Review: Blood Promise (Vampire Academy #4)

Title: Blood Promise (Vampire Academy #4)

Author: Michelle Mead

Publisher: Razorbill

Pages: 503

Source: Library

Challenege: YA Series

My Rating:

Rose Hathaway's life will never be the same. The recent attack on St. Vladimir's Academy devastated the entire Moroi world. Many are dead. And, for the few victims carried off by Strigoi, their fates are even worse. A rare tattoo now adorns Rose's neck, a mark that says she's killed far too many Strigoi to count. But only one victim matters . . . Dimitri Belikov. Rose must now choose one of two very different paths: honoring her life's vow to protect Lissa—her best friend and the last surviving Dragomir princess—or, dropping out of the Academy to strike out on her own and hunt down the man she loves. She'll have to go to the ends of the earth to find Dimitri and keep the promise he begged her to make. But the question is, when the time comes, will he want to be saved? Now, with everything at stake—and worlds away from St. Vladimir's and her unguarded, vulnerable, and newly rebellious best friend—can Rose find the strength to destroy Dimitri? Or, will she sacrifice herself for a chance at eternal love? -summary from goodreads.com

After the heart-wrenching cliffhanger at the end of SHADOW KISS, I was dying to get my hands on BLOOD PROMISE. Unfortunately BP wasn’t what I expected…. I was expecting to stay up all night reading but I found myself reading a couple of pages and then putting it down to read something else.

The first 300 or so pages were a bit boring and, in my opinion, very dark. It was a world outside of the Vampire Academy that I had learned to love, and I didn’t like it! We see a completely different side to Rose, a more emotional side. She has so many problems going on and they just pile one on top of the other. Poor girl, even her “bad-ass attitude” took a low toll. This new attitude of hers didn’t mesh well with her personality found in the first three books

I sped read through the first 3 books because I loved the story and the characters. Particularly Rose and Lissa, I loved their companionship and closeness... Now that I think about it, this was exactly what this book was missing; this book suffers because of the separation between Rose and Lissa.

I guess the only part that kept me interested was when Rose finally meets Dimitri, even though I hated the outcome. I’m going to just be blunt and say it; Rose and Dimitri remind me of Buffy and Angel. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. Ass-kicking girl falls in love w/forbidden boy, forbidden boy loves her back, forbidden boy loses his soul, forbidden boy hunts down ass-kicking girl. It was really hard for me to read the scenes between Rose and Dimitri. I hated the way Dimitri kept her as his prisoner and pretty much turned her into his own personal “blood whore”. I often times found myself yelling, “Come on Rose, WAKE UP!”… I just wanted her to snap out of the trance and kill him, and that’s saying a lot because I love Dimitri.

With that being said, I will mention that if you’ve made it this far, but find yourself trailing off; KEEP READING. Crucial information is revealed throughout the book that continues the story line of the series. Although we get very little scenes between Lissa and Christian, those were definitely the moments I enjoyed the most. And the whole Rose sleep dreams with Adrian, LOVED THEM! Am I the only one who’s leaning more and more towards Team Adrian?! Don’t judge me.

Overall, not the best book in the series, but a good book none the less. I will definitely continue Rose’s adventure with the next book SPIRIT BOUND.