Series: (Vampire Academy #1)
Date Published: August 16, 2007
Publisher: Razobill
Pages: 332
Source: Purchased at Audible
Format: Audiobook
Goodreads Synopsis: St. Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school—it’s a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They’ve been on the run, but now they’re being dragged back to St. Vladimir’s—the very place where they’re most in danger. . . .
Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy’s ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi—the world’s fiercest and most dangerous vampires—make Lissa one of them forever
Buy it here – Amazon India
My View: Frankly, I am really not into paranormal and would rather stay away from vampires. Twilight did hold my attention but it was more of an anomaly than a rule. But when my favorite group on Goodreads had another toppler and I got assigned the task of reading about vampires, I decided to give this series a go ahead since it’s all the rage in books and series alike. Also, the fact that I had a lot of house cleaning to do and I had this audio on hand made matters easy. I finished this book in a 6.5 hours listening marathon while cleaning and re-organizing my apartment.
First things first, this book was easy to listen to. 2 hours into the audio, I upped the speed from my usual 1.5 to 2 and I was still able to do okay with it. The book started off well enough, pulling my attention to it. But soon I kind of lost interest hoping for something interesting to come by. Well, guess what, it didn’t. I am romantic by nature and do love romance in my books but for the first in the series, I would have rather had more background about the world created and what was going on instead. I felt the book was stretched more than was necessary and the important details were still missing. There were more questions than answers which I guess is what the first part of a series is all about, which leads me to think that maybe I don’t do that well with series. I have started and abandoned many series because the first didn’t hold my attention. I believe for the series, the rule for the author should be – if there’s too much to tell, divide it into parts, if there isn’t, better make it a standalone instead of stretching things out in order to make it a trilogy. A good example of series that pulled me in would be Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers and Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta. I have read too many firsts in the series lately that I will not be following upon.
I have read reviews in which readers went ga-ga over Dmitri. Well, no such luck in my case. The characters did not pull me in. They did not make me feel for them. The intensity, the drama was missing. Or am I being biased because perhaps my audio lacked something? I will never know because as far as I am concerned I am done with this series. I might catch the movie though.
What did you think of this one?
2/5 stars – It was okay but didn’t do wonders for me. 
Reviewing Shelf 
Aw that’s sad. I liked this one but agree they get better. I don’t know that I’d want to do it on audio though.
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I might have to read the second one, now that you say it, Anna.
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I though the first one was okay, but I absolutely loved the second one. That’s when my favorite character shows up for the first time and I like him a lot more than Dmitri.
I completely agree with your thoughts on series – it’s ridiculous that so many authors want to write trilogies, even if they don’t have a big enough story for a trilogy.
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Oh, now I am re-thinking if I should give the second one a try. Thanks for stopping by, Tanja.
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