Blood Promise by Richelle Mead

Title: Blood Promise (Vampire Academy #4)

Author: Richelle Mead

Publisher: Razorbill

Release Date: August 25, 2009

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Bound by love but sworn to kill...

The world thought Dimitri was dead. And to a certain extent he was. But I hadn’t been able to forget a conversation he and I had once had. We’d both agreed that we’d rather be dead--truly dead--than walk the world as Strigoi. It was time to honor our words.

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 the 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 the 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?

Now, with everything at stake--and worlds away from St. Vladimir’s and her unguarded, vulnerable, and newly rebellious best friend--can Rose find the strength to destroy Dimitri? Or, will she sacrifice herself for a chance at eternal love?

****SPOILER ALERT!!! DO NOT READ THIS REVIEW IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THIS BOOK OR THE PREVIOUS BOOKS IN THE SERIES!!!****

I swear, these books just keep on getting better and better. Every time I finish one I think they just can’t get better, then I pick up the next one and have the same reaction all over again. Blood Promise was just as good as all the other books in the Vampire Academy series, if not even better. There is just something about these books that makes me love them so much more every time I finish one.

Now the Dimitri is turned Strigoi, Rose must go and find him so she can kill him and release his soul. They had both agreed that they would rather be dead than Strigoi and Rose wants to honor the promise she made to Dimitri in that car not so long ago. Now in Russia, Rose is not sure where she should go to find the man she loves, much less what she’ll do once she comes face to face with him. In theory, finding Dimitri and killing him should be easy because he is no longer the Dimitri she knew and loved but in reality, will killing the man she loves mean killing herself in the process?

Blood Promise was really different from the other books in the series, but different in a good way. Everything was that much more focused on Rose and with my love for Rose this made me a happy reader. Rose was very different in this book. She still had that reckless, impulsive nature but it wasn’t used to protect others but more to selfishly put herself in the face of unnecessary danger. But it was also nice to see her show her emotions more, especially when she found herself living with Dimitri’s family. Speaking of which, Dimitri’s family was great. It was so nice to see where he got so many of his qualities from and to learn more about his past. I loved how easily they accepted Rose and they could all so easily understand why Dimitri had loved her and how much she loved him. They were all really great women and I hope I see more of them, but I doubt that will happen.

I still can’t help but love Dimitri but this time I might have been more attracted to him because he became more the bad boy type. He wasn’t the same loving, kind but fierce man that Rose fell in love with and that I fell in love with. To be honest, sometimes he annoyed me like no other and was practically yelling at Rose to get a grip even though I knew there was no way she could hear me. At other times, Dimitri pretty much scared me but I still couldn’t help but hope it was all some big practical joke and he would return to being guardian Dimitri. Adrian on the other hand totally grew on me. He wasn’t the obnoxious, arrogant Adrian from the other book and you could tell he genuinely cared about what happened to Rose and what was happening to Lissa. And he totally made me laugh at the end of the book.

Blood Promise was just as good as all the other Vampire Academy books. I know I’m repeating myself, but I am so glad I finally decided to give this series a chance. Had I not, I would have totally missed out on some pretty awesome books. Now I just need to get to the bookstore and get myself a copy of Spirit Bound.