires from Strigoi. And within vampires there are the Royalty and everyone else.
Rose Haddaway is a guardian in training - in school with her best friend, and vampire princess Lissa. The two sahre a bond - rose always knows where Lissa is, how she feels, etc. But problems come when the two retrun to thier academy/school for Lissa, and then Rose. Someone keep leaving dead animals as some sort of message for Lissa, and Rose is trying to protect her, and deal with feelings for her mentor/trainer Dimitri.
I enjoyed the book, and managed to finish it in about 2-3 days, and about to start the second. My only complaint - Ms. Mead takes rose back in her memories for some explanations of how things came to be, but the transition from rose starting to think about those events, to her "telling" about them is not very clear. Many authors do this by new paragraphs, or "sub-chapters" but here Ms. Mead just flows from Rose mentioning remembering the event, right into the event with no tense change or paragraph shift. Other than that stumbling point in a few places, the book was a fast easy read, and very entertaining. ( )

Vampire Academy is one of those books that totally transcends the current vampire fad in YA literature. Richelle Mead has a thorough knowledge of vampire mythology, and she uses it to make the first book in her series an absolute treat.
Her characters are great-I loved Rose's bad-ass attitude, Lissa's metamorphosis, Christian's sulkiness, and Dimitri's aloof-ness. (Yes, okay, I liked the boys-can you blame me? One can control fire like Zuko from Avatar ((another crush)) and the other is totally hot and unapproachable.)
The plot was great-it moved along at a clippy pace while beautifully emphasizing the intense relationship between Rose and Lissa.
Can't wait to read the next one! ( )

Epic series, i would rate this right up there with twilight. Great char's and the story keeps you coming back for more ( )