Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy #1) - 72 points

Title: Vampire Academy
Series Info: Vampire Academy #1

Author: Richelle Mead 

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.

2 1/2 HEARTS!

BREAKDOWN

Plot: 38 points

I really wanted to get into the plot of this book, but I had a couple problems. First of all, the book didn't seem to go anywhere, and when it did, it didn't go where I wanted it to. Like I would imagine a cool direction the book could go in, or a romantic direction a book could go in, and it just didn't go there at all. In fact, some parts of the plot were going in the complete opposite direction than what I wanted. I liked the whole shadow-kissed thing though. I have to say that that intrigued me! Original stuff. But why did letting a Moroi feed on you during **ahem** have to make you a "blood-whore"? That could have been a totally sensual thing in a monogamous relationship! Boo! LOL.

Second, THIS BOOK HAD TOO MANY SIMILARITIES TO THE CONVENANT SERIES BY JENNIFER ARMENTROUT. Unfortunately, I liked the Convenant Series WAY better. And Vampire Academy was written first! So either Armentrout took ideas from Mead's books and made her plot WAY better (which is kind of a good thing and a bad thing), or Armentrout happened to come up with a lot of the same ideas and just excelled in plot writing. Either way, I was a tiny bit disappointed in this book and I'm not sure if i'll read any of the others. I'm still undecided because it's the first book in the series, and the other books got higher ratings. 

Characters: 10 points

For the most part, I liked all the characters as far as their attitudes and personalities went. They all fit well with the plot of the book. But Dimitri - the guy who was supposed to highlight the book for me - HAD SHOULDER LENGTH HAIR!! Ugh...no thanks. And we didn't see enough of him either. Christian on the other hand...I LOVED! He sounds gorgeous! Didn't see a lot of him either though **sad face**. Even Mason, who had potential, had RED hair. What???!! Come on...the only cute guy is Christian, and he's not with the main character! But like I said, Rose had a cool attitude and a great relationship with Lissa. The general idea of Christian and Dimitri and all the others was good, too. I wanted shave Mia's hair off, cause she sucked, but I bet there will be more to her in later books. 

Names of characters: 4 points

Rosemarie is an "eh" name, but I like Dimitri, Christian [hott!], Vasilisa (Lissa) [very pretty!!!], Mia, Natalie, etc. All good names!

Writing/Depth: 20 points

At first I thought the writing in this book was really great, which is why I decided to buy it after sampling a few books I was trying to decide from. And for the most part, the book was well written. Towards the end I felt things were a little mushed and the ending lack some depth (especially in the last scene with Dimitri and Rose). I also wish this book had more humor in it. It was very serious throughout the whole book. But, for being such a serious book, it was written pretty well. Not the best depth a book could have, but I've read a whole lot worse. 

TOTAL: 72 POINTS