Spirit Bound (VA 5) Review + GIVEAWAY

Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy 5)

-          Richelle Mead

Publisher: UK – Penguin

**Warning this might contain spoilers for the first four Vampire Academy, but I've tried to keep it spoiler free for Spirit Bound**

After a long and heartbreaking journey to Dimitri's birthplace in Siberia, Rose Hathaway has finally returned to St Vladimir's Academy - and to her best friend, Lissa. But Rose's heart still aches for Dimitri, and she knows he's out there, somewhere. She failed to kill him when she had the chance. And now her worst fears are about to come true.

Rose is back from Russia having failed in her task, but is finally able to graduate from St Vladimir’s to become a fully fledge Guardian. This is the least of her worries though with Lissa exploring new uses of spirit  as well as her own relationship with Adrian slowly taking off. Spirit Bound takes everything we’ve learnt about the Maori world so far and starts to twist it on it’s head. The action and scheming starts at the very beginning and continues with loads of emotional ups and downs throughout. Rose is still as impulsive as ever and makes for a great narrator – even if you do occasionally want to shake her and say you’re being silly. I wasn’t keen on how she was treating Adrian when it was obvious she still has major feelings for Dimitri. She wasn’t honest with him – or even herself and it did make me feel a little resentful towards her. Still the other characters played a much stronger element this time than before with Lissa growing up and taking an active role in Rose’s schemes as well as Eddie, Adrian, Victor, Ambrose, even the Queen all playing major roles in the story.

The writing flows effortlessly and you don’t even notice the pages turning as you are so involved in plot. The story really does build on everything that’s gone before so while there is some back-story told, you really need to have read the previous four books to appreciate it all.

Once again Richelle Mead has proven that she knows how to finish a book in style – with enough meat on the bone to be satisfying, but at the same time needing you desperate for more sauce to make you want to start the next book immediately. Luckily I already had Last Sacrifice on my shelves and been able to start it straight away – as I guarantee you that if you don’t you will be desperate to get your hands on it!

Recommended for fans of Vampire Academy & Michael Grant. 9 out of 10.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once again I’ve ended up with two copies of Spirit Bound, so I’m giving away my spare unread copy. And as I'm in a really generous mood I'm offering this up internationally. Giveaway ends on Friday 26^th August 2011. To enter, fill in the below form & Good Luck! :-)