Review: Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead

Bookish Details:
Series: Vampire Academy Book #3
Pages: 443
Publisher: Razorbill

Synopsis: 

It's springtime at St. Vladimir's Academy, and Rose Hathaway is this close to graduation. Since making her first Strigoi kills, Rose hasn't been feeling quite right. She's having dark thoughts, behaving erratically, and worst of all... might be seeing ghosts.

As Rose questions her sanity, new complications arise. Lissa has begun experimenting with her magic once more, their enemy Victor Dashkov might be set free, and Rose's forbidden relationship with Dimitri is starting to heat up again. But when a deadly threat no one saw coming changes their entire world, Rose must put her own life on the line - and choose between the two people she loves most.


My Review:

I really enjoyed the first to books in the Vampire Academy series, but this one definitely stepped up the game. Just when more action and drama needed injecting into the series, this book delivered all that and more.

In Shadow Kiss, we see Rose learning to cope with the events at the end of Frostbite. Not only is she still grieving, but she’s also dealing with something that is completely new to her: seeing ghosts. As Rose starts to learn more about what it might mean for her to be Shadow Kissed, she begins to worry about where it might land her in the future.

Of course, her friendship with Lissa is once again on of the main focuses in this book, as it is with the series on a whole. I like how Mead is finally testing their friendship in a way we haven’t seen before at the end of the story.

I loved the progression of Rose’s relationship with Dimitri in this story. We get to see them out in situations that they haven’t faced before and I liked seeing how Rose dealt with it. I also like the developing friendship between Rose and Christian. This is something that I was suspecting would happen from the start and I enjoyed reading them finally start to become friends.

I try to keep my reviews as spoiler free as possible, so I’m not going to talk about what happens at the end, but prepare for one of the most amazing twists that I honestly didn’t see coming. Normally, I am quite good at predicting future plots, but this one is quite the shocker.

Make sure that you already own the fourth book before you start reading this one because, believe me, you’re going to want to read on straight away. I am definitely excited to see how the rest of the series develops from here. 

Royal Rating: