Review: Vampire Academy

Title: Vampire Academy
Series: Vampire academy #1
Author: Richelle Mead
Release date: August 2007
Age group: Young Adult
Pages: 332

Synopsis from Goodreads:
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.

Expectations
My expectations are pretty high for this series because I heard so many good things about it. A lot of booklovers are calling this the best vampire series (and there are a lot of them). I would like to be drawn inside the story really fast and like to see some good world building along the way.

Review
My first impression
Within the first 40 pages or so I was already drawn into this world Richelle Mead created. I truly loved the world building in this book. I think it's amazing when a writer can portray a world the reader can imagine and see in front of them. If you can do that, the story is already good.

Things I loved:
- I immediately liked the main character Rose. She's fierce, full of confidence and not afraid. I liked her humorous ways.
- This isn't a story were the main character doesn't know that vampires exist or anything like that, and I did like the fact that she new this world already. This aspect made it very different from other vampire related stories I've read.
- I like the realness of the characters. Richelle made most of them really easy to relate to and understand their emotions.
- The friendship of Rose and Lissa is discribed very relatable and real (exept for the fact that she can look inside her head from time to time).
- Dimitri is a very interesting character... I would like to get to know him better in the next book!

Because I liked a lot of things in this book, I'll give it five stars out of five!!