The last two of this series will come in September. I am currently on the last book, however, I wanted to keep the reviews 2|2|2. Sorry about that! The next review you get, will be another fun one! I promise!
Customary warning: This is a reminder that these are my personal opinions. My thoughts and feelings are not your thoughts and feelings. I may not always be the target audience for a book; sometimes I am. If I do not like a book, that doesn’t mean you’ll dislike it. If I love a book or simply like a book, you may hate it. Take everything I say with this knowledge. If it sounds interesting to you despite what I’ve said, then go ahead and read it. You’ll only know you like something if you read it yourself.
That being said… Spoilers ahead.
Blood Promise by Richelle Mead
Synopsis From The Book
The recent Strigoi attack at St. Vladimir’s Academy was the deadliest ever in the school’s history, claiming the lives of Moroi students, teachers, and guardians alike. Even worse, the Strigoi took some of their victims with them . . . including Dimitri.
He’d rather die than be one of them, and now Rose must abandon her best friend, Lissa—the one she has sworn to protect no matter what—and keep the promise Dimitri begged her to make long ago. But with everything at stake, how can she possibly destroy the person she loves most?
Fantasy – Paranormal Romance | YA – PW |Character Death, Talk of Depression, Mental Torture | Friendship, Accepting Change, Family and Familial Ties
Initial Thoughts Before Reading:
We are moving on into the next book. Rose is away from the school and I don’t know how I feel about that. Does she not need to graduate? Does she not care? I’m not sure but I do know that her drive to stop Dimitiri is a valorous one. She knows him. My heart breaks for the both of them.
Initial Thoughts After Reading:
So, Dimitri. He’s really attractive as a Strigoi too. Goodness, without his moral compass I know he is so wrong, but it feels so right. I understand Rose so well. I… I need the next book. Two more. What more can happen?
Plot Overview:
Rose is in Serbia, searching for Dimitri’s town where he grew up. She found Nightingale, the club where Moroi frequent and decided to go to find someone after realizing how reclusive Morou were in the cities. She got in with pretty clothes and bribes but found it hard to talk to anyone. When she finally was able to, people knew where it was but wouldn’t tell her where to find it. For they didn’t want her to go there, especially not chasing a boy. Leaving the club she is confronted by a girl named Sydney who is an Alchemist. Alchemists jobs are taking care of messes that Dhampirs leave behind. They have a potion that can disintegrate Strigoi bodies, which Sydney shows Rose after Rose takes down a Strigoi that attacks them. Sydney agrees to take Rose on the train to get to the town.
Rose sees Lissa’s life. Lissa is doing so many things for the Queen and there is a new headmaster for the school. He has a son, Reed, and a daughter Avery. Avery wants to be Lissa’s friend. Adrian who still loves Rose, talks to her once a week and wants to know how she is. She gives him little. She learns from Sydney that the Dhampir towns are a little odd, in culture, and that Sydney thinks all of them (Moroi, Dhampir, and Strigoi) are evil.
Rose and Sydney bond a bit. Lissa and Adrian talk about Rose and how much Lissa wants to dream walk and is progressing in Spirit. She talks to Avery and decides to be friends. Rose and Sydney get a car, meet contacts, and then that night are attacked. Rose takes down two Strigoi but almost dies. She wakes up in Dimitri’s home, cared for by his family. After a day of seeing the city, and her preconceived notions of Dhampir towns being broken, she tells his family the truth of what happened to him. Lissa and Avery talk about things and people, Avery saying shes interested in Adrian.
A memorial is held for Dimitri where Rose meets Abe Mazur. He talks to her and asks her why she is there. She tells him nothing. She goes back to the memorial and tells them all about Dimitri, getting drunk in the process. Dimitri’s family realizes that she loved him and he loved her. The next day Yeva, Dimitri’s grandmother, takes Rose to meet a couple. The Moroi is a Spirit user, and the Dhampir that she loves, is bound with her. Its the first case that Rose has seen. She learns that Lissa can heal the darkness away, but it will take time and effort. She meets with Abe who tells her to leave. She debates on staying with Dimitri’s family.
With Avery, Lissa is getting to know her better. They are hanging out with Adrian and Christian. Later Christian introduces them to Jill, who they call Jailbait. She is a water user who wants to learn to fight, and Christian asks Lissa to bring Jill to court with her to meet Mia. Lissa unhappily agrees. When Rose and Adrian talk in her dream, she tells him that she met another spirit user. She refuses to tell him where he tells her to stop acting so selfishly and that Avery wouldn’t act like that. Lissa and the others go to the Court, and Lissa is acting strangely. She is angry with Rose abandoning her and Rose has noted the shift. She and Avery are becoming very good friends and the Queen has decided on new guardians for her.
