Without a doubt, Shadow Kiss is my favourite Vampire Academy novel and I have a feeling that it'll be one of my favourite reads for a while. The attack scenes are brutal and gripping, the love story is sweet and heartbreaking and the story takes an incredible turn in the climax, the fallout of which will alter the path of our heroine forever.

This book seems to me to be the turning point in the series - the point in which Mead's early storylines meld together with the storylines which will continue up until book six. I'm impressed at how tight and well-thought out the plot is - despite the constant twits and trials Richelle Mead puts her characters through, she keeps a firm grip on their characterisations and lets the events of the books shape her characters' growth rather than introducing action and heartbreak for the sake of moving the story along. And though I've known these characters for less than a week, I feel like I've known them for much longer.

I'm a sucker for angst which is probably why Shadow Kiss is my favourite so far. Readers heading into this book should keep a box of tissues handy, because you'll need them. I applaud Richelle Mead for managing to make me so attached to Rose and Dimitri that I felt as though she'd ripped my heart out and stomped on it with the last heartbreakingly tragic few chapters - an impressive feat since at the time of reading this installment I'd known the characters for less than three days!