Back for another year at St. Vladimir's Academy, Rose and Lissa have some new challenges coming their way. The evil vampires, called Strigoi, have come together and organized themselves against all reason. They are targeting royal vampire families and performing massacres of both Moroi and their Dhampir guardians. What's especially unusual about the attacks is that all of the Moroi that were attacked were protected under wards that were seemingly broken by humans working along side the Strigoi. This changes the playing field immensely because humans aren't affected by sunlight, as the Strigoi are. And rogue vampires aren't the biggest of Rose Hathaway's problems. She has to deal with her romantic life; whether she should follow reason and date her long time best guy friend or go after her unattainable, but extremely sexy mentor. And on top of that, she keeps getting pulled into her best friend Lissa's mind, through their mental bond, at extremely, um, private times. And as the cherry on top, her estranged mother shows up at St. Vlad's after she and Rose have barely spoken to each other in oh, about five years. What's a girl to do? Will Rose be able to make it through yet another trouble-ridden school year with her reputation in tact?Thank god for these wonderful guilty pleasure books. Sure they may not have all that much substance or challenge me mentally but boy am I able to gobble them up. It's got all of the ingredients a good guilty pleasure needs; romance, fighting, hot guys, mystery, more hot guys, and vampires. What more could someone want? Yes, Richelle Mead has done it again with the second book in the Vampire Academy series. She has incorporated all the thrills of the vampire world into a plot that any teen will enjoy. There is never a dull moment in the book; everything keeps going full speed ahead so that you never know what to expect next. And that's exactly what makes it so good. Just after you think you've figured out what's going to happen next, something new gets thrown in your face and you're knocked off of your feet, scrambling to find out all of the details of the new twist. And the author writes it all so that none of it seems unrealistic. You are led to believe that all of the things in the book could actually happen just because of the flowing writing style and the characters that you can completely relate with. It's so cool to be able to read about a girl, who could quite possibly be your best friend, as she works through obstacle after obstacle with sass, spunk, attitude, and humility. So all in all, I would highly recommend the Vampire Academy series as a completely thrilling, delicious, and suspenseful guilty pleasure that will surpass all of your expectations. :D
