From the Bookshelf of Nothing But Reading Challenges…

Shadow Kiss (Vampire Academy, #3)

Richelle Mead

Start date: January 1, 2011

Finish date: March 31, 2011

Why we're reading this: Part of first group series read. Group voted and this is what they picked.
[close] Part of first group series read. Group voted and this is what they picked.

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What Members Thought

Dec 22, 2009 Bonnie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2008-books, young-adult, vampires-werewolve-zombies-oh-my, ya-paranormal, boarding-school-of-adventure

Book three in the series and still going strong. Like all the books in the series, it starts out a bit slow and there's a lot of exposition backstory to make sure everyone's up to speed and didn't forget any important details. Useful when it's been a year between books. Not so useful when you are marathoning the books. Of course, this is what skimming was invented for and it doesn't bog down the pace too much.

I like that Mead is expanding the vampire world with each book. In book 1, it was very ...more

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Mar 19, 2010 Morgan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, paranormal, ghosts, young-adult, vampires-and-immortals, romance

Didn't like this one as well as the first two, BUT I was also spoiled for the ending of this book almost before I even read the first book.

Still interested to see what happens in book #4 since this just changes everything, and I have no idea what is coming next. ...more

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Aug 17, 2011 Nairabell rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-star, teen-ya-paranormal, read-in-2013

Rose Hathaway knows the romance between her and her tutor is forbidden, and worse that it places her best friend Lissa at risk. As Rose enters the final stage of her guardian training she is surprised to find it more challenging than expected, and more surprised to realise moroi students seem to be appearing bruised and battered with no explanation. But forces beyond Rose's control are building at could put everyone she loves at risk.

This is the third book in the Vampire Academy series (after Va Rose Hathaway knows the romance between her and her tutor is forbidden, and worse that it places her best friend Lissa at risk. As Rose enters the final stage of her guardian training she is surprised to find it more challenging than expected, and more surprised to realise moroi students seem to be appearing bruised and battered with no explanation. But forces beyond Rose's control are building at could put everyone she loves at risk.

This is the third book in the Vampire Academy series (after Vampire Academy and Frostbite) which follows the moroi (vampire) and dhampir (half-vampire) students at St. Vladimir's academy. I recommend reading in order as each builds on the books before. The storyline was interesting and well-paced and builds to a dramatic no-holds barred showdown that is action-packed and full of brilliantly choreographed fight sequences.

Rose's shadow-kissed nature takes a larger role in this installment as she begins seeing ghosts and for the first time I found myself feeling sympathetic towards her. I was disappointed because I was able to figure a lot of the shadow-kissed storyline out in advance and had that been the only plotline my rating would have been much lower. Rose's relationship with Dimitri also adds more pressure to her situation.

Vampire politics continues to feature heavily in the books as the characters visit the Court and meet with the Queen. Manipulations start to occur and Lissa grows as a character when she manages to avoid being manipulated while expressing her own opinions in a very astute way. It seems that she's really growing into her role as the last Dragomir and her self-confidence gradually grows as she realises that.

Despite the visit to Court, the majority of the action takes place at St. Vladimir's where Rose stumbles a selection of bruised students who all "fell" and Adrian has taken up residence to work with Lissa on their spirit magic. The dhampir guardian students are finally taking their field experience, each guarding a moroi from staged attacks by the instructors. The guardian training has always been one of my favourite parts of the story so it's great to see it take a greater role.

All in all, this was a great read and I'm looking forward to Blood Promise.

Plot: 8/10
Characters: 10/10
Ending: 10/10
Enjoyment: 10/10
Cover: 7/10

Overall: 45/50 ...more

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Apr 18, 2010 Paula Phillips rated it it was amazing

Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead

The third in the Vampire Acasdemy series , Rose Hathaway guardian of Lissa Dragonmir has fallen hard for fellow guardian Dimitri , this causes chaos as relationships between guardians are not only forbidden but also their is the slight matter of the legal statutory age. ( AAH Forbidden Love ) . We read as Vladimir Drakov finally gets what he desrves after the Incident in Book One - The Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead which caused Lissa and Rose to flee from the Aca ...more

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Oct 12, 2009 Jamie ~ Bad Boy Inspector rated it it was amazing

Shelves: genre-urban-fantasy, genre-young-adult, subject-pn-vampires

NO NO NO that just can't happen:( I am not very happy but now I have to read the next one to see what happens!!!! ...more

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Sep 04, 2009 Nicole rated it liked it

Shelves: own, vampire, ya

I barely gave this one 3 stars. There were several boring passages, but the last hundred-ish pages made up for a lot.

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Sep 10, 2009 Sonya rated it really liked it

Shelves: urban-fantasy, great-series, 2009

Fun series!

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Nov 13, 2009 Jessica B rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own, richelle-mead, 2010, vampires, young-adult, favourite-reads

Wow!
What else can I say? I'm not really sure... but when I said that this series had the potential to be one of my favourites I think I undermined it. Fabulous read and I'm already itching to read the next one. Loved this one and am really quite upset that I just have one more to read and then I have to wait for the next one to come out!! ...more

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