Blood Promise by Richelle Mead

Blood Promise (Vampire Academy #4)
by Richelle Mead
Pages: 503
Publisher: Razorbill
Source: Bought
Summary (partial from inside jacket):

Bound by love, but sworn to kill...

Guardian Rose Hathaway's life will never be the same. The recent attack on St. Vladimir's Academy devastated the entire Moroi world. Many are dead. And, for the few victims carried off by Strigoi, their fates are even worse. A rare tattoo now adorns Rose's neck; a mark that says she's killed far too many Strigoi to count.

But only one victim matters...Dimitri Belikov. Rose must now choose one of two very different paths: honoring her life's vow to protect Lissa - her best friend and the last surviving Dragomir princess - or, dropping out of the Academy to strike out on her own and hunt down that man she loves. She'll have to go to the ends of the earth to find Dimitri and keep the promise he begged her to make. But the question is, when the time comes, will he want to be saved?

Thoughts: Blood Promise was exhilerating, shocking, and downright awesome. (I will try to keep this as spoiler free as possible, but if you haven't read the past books...then it's all pretty much a spoiler)

The novel starts a bit slow, with Mead going over details from past novels (which may actually make this novel the easiest one for newcomers to jump into, but I would still recommend reading the last three). Rose sets off in search of Dimitri, and I really have to say that it was these moments that were truly heartbreaking. Rose's pain and emotions were written well, and yet she was still strong, sassy Rose that I adore. And while there were plenty of sad moments, there were also humorous points where I couldn't help but to laugh.

Every time I read these novels, I always talk about Rose's growth in each one, and this one is no exception. She has her up moments, and her down moments, but she takes what she can from each and learns something. The other characters were still as amazing as before (except the reader doesn't see as much of the other characters as we used to).

Highlights: The emotions that this book makes the reader go through. It was heartbreaking to read. Mead took one of my favorite characters, Dimitri, and showed him to me in a way that just broke my heart right along with Rose's. The ending left me wishing there were more pages too! And as shocked as I am to say this, I actually think Adrian is...okay. (I know! How did that happen???)

Lowlights: The beginning felt like a long recap. Seeing as I've read the last three books, I thought that the recap was just wasting time. I felt like the story did not begin until Rose finally ended up in the right area for her search. I didn't think this novel matched up entirely to the others.

Rating: 4 out of 5   

My reviews in this series:
Vampire Academy
Frostbite (#2)
Shadow Kiss (#3)