Review: Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy #5)

Title: Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy #5)
Author: Richelle Mead
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 489
Source: Own
Challenge: YA Series Challenge

My Rating:

After a long and heartbreaking journey to Dimitri’s birthplace in Siberia, Rose Hathaway has finally returned to St. Vladimir’s—and to her best friend, Lissa Dragomir. It's graduation, and the girls can’t wait for their real lives outside of the Academy’s cold iron gates to finally begin. But even with the intrigue and excitement of court life looming, Rose’s heart still aches for Dimitri. He's out there, somewhere. She failed to kill him when she had the chance, and now her worst fears are about to come true. Dimitri has tasted her blood, and she knows in her heart that he is hunting her. And if Rose won't join him, he won't rest until he's silenced her...forever. -summary from goodreads.com

SO happy I decided to give this one a try! I’ll be honest, Blood Promise was my least favorite book in the series. I wasn’t looking forward to Spirit Bound as much as I should have (I know that now that I’ve read it). The first half of the book focuses on Rose being back with Lissa at the Academy getting ready to pass her trials and graduate. It was so nice to finally have the girls back in the academy. The atmosphere was light and fun, and it was good to see Rose catch and break and actually enjoy her youth.

The majority of the second half of the book involves Rose’s trouble-making skills… let’s see, there’s a prison break, sneaking off to Las Vegas, pissing off the royals… ah, and the occasional crashing of a Royal party, or two. But guess what? She doesn’t get away with all of it. I think this is the first book where Rose actually gets busted for her behavior. She's perceived to be immature and reckless by the conservative Moroi, but I see her more as just bluntly honest, she doesn't wait around for things to get worse, she takes matters into her own hands. She’s a take-action type of girl, and I can respect that.

I was very happy to have more of Christian in this book. I missed him. I loved the way his relationship with Lissa was very realistic. After their fallout, he’s trying very hard to get back into her good grace, I enjoyed getting to know that romantic side of him. As far as Rose’s boys…. I’m not to sure who I’m rooting for. I absolutely LOVE Dimitri, but Adrian is currently my new favorite book boyfriend. He knows Rose is obsessed with the whole Dimitri situation, but he still loves her. He wants to see HER happy above all costs, even if that means he doesn’t get a happy ending. If that’s not true love, I don’t know what is.

Overall, be ready for that familiar heartache and frustration because after Spirit Bound, you’ll be dying to get your hands on Last Sacrifice. So, if like me, you were thinking of putting the series aside for a while after Blood Promise, I am here to tell you that you are a fool. I promise you that Spirit Bound makes up for its predecessor. This is one book you don’t want to miss!