Vampire Academy

I can't even remember why I picked this up.  I think I was just in one of those weird moods where anything goes...Oh, now I remember!  I read Gameboard of the Gods and thought it was pretty good, so wondered what other Richelle Mead books were like. I knew that my sister was obsessed with this series so thought, why not?

I'm going to be totally honest - Vampire Academy isn't the best book.  I couldn't recommend it; not because it is an awful book, but because it's so mediocre and I can see why other people would hate it.  Me?  If I'm in the right mood I will read books that I know I would normally hate.   It's my junk food.  I'm weird that way.

And just like when I eat junk food, I'm not sure if I actually paid that much attention to what I was reading for about 3/4 of the book.  One minute Rose did not like Dimitri and the next minute he's the love of her life!  I think I completely missed this due to the fact that there's a lot of info dump at the beginning (and really throughout) and I feel like Mead wanted to make sure that you knew that her Vampires were different...different I tell you!  So in true fashion, when the info got heavy, I went into autopilot and started thinking about other things - probably food.  As long as they aren't sparkly, you're vampires can be whatever you want them to be.  Sparkles are an instant no-no.

The bigger, lingering problem that I've thought a lot about after reading is that for a book that's supposed to have a friendship at its heart, Lissa and Rose aren't really that good of friends.  Or at least it seems pretty one-sided, but that may be because, for all the effort that goes into making Rose three-dimensional (or at least the attempt), Lissa is pretty much vacant.  I'm not sure if that's because we're seeing her through Rose's eyes - and as her best friend/guardian she would see Lisa as perfect - or if it's a larger problem with her characterization.

Vampire Academy wasn't all bad - I sort of like that Rose isn't the "I'm so ugly, but I'm really a special flower", she's hot and she knows it.  She does have a bit of 'snowflake' about her, but she's promiscuous - and this does get her into trouble - not to mention loud-mouthed and protective and also a bit vulnerable - kind of everything I'd expect a young girl to be.

To sum up, Vampire Academy is really cheesy in that 90's movie type way - I'm not obsessed, but I like junk food sometimes and I'm interested to see where the series goes.  I'm just not sure if I'll still be interested in the series by the time I reach book 4, but I'll just have to read and see.