Shadow Kiss & Blood Promise by Richelle Mead

Hey there, guys!
As I promised (kinda) here's the new review!
And surprise, surprise: It's a double review! Now, I've finally catched up with all of my reviews.

Basics

Title: Shadow Kiss and Blood Promise
Series: Vampire Academy, books #3 
            and #4
Author: Richelle Mead
Release Date: November 18^th 2013
Publisher: Razorbill
ISBN: 1595141979
Number of Pages: 443
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance
What's special? The third and fourth book in the Vampire Academy series!

Summary

I can't tell you much about these book but to give you just a little sneak peak:
After the events from Frostbite, Rose has to deal with her depression which is getting worse and worse. Her whole behaviour starts to become even more aggressive and darker.

Lissa starts to experiment with magic again, and doesn't really act like herself either.
Field Experience starts. That means that every Dhampir is assigned to a Moroi and has to protect them from the guardians playing Strigoi. But against all expectations, Rose is not assigned to Lissa but to Christian. Be prepared for a lot of sassy arguments!

New and old threats erupt and in the end Rose has to choose between the two people she loves most.

My Opinion

I'm finally writing this review! I was so lazy the last days writing-wise and buried in school's work, sorry for not being very active.

I loved Shadow Kiss so much. It was captivating, hilarious and quite sexy at points.
Finally, I fell for Dimirti's charme and he's amazing! Truly amazing. “I love you, Roza." He kissed me again. "I'll always be here for you. I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

*satisfied exhale*
Rose and Dimitri had an amazing dynamic, especially because Rose is even more mature in this book. By this course, she'll be an old wise lady in book six!
But no, seriously, they are perfect with each other. As I already said multiple times, I didn't see their chemistry in the beginning and wasn't fond of their relationship. But now, I would definitely count them to my OTPs!
I can't wait to read the last two books to see what will happen next to them!

I just wanted to hug Rose all the way through this book. Her presence is so underrated by Lissa even though something's obviously wrong with her. Lissa is pretty self-centered and maybe I'm overreacting but I can't bring myself to like her.
Over the course of the last three books, I could stand lissa less and less.
I know, half of her moods weren't her fault but the other half was. I just couldn't accept how she acted around Rose and Christian – and Jillian!
Friendship works both ways! While Rose tries to help Lissa as good as she can, Lissa takes Rose for given.

Moving on to her boyfriend! He's more pleasant to read about even though he's snarky as ever.
But that's his charme, right?

Rose and Christian get a lot of fighting scenes and their dynamic is amazing. Their such a badass team. Richelle Mead managed to write their fights so realistic, I couldn't put the book down!

I love how their relationship develops slowly. No rush, no sudden jump. They still have their arguments and disagreements, but they care for each other – a little more with each book.

I've never thought that I would like Mia as much as I do now! She developed so much in Frostbite and Shadow Kiss – even though the circumstances of her development were sad. The death of her parents made her softer and more vulnerable.
I would love to see more of her in the next books!

And don't even get me started on Adrian.
In Frostbite I was always a bit wary of him. All I could think was: Please, don't let this become a love triangle! Or would it've been a quadrangle? But I came to love him. He's still not very likeable in some ways. At first you think he's just a brainless drunk with good looks but now he's one of the most complex characters of the series. He cares deeply for Rose and started to really become a part of the group.
It's really sweet how he takes care of Jillian when every body else is mocking her. It's not even in a romantic way – he's just being kind.
Under his hard shell is a really soft core.

Rose, Mia, Adrian – I want to hug them all.

But speaking of Jillian: She has to have a bigger purpose! Why should she be introduced and be shown that often, when she has no bigger role?

The third book ends with such a awful cliffhanger, I had to start the next book right away.
So here's the next part of the review!

The beginning was rather slow; not much was happening. It was very interesting to get to meet Dimitri's family and to learn about his background. I loved his grandmother – she was brilliant!
But we get another new character: Sydney. She's an alchemist which means she 'cleans up' after Dhampirs killed Strigoi or humans start to notice the Vampires.
She's an very intersting character, quite difficult to figure out.
Even though she hates Dhampirs, Moroi and Strigoi, she slowly starts to care about Rose.
That's what I like about these books: every relationship develops slowly and with no sudden jumps.

Blood Promise helped me to get out of my reading slump, but guess what: I'm right back in it.

I really missed Christian, Adrian, Mia and Eddie. The setting is (mainly) Russia, which means: Goodbye, Academy. The only time we saw them was through Lissa's eyes.

We got some answers, we got more questions. But the answers were quite satisfying, believe me. 

But it was great to meet other spirit users and to learn more about the power itself and ways to stop the madness!

After reading Blood Promise I'm really interested in starting the Bloodlines series. I want to know more about Sydney and the alchemists. And we all know who her love interest will be so I'm curious how these two will meet and how it'll develop.

And
SPOILER
ROSE'S DAD

I KNEW IT KNEW IT KNEW IT RIGHT AWAY

When they said that he had an accent that was not russian and that he's probably muslim, I was like: HAH!

Rating

5 out of 5 stars for Shadow Kiss

4 out of 5 stars for Blood Promise

See ya, guys!

Franzi