Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Synopsis: St. Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school—it’s a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They’ve been on the run, but now they’re being dragged back to St. Vladimir’s—the very place where they’re most in danger. . .

Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy’s ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi—the world’s fiercest and most dangerous vampires—make Lissa one of them forever.

Vampire Academy was an excellent read. The main characters are in high school and there are a lot of the usual problems everyone has in high school: mean teachers, crushes, the popular crowd. This is a YA novel, and while I am not overly familiar with the genre, this was darker than I was expecting. More sexual, too. Rose nearly has sex (due to magic!) to her older mentor and has feelings for him besides. He is 7 years too old for her. Though if she were a year older, it would be legal and the age difference a mere 6 years.

The world is fascinating – vampires who specialize in a single element, dhampir who are the bastard children of vampires, their mistresses and their bodyguards. Dhampirs need at least one vampire parent, usually the father, and in order to preserve their race, they guard the vampires. It seems to me this cycle is not especially healthy, but it works and there is certainly plenty of room for drama.

My favorite scene in this series comes at the end. Their friend, the daughter of the one who was causing all the damage, betrays them and becomes a strigoi, the sort of vampire out of horror movies to please her father. Dhampirs are sworn to kill them. She took Rose by surprise, but she was a friend of sorts and Rose hesitated when it came to killing her.

By the end of the book Rose realized that if Lissa becomes a strigoi, she would be safe from her own magic. It makes me wonder.

Grade: B