Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead

I give this one 5 out of 5 stars.

Description: Rose scored her firs two Strigoi kills but is still having a hard time coping with her fellow novice’s, Mason’s, death.  In additiona she is suffering from bouts of uncontrollable temper outbreaks that are unusual even for her.  To add to her stress she, Lissa, Christian and Dmitri are attending the trial of  Victor Dashkov and Rose starts seeing Mason’s ghost.  She is afraid to tell anyone for fear they think she is going crazy.  The final straw is a large group of Strigoi mount an attack on the Academy which everyone thought was unheard of.

I have been pleasantly surprised that so far I found each book in this series better than the previous one.  We are definitely seeing Rose mature in this book and starting to learn how to exert at least some level of control on her impulsive manner.  Lissa’s character seems to vacillate between appearing to mature and realizing the good she can do in Moroi society and back to the child who always needs to be comforted and protected by others.  We also get a hint of what Lissa’s part in the Moroi royal court may be in the coming book.

Adrian, the prince Rose met on the ski vacation, is at the Academy working with Lissa to try to teach her his spirit skills and to try and learn her healing skills.  While Christian is afraid that Adrian is putting the moves on Lissa, Adrian definitely seems more interested in Rose and possibly in more than just a passing, I want to get in your pants way.   The best part to me was to see some interaction between Rose and Dmitri that went beyond the “we are guardians and we can’t be together” stuff.  It was also interesting to see that there is a start of people questioning Rose about the belief that was instilled in her that the Moroi always come first and what Lissa wants to do must always trump what Rose wants.

Stop here if you do not want any spoilers.

First of all I have to say I cannot believe Dmitri is now a Strigoi.  I am soooo bummed out about that and I’m hoping Mead has a twist in mind that has Dmitri either not a Strigoi or some how overcoming the evilness and need to kill that the other Strigoi have.  I really hope it’s not going to be one of those lessons that Rose is going to have to face that you can’t hesitate to kill Strigoi even when it’s someone you once knew because that can endanger the Moroi you are protecting.   It just seems wrong to me to have an unhappy ending in a YA series.

I’m also curious to see what will come of the secret club lead by Jesse and Ralf.  I wonder if their part was to be what weakened the wards on the Academy or if in the next book they will take a bigger part in the coming confrontation between the Strigoi and Moroi and the Moroi’s that want to learn to fight and those that do not.

I know I already said so but I still can’t get over the ending.  I am on pins and needles waiting for the next book to come out later this year.  I really hope book 4 is it.  I need closure

ETA: Ack!  I just saw on her website she plans on 5 books in this series. Drat.  I have two more books to find out how things end up.  That probably means at least 1-2 more years

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