Vampire Academy - Richelle Meade

I had been hearing about Bloodlines a lot in the past month. In fact, in one of the book blog hop giveaways I participated in recently I asked the question “What book are you most looking forward to?” and the most popular answer was Bloodlines. So I was going to find out what the fuss was about…but then it was recommended to me that I read the Vampire Academy Series first. I had given up on most teenage vampire books. First, none could really compared to Twilight for me at the time. I had read Claudia Gray’s Evernight Series (except the last book), as well as Ellen Schreiber’s Vampire Kisses Series (until I got tired of it). I picked up the first books in The Vampire Diaries series and The Blue Blood Series – both of which I didn’t care for at all, so I passed on The Vampire Academy.

The Twilight Series really were the books that threw me back into the Young Adult genre of books, a genre I read probably 70% of the time, and love. I’m not a young adult. I’m a full grown, married, mother of three, no denying or hiding it, adult. What I love about this genre is that they contain a lot less smut, but still include all of the passion and emotions of an adult genre. Yes, there is some sex and drugs and everything else in young adult books – but the level seems so much less than in the adult genre. Also, (thankfully) most young adult books tend to focus in on one relationship, while I’ve picked up some adult books that have a lot of sleeping around and ugh! They are like extremes on the spectrum scale, especially when it comes to paranormal/fantasy driven books.

Here’s the thing I don’t care for about the Young Adult genre. I don't really like to go back to high school. I don’t mind books that take place at school, or include school in the story, etc. It’s when the characters start getting catty and their behavior is more that of a teenager than that of a “young adult” that I start to get turned off. This is what made me put down The Vampire Diaries. It just started out way too high school – and I had no desire to finish. Maybe that is unfair, and they are excellent books. And there is absolutely NOTHING WRONG with these books. In fact I’d say our teens and real young adults need them. They are suppose to be written for them after all!

Vampire Academy is walking a thin line with my preferences. Obviously, seeing as how the word “academy” is right there in the title, the characters are in school. And they act like it frequently, there is a lot of assuming and bitterness and flat out immature behavior from the characters. There is also a good mystery, and there is training for who the characters are going to be, and a few sexy love interests that are heating up. And for those reasons, the book maintained my attention, and I have already loaded Frostbite to my iPhone for future reading. I’m not going to burn through this series in a month out of dire need to know what is going to happen, but I’d say that there is enough to keep my attention, and I have no doubts on whether I’ll finish the series.