As this is the fourth book in the series it may be possible that this review will contain spoilers for previous books in the Vampire Academy series.

Blood Promise by Richelle Mead

Title: Blood Promise (Vampire Academy, #4)
Author: Richelle Mead
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Young Adult
Publisher: RazorBill (4th February 2010)
Blurb:

HOW FAR WILL ROSE GO TO KEEP HER PROMISE?

THE RECENT STRIGOI ATTACKS AT ST. VLADIMIR’S ACADEMY WAS THE DEADLIEST EVER IN THE SCHOOL’S HISTORY, CLAIMING THE LIVES OF MOROI STUDENTS, TEACHERS AND GUARDIANS ALIKE.

Even worse, the Strigoi took some of their victims with them . . . including Dimitri. He’d rather die than be one of them, and now Rose must abandon her best friend, Lissa – the one she has sworn to protect no matter what – and keep the promise Dimitri begged her to make long ago.

But with everything at stake, how can she possibly destroy the one person she loves most?

Rating: **** (4 stars)
Review:

Blood Promise is the fourth book in Richelle Mead’s fantastic Vampire Academy series. At the end of Shadow Kissed Rose made a difficult decision, and in Blood Promise we see her choice played out.

Blood Promise more than any book in the Vampire Academy series so far, focuses on Rose. It seems odd to say that seeing as Rose is the main character in the series, but whereas the books before this one had Rose interacting with her friends this one doesn’t have that luxury. We get to see Rose standing on her own two feet.

It took me a while to settle into this book, and as such Blood Promise isn’t really a straight four stars – it’s actually somewhere between three and four stars. I’m not totally sure why I didn’t connect straight away, why it was so difficult to fall back into the world. However, once I managed to settle into the book I devoured it – which is why I gave it four stars instead of three. When this book worked for me, it worked well.

As this book focused mainly on Rose it meant that we were introduced to some new characters – and I thought they were totally awesome! I also loved the fact that Mead allowed us little peaks so that we could see what was going on with Lissa, Adrian, and Christian.

It was also interesting seeing the first Strigoi we knew before they were changed. I think “interesting” just about covers everything of the experience – and I was totally glad I was NOT Rose. They were both very familiar, and yet scarily not.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, and I think it makes a great addition to the Vampire Academy series.