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Book Review of Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy, Bk 5)

Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy, Bk 5)
nantuckerin avatar reviewed on + 158 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1


I don't think I can rave any more about Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series without sounding like a fan girl. But I am going to try.

Once again, Mead delivers a fantastic installment of her series, set to conclude with its sixth and final novel, Last Sacrifice, in Decemeber 2010. In Spirit Bound, dhamphir Rose and her best friend, royal Moroi, Lissa, have graduated from St. Vladimir's Academy and are on their way to the Real World. Lissa plans to live at Court -- at the request of Queen Tatiana -- and attend Lehigh University with Rose by her side. The chance of Rose still serving as Lissa's official guardian is a slim one, despite their blood bond. Rose is still paying the price for her reckless mission to save Dimitri in Siberia. Unfortunately, Dimitri is still very much alive, and bent on destroying Rose as soon as she leaves the protection of school or the Court.

Rose, however, is driven by her belief that she can restore Dimitri's soul and turn him from Strigoi back to a dhamphir if she only had the guidance of the right spirit user. Despite her budding romantic relationship with Adrian, she is almost singularly focused on this seemingly impossible task. With the help of her friends -- and some major deciet - Rose stages a risky jailbreak to gather the information she needs to set her plan in motion.

Rose and Dimitri's continent-spanning game of cat and mouse ends in fantastic and dramatic fashion, but not in the way Rose envisions. She's left to pick up the pieces and try to move forward, even though her heart tells her to do otherwise.

Unfortunately, this climax is not the end of Spririt Bound. A surprise twist left me stunned and set the series on an unexpected path toward its conclusion. Rose is falsely accused of a horrible crime she didn't commit, and her Mafioso father, Abe, may be the only person that can save her.

I was blown away by this book. The change of venue from the Academy to the adult Moroi world at Court was a good one, and provided a good turning point for the political intrigue at work in the novel. Mead actually seems to be ramping up her series, despite the conclusion looming on the horizon one mere book away. I will anxiously await to see how she pulls together all the loose ends in Last Sacrifice, and will try not to be TOO sad about the end of this fantastic series.