In Serbia, Rose goes to church with Dimitri’s family. There she meets rogue dhampirs, who hunt Strigoi and are not promised to be guardians, like Rose. They tell her where to find them. That night, Rose goes with Viktoria, Dimitri’s little sister, to a place where Rose meets the man Viktoria loves. She thinks he’s sleezy and Abe tells Rose that the same man got Vikotria’s older sister pregnant, and might aim for the youngest after. Rose makes a deal with Abe to leave the town if he can make sure the man never sees Dimitri’s family again. The deal is made. Viktoria blames Rose and then Rose leaves the house. She goes to hunt Dimitri with the unpromised Dhampirs. They find one that knows Dimitri, and Rose tells him to tell Dimitri she’s looking for him. She lets him go.
Rose let’s the Strigoi go and for days she and the others hunt, but their hunt starts to trickle down. Rose sees that Lissa’s starting to change again and no one is realizing. Jill learned a lot from Mia and Adrian defended Jill from Reed and Avery.
Then Rose sees Dimitri. She attacks him, ready to kill when his eyes capture her and he knocks her unconscious. She awakens in a room, for the Strigoi he works for, and he tells her he is going to turn her but he wants her to make that choice. She refuses, and on the second day he bites her. Feeds but does not drain her. She is lost in a euphoria from that point on, kissing him, loving him (no sex), and bending her will to him. But she will not consent to being turned.
She meets the woman who is letting her stay in the house, and the woman says Rose must die or be turned. Dimitri tells Rose, he’ll make the decision for her if she doesn’t decide soon. And that he and she will kill Galina and take all she has. Rose had asked Dimitri why he wanted her to turn and something about his answer threw her off. After a dream with Adrian, Rose realized she has become an addict and forces herself off the Strigoi bite. She pretends to want to turn.
For a few times, Rose falls into Lissa’s head and then is forced out. She realizes it’s Avery doing it. Using a chair as a stake, she gets away from Dimitri, gets to the vault, and grabs a stake that is not hers. A battle breaks out and she stakes Galina, leaving Dimitri behind.
She runs but hurt her leg. Dimitri finds her after killing the others. Taking a lesson form Tasha, Rose gets the jump on Dimitri and stabs him. She’s saved by Abe who takes her to Mark and the other spirit user. She remembers Lissa and goes into Lissa’s head to be pushed out. Avery is about to kill Lissa. With the other sport users help, Rose dives back in and helps Lissa fight back. She and Adrian win. Rose learns that there is a spirit user who claimed to bring a Strigoi back to life, but he’s Viktor’s brother and no one knows where he is. Abe says he’ll find out.
Rose returns to school. She tells Lissa about Dimitri. Rose is asked to reenroll and complete her schooling by Alberta, Dimitri’s only Dhampir partner, and her mother. She finds out Abe is her father and that Viktor, won’t say anything as long as he’s in prison. Rose gets a letter with a stake that she used to kill Dimitri, that tells her he’s alive. She has two months left of school. She might be able to turn him back.
What I Liked:
Dimitri as a Strigoi; All the characters were lovely but Dimitri as a Strigoi got me. For real, it was so intimidating but sexy. Please turn him back to normal, please find a cure.
Dimitri’s almost death; Not gonna lie. I thought he had died. Then when he wasn’t I was like. HOPE. PRAISE. BRING HIM BACK. But also. Oooh Dimitri.
Avery; I knew she was bad from the moment I read her. I liked her as an additional villain for Lissa’s story. Poor Christian has to deal with everything that Lissa does.
More Spirit Users; Seeing how all the others exist and what they can do versus Lissa is great. I like seeing how the world is expanded thanks to them.
What I Would Have Liked or Changed:
Lissa; Please. Please grow up Lissa. Please. I was giving you the benefit of the doubt but even at the end of the book Rose doesn’t trust you enough to tell you everything. When she explicitly said she would. To a certain degree that is on Rose, but Rose doesn’t trust Lissa enough. I have a feeling she’ll tell Christian and Adrian before she tells Lissa. And then Lissa will be hurt, when really, it’s because Lissa goes off and says things that are off the wall. Please. Lissa. I believe in you.
Rating: 4/5
Notable Quotes:
“If your eyes wren’t open, you wouldn’t know the difference between dreaming and waking.” – pg 1
“Life’s like that. As we grow and change, sometimes things we’ve experienced before take on new meaning. It’ll happen for the rest of your life.” – pg 205
Marlena Marie 
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