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Name of the author: Richelle Mead
Main genre: Fantasy
Main audience: Young Adult

Main Books:
Vampire Academy Series
Vampire Academy
Frostbite
Shadow Kiss
Blood Promise
Spirit Bound
Last Sacrifice

Bloodlines Series (Vampire Academy Spin-off)
Bloodlines
The Golden Lily
The Indigo Spell
The Fiery Heart
Silver Shadows
The Ruby Circle

Short summary of the author: RIchelle Mead researches urban folklore myths and turns them into alternate worlds that are unknown to the human world. For example, the Vampire Academy series was based off of a Russian vampire myth. She is about to have another series released shortly this month, this time on Chinese folklore. At times, she does go off in "her own little world" of creating different books that are different from folklore. This includes: The Age of X Series and Dark Swan Series.

Good points: Easy to read and gives off good humor once in a while. Mead's books have coherent flow that I feel like many books lose track of. There wasn't one thing about her books I would say negative about. She does have a tendency to draw me into her books I would recommend any one of her works

I have read all the Vampire Academy books. Opal Curare had recommended them to me and I thought - sure! I read them all, and bought them for my own library. Totally great books! Well knit, well constructed stories -- villains that are positively ... smarmy. Heroes of both genders. Good stuff.

Then the next story line, Bloodlines, took off and I bought the first one and read it and didn't like it at all. I even gave the book away, thinking ... never want to read that again! I didn't like Adrian, didn't care for the way the story went, etc etc.

I picked Bloodlines up the other day at the library, just a impulse, and started reading it. I was so mistaken!

I loved it! What happened that my opinion changed so drastically? Maybe it was that before I really wanted to continue the story of Rose and Dimitri. (Well, who wouldn't?) I'd not read the Vampire Academy books for a while, though. When I started Bloodlines this time, I wasn't still immersed in the Rose/Dimitri story. I think that made a huge difference to my reception of Bloodlines and the rest of the books in that story line.

I'm very interested in starting the Vampire Academy series when I next get the chance. We just finished reading Soundless for Book Nook in the Roost, and I really enjoyed it. Her writing style is easy to read and flows well. I also like that she takes myth to create these worlds. Anything based in mythology makes me curious to learn more. If you have not yet read this fantasy novel, I would definitely check it out. It's well worth it.

•This Review has been written as part of the Astonishing Adaptations Event•

Title of the book: The Vampire Academy
Authors: Richelle Mead
Series: The Vampire Academy
Genres: Paranormal romance · Young adult fiction · Novel · Fantasy Fiction · Horror fiction · Dark fantasy · Urban fantasy
Short Summary of the story: As Taken from Good Reads

Only a true best friend can protect you from your immortal enemies...

Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess: a mortal vampire with a rare gift for harnessing the earth's magic. She must be protected at all times from Strigoi; the fiercest vampires—the ones who never die. The powerful blend of human and vampire blood that flows through Rose Hathaway, Lissa's best friend, makes her a dhampir. Rose is dedicated to a dangerous life of protecting Lissa from the Strigoi, who are hell-bent on making Lissa one of them.

After two years of freedom, Rose and Lissa are caught and dragged back to St. Vladimir's Academy, a school for vampire royalty and their guardians-to-be, hidden in the deep forests of Montana. But inside the iron gates, life is even more fraught with danger... and the Strigoi are always close by.

Rose and Lissa must navigate their dangerous world, confront the temptations of forbidden love, and never once let their guard down, lest the evil undead make Lissa one of them forever...

Good and Bad Points : This book is one of the first books I picked up when I started reading YA novels. Personally I feel the best points here, are the characters. They are relatable to most teenagers looking at the fact that it shows that even immortal teenagers whom are to be crowned Queen have issues with fitting in to school. One of the bad points here I think would be introducing the age gap romance between Rose and her instructor Dimitri, although romantic and at times cute, time and again we are reminded of his age when he corrects Rose and reminds her that her feelings are not to be uttered due to the fact that she is still a child compared to him.

Adaptations :

Vampire Academy is a 2014 fantasy comedy horror based on the first book of the novels series of the same name by Richelle Mead. It was directed by Mark Waters, with a script written by Daniel Waters. The film stars an ensemble cast led by Zoey Deutch as Rose Hathaway, a Dhampir, and Lucy Fry as Lissa Dragomir, her Moroi best friend, and follows their return to the St Vladimir's Academy boarding school, after being on the run for one year.

As said in Wikipedia. When I first found out that this book was getting a movie, I waited in absolute anticipation for it to come out. The cast seemed a bit flawed as I thought of a more rough around the edges actress to play Rose but Lissa was cast perfectly and the two actresses were perfect together, bringing out the humor and fun I saw in the books. But I was sorely disappointed when I saw that Rose's strength was not shown more often and more than often we saw her when she was having fainting spells and training with Dimitri and only showing off her skills in maybe 3-4 scenes at best. Also the sexualization of the movie was not my favorite the book did touch on it but not giving the full picture like the movie almost did. However I cannot fault that the movie was quite enjoyable to me and I would watch it again. There was a 2022 adaptation of the book into a series where they have a different cast and have actually went into using cast members of different ethnicities! I haven't watched the series yet. But from what I have seen it looks pretty good.