I personally favor books before movies. I’m one of those people that love the details, being able to know what the main character is thinking and feeling. The drama presented in the books is okay, I just like to stay out of it in real life.

In Richelle Mead’s The Vampire Academy book, there is more to life than just the average human being. First, there is the dhampires. They are half human, and half vampire. They have the strength of humans with no need for any type of blood. Dhampires train their whole lives to become guardians. Rose is a dhampire.

Next, is the moroi. In the moroi community there is a royal league, twelve families with a line of their own and the Dragomire line only has one person left, Princess Vasilisa Dragomire, after a fatal car accident.

Rose was in the accident with Lisa that killed Lisa’s brother and parents, but Rose shouldn’t have survived.

If it isn’t bad enough that they ran away from school, it can be highly dangerous for anyone, dhampire, moroi, or human, to be out unprotected. It is the real vampire of everyone’s nightmares that is the danger, the Strigoi.

I’m not going to ruin the story. You may have seen the movie, but in my opinion it isn’t that well made. It is one of those cheaply made movies that doesn’t really follow the book. There are five more books after the Vampire Academy and I have read them all. It is a terrific series, mostly focused on true friendship and even romance. The romance is what got me addicted in the first place.

I am a book reader at heart, and this book to me was addicting. It left me desperate to find the next book (Frostbite). Once I read the second, it was on to the third and so on. For me, once I read the series, that wasn’t the end. So I read the series from start to finish again, and then a few more times. Richelle Mead never fails to keep you locked in to the story no matter how many times you read the books.

Along with a heart racing experience, each book had me gasping, angry, and even in tears. I’m not an emotional type of girl, so these books left me coming back for more and more each time. To read the Vampire Academy, or the whole series, just visit your local library or book store and they will most likely have it.