Review: Blood Promise by Richelle Mead

Blood Promise by Richelle Mead:

Release date: August 25th 2009

Published by: Razorbill

Number of pages: 503 (US paperback)

Series: Vampire academy series #4

Summary:
How far will Rose go to keep her promise?

The recent Strigoi attack at St. Vladimir-s Academy was the deadliest ever in the school-s history, claiming the lives of Moroi students, teachers, and guardians alike. Even worse, the Strigoi took some of their victims with them. . . including Dimitri.

He-d rather die than be one of them, and now Rose must abandon her best friend, Lissa-the one she has sworn to protect no matter what-and keep the promise Dimitri begged her to make long ago. But with everything at stake, how can she possibly destroy the person she loves most?


Review:
The feeling this book left me with was frustration.
I mean, SERIOUSLY Richelle? Seriously?!


As many others has said before me, Blood Promise feels like it was only written so that people would know what happened between Shadow Kiss and Spirit Bound.
Don't get me wrong, I really liked this book, it might even be my favorite in the series so far, but still I got the impression it's just backstory.
This is what happened before Spirit Bound, if that makes any sense at all.


We're introduced to several new characters, Sydney, Avery, Abe, Mark, Oksana and many more. Sydney was my favorite of the new characters in this book.
She's only in the first 100-something pages, but her character and everything about her and what she does really got me thinking, wondering what part she'll play in
the continuing story. 


Alchemy, and all the myth revolving around it has always fascinated me. This form of chemistry -if  you can even call it that- is mentioned in and a big part of many
very famous young-adult books such as Harry Potter (the philosophers stone was said to be capable of turning base metals into gold, and also, act as an elixir of 
eternal life), the Immortals series and now also, Vampire Academy.


I like the idea of the alchemists being human, and that they kind of help dhampirs and moroi by ridding the world of Strigoi bodies, but still 
strongly resent them, fear them even, and call them "evil creatures of the night".
I can't wait to read more about the alchemists in the rest of the series and also in Richelle's upcoming VA-spinoff series, Bloodlines, in which, to my delight, Sydney
is the main character..


One element I LOVE about this series is that in every book, we, along with the characters, learn more and more about Spirit. From not knowing about it at all in the 
first book, to discovering new and exiting -but yet frightening- things that Spirit-users can do. 
Richelle never seems to stop wanting to surprise the reader in every way possible, which makes the series exiting and thrilling, and so, so much fun to read.


The amount of love that Richelle puts into this series is astonishing. 
She's got every detail worked out from the start and makes the reader go: "Ahaaa! I get it now!"


The main characters keep growing stonger and better as well as fonder of each other throughout every book. 
Their relationships gets twisted and turned, and broken and put back together in so many ways that it's a wonder they stay toghether at all. But of course, the more 
obstacles overpowered, the realisation of loves' invincibility gets harder and harder to ignore. And with that the love grows stronger and more real.