Frostbite – Richelle Mead

Release date: 10 April 2008
Rating: ★★★★★★★★★ – 9/10
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Frostbite (Vampire Academy #2) blurb:

Rose loves Dimitri, Dimitri might love Tasha, and Mason would die to be with Rose…

It’s winter break at St. Vladimir’s, but Rose is feeling anything but festive. A massive Strigoi attack has put the school on high alert, and now the Academy’s crawling with Guardians—including Rose’s hard-hitting mother, Janine Hathaway. And if hand-to-hand combat with her mom wasn’t bad enough, Rose’s tutor Dimitri has his eye on someone else, her friend Mason’s got a huge crush on her, and Rose keeps getting stuck in Lissa’s head while she’s making out with her boyfriend, Christian! The Strigoi are closing in, and the Academy’s not taking any risks… This year, St. Vlad’s annual holiday ski trip is mandatory.

But the glittering winter landscape and the posh Idaho resort only create the illusion of safety. When three friends run away in an offensive move against the deadly Strigoi, Rose must join forces with Christian to rescue them. But heroism rarely comes without a price…

I’m really bad at reviewing sequels because I’m worried if I talk about the book then it will spoil people from the first book…

Anyway, I actually really liked this – better than Vampire Academy, the first book in the series. It’s not perfect, but it ran me through the whole host of emotions: crying, anger, happiness, laughter; it was an emotional roller coaster, but in a good way!!

I’m also a big fan of killing off characters… but no more on this!!

In terms of character development we see a range of ways in which Rose and Lissa change again. Rose becomes more serious about protecting Lissa, and Lissa steps up to take on her role as princess. Dimitri and Christian both move into bigger supporting roles, and we see changes in smaller characters such as Mia and Mason as well.

We meet new characters such as Rose’s mother and Christian’s aunt, and they both come with news for the others to react to.

The plot was good – not as predictable as the first book (again, that may be more movie related), but I feel like there may be a greater “big bad” happening that we aren’t seeing yet (and with four more books in the series then I certainly hope this is the case).

All in all, a good read and a great continuation of the story so far!