Book Review: Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy #5) by Richelle Mead

Summary:

After a long and heartbreaking journey to Siberia, dimitri's birthplace, 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 has silenced her...forever.

But Rose can't forget what she learned on her journey---whispers of a magic too impossible and terrifying to comprehend.  A magic inextricably tield to Lissa that could hold the answer to all of Rose's prayers, but not without devastating consequences.  Now Rose will have to decide what---and who---matters most to her.  And in the end, is true love really worth the price?

Review:

I managed to wait four days to read this book---I don't know how I did it but I made myself save it for this weekend.  It was worth the wait!  But now I don't know how I can move on from this story to another book.  Cue up Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares To You."  Because the Vampire Academy series is just that good.  If you haven't read this series, go immediately to the bookstore or library and check it out.  It is excellent!  We have love, action, friendship, rivalry, devotion, evil enemies, plot twists galore and forbidden love (our absolute favorite) in this series.

I was not a fan of vampire novels or anything paranormal until I read Twilight.  That started me on the paranormal genre and I've been unstoppable ever since.  This is so strange for me, because I'm the kind of person who can't watch The Shining, who still cringes when I think about the little girl ghost in Wait Until Helen Comes and who used to think I couldn't stomach the "weird" stuff likes vampires, werewolves and ghosts.  The paranormal books I've read are are just really good stories set in a fantasy world.  I think the extra layer of the story happening in a total fantasy world is what makes them so alluring.

Okay, the rest of the review is for people who have already read the book, because I'm suspending all of my usual rules and including spoilers in my review.  Can I do it?  Will my Type A, OCD tendencies allow me to break my own rigidly set protocol?  For something so great, I think I have to!  So, if you haven't read Spirit Bound yet, stop reading here and come back once you've finished it.  Unless you're like Stacey and you like to know the ending first!  :)

Spoiler Alert:

Spirit Bound starts with Rose's guardian trials.  Rose and Lissa don't stay at the academy long, with graduation happening in chapter two.  From there, they go to court for a very short stay, then the action starts.  After they sneak out of court, I became unable to put the book down.  The plot moves that fast!  Several major questions that Blood Promise left us with get answered in Spirit Bound:

1.  Will Rose and Lissa break Victor out of prison?

2.  Will Rose and Lissa save Dimitri from being a Strigoi?

3.  Will Lissa and Christian get back together?

4.  Will Rose and Dimitri get back together?

5.  And what about Adrian and Rose's relationship? 

I have to say here that I am not a fan of Adrian.  Adrian has his moments of tender-heartedness but is mostly a side character to me.  He is the equivalent of Jacob in Twilight to me:  a big part of the story, but just not "the one."  Maybe my diapproval is because of his alcohol use/abuse, maybe it's because I think Rose would really lose her mind if she got too close to another spirit user who battles the depression associated with spirit, but Adrian is the definition of the B-team to me.  He's a nice guy but I only have eyes for Dimitri. 

Here are my official predictions for what will happen in Last Sacrifice. A central character will have to die, doesn't the title alone allude to that?  Lissa's illegitimate half-sibling will come into the picture and complete the quorum and Lissa will take her place at the royal court.  I'm undecided if Lissa will go to college.  I'm thinking she'll take classes part-time and fulfill her court duties part-time.  Sydney will come testify at Rose's trial that they were having their online chat at the time Tatiana was killed and Rose will be released from custody.  Rose will live, I'm sure of that.  I think Lissa and Christian will live too.  I'm predicting that Adrian will somehow sacrifice himself for Rose.  I'm not sure how or what, but that's what I'm hoping.  He will say that he can't stand the pain of living with spirit's darkness, of not having a shadow-kissed bond with someone to siphon the darkness away from him.  He'll say that his life is too painful and meaningless but it will mean something if he dies for love.  And I think that we will get our happy ending with Rose and Dimitri.  At least that's what my fervent hope is.  If Richelle Mead does us wrong with the ending, she'll have scores of angry young women to deal with.  And we know how scary we can be when we're mad...

Just One Gripe:

Richelle Mead uses the phrase "no pun intended" three times in this book.  That's two times too many.  This is a very inconsequential gripe, in light of how great Spirit Bound is.

The Best Thing About This Book:

The plot.  I was shocked several times---and that doesn't happen often!

Appropriate for a younger audience:

Somewhat.

Score:
Characters:  5/5
Plot:  5/5
Setting/Imagery:  5/5
Originality:  5/5
Ending:  5/5
Total Score:  25/25

Read First: