yaLOVE :: vampire academy series

It's no secret, I LOVE a good YA book.

For those who aren't "hip to the lingo", YA stands for the young adult genre of books.

The main characters in the books are generally somewhere between 16 and 18 years old, sometimes they can be as young as 15.

Almost always there is some kind of romantic twists to the plot, often with a love triangle of some sort.

My love affair with YA really started with Twilight.

Yes, I know.

I am that almost 30 year old wife and mother.

I never got as crazy obsessed as some, but I did read through the series multiple times and I have been to the midnight showings of all 5 of the movies.

The Twilight series will always have a little place in my heart.

Moving on, I have read numerous books in the years since, mostly of the YA variety.

What can I say? 

I'm hooked.

There have definitely been some flops, books that made me decide to not finish a series or books that I even just called it quits on 1/4 of the through.

But there have been a great number that I have loved!

One of the ones that had me wanting/needing to read the next in line was Vampire Academy.

The series is great for the addicted reader, as there are 6 books instead of the (mostly) normal 3.

That being said, I read all six in a period of about 2 weeks.

The first three I put on hold at the library one at a time, but the last three I put on hold all at once, because the day or so of waiting between the books was WAY too long.

I am sad it's over and am currently contemplating a reread, albeit slower this time.

I love the world that the author, Richelle Mead, created.

She put her own twists and turns into her vampires.

There are good and bad vampires. Mortal and immortal.

There are also dhampirs, which are half vampire (the good kind) and half human and are basically born to be the guardians of the good vampires.

And seriously, they are pretty badass. 

The protagonist of the series is Rose, a 17 year old dhampir, and a guardian in training.

Her best friend is Lissa, a Moroi or "good" vampire.

The series follows them through love, friendship, loss, psychic connections, graduation, royal politics, parental issues, encounters with Strigoi (evil vampires) and much, much more.

And Dimitri, Rose's main love interest is pretty gosh darn yummy. ;)

All of this to say, if you haven't, definitely go check these books out.

There is also a spin-off series called Bloodlines that I am super interested in checking out.

Also, if you have seen the recent trailer for the movie adaptation of Vampire Academy, please don't let its cheese color your impressions of the books.