Saturday 11 December 2010

Last Sacrifice (VA #6) - Richelle Mead

Last Sacrifice is the sixth and final book in the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. It was published on 7th December 2010 by Puffin and is 608 pages long. Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy for review.

Plot
After being wrongfully accused of treason and awaiting execution, Rose Hathaway needs a plan. Luckily, her friends have come up with one to bust her out of jail. Rose and Dimitri face a life on the run if they cant solve the mystery of who really killed Queen Tatiana.

Back at the Academy, a new Queen or King is about to be crowned but with Lissa thrown into the running, all hell breaks loose. Tensions are running high all over the place but among running for Queen and facing tests, Lissa must help clear her best friend of a crime she didn’t commit.

Rose, Lissa and their friends must turn to their enemies to find out the truth but what if it means not trusting the people you love anymore?

What I thought
So after reading the first five books in this series is quite a short period of time, I was extremely eager to get my hands on the final book, Last Sacrifice. I couldn’t wait to see where Richelle Mead was going to take the story and how she would end a bestselling series.

In each book of this series, Rose grows a lot and Last Sacrifice is no exception. Being accused of murder is a big deal to Rose and she knows that getting out of the situation is near impossible. Although she doesn’t actually spend too much time in her cell, it does give her a lot of time to think about her life and what she has been through so far, as well as the people around her who she loves. Also, her time spent away from the Academy while she is on the run gives Rose a lot of time to deal with her feelings for both Dimitri and Adrian although I can’t say that I was completely happy with the outcome of this part of the story. I understand why Mead wrote it this way but I have to say that I was more on one team than the other and I didn’t really agree with how one character was portrayed in the end.

I was really glad to see that even though Rose and Dimitri were on the run, all of the other characters that I had grown to love were included in the story just as much. Rose’s bond with Lissa makes it possible for us to know what is happening back at Court and how Lissa’s tests to become queen are going. Rose’s friends are also trying to help clear her name for the murder of Queen Tatiana. There is a lot of mystery and action when it comes to this part of the story as no one is really sure who actually murdered the queen. One character I did find myself missing a little bit was Adrian. He has always been one of my favourites and even though he is there in the background, it just wasn’t enough for me. I wanted him to feature a lot more but unfortunately, this wasn’t to be.

There are some great new characters in Last Sacrifice although some of the more interesting ones weren’t around for too long. Rose, Dimitri and Sydney meet a group of Moroi, Dhampir’s and humans that all live together outside of society. I found it really interesting to see how differently they lived from other vampires, especially those at the Academy and those from the royal families. I guess you could compare this to Twilight and how the Cullen’s differ from all of the other non ‘vegetarian’ vampires out there. That was a part of Twilight that I loved so it was only right that it was a part of Vampire Academy that I loved as well.

One of the best things about this whole series, apart from the amazing love story, is the friendship between Rose and Lissa. No matter what happens, these two girls stick by each other. Vampire Academy is a fantastic tale of a friendship that will withstand anything and I think this is a really important aspect of it all. As much as I like my YA books filled with romance, it is also really nice to see that a girl wont instantly drop her friends once she falls in love. I think that with this, Mead shows a good message for all readers.

As with the other books in this series, Last Sacrifice is action packed and I always felt like something totally unexpected could happen next. The story is intense for both plot and romance and although I really liked most of it, it still wasn’t my favourite book in the series. I was glad that so many questions were answered and nothing was really left unfinished. There is going to be a spin off series that focuses on some of the secondary characters and I know I will be buying the first book as soon as it is released. Vampire Academy is a fantastic series and I am only sad that it took me so long to get around to reading it.

2 comments:

Blueicegal ♥ said...

Im trying to think which individual your aiming at when you say about the ending, if your talking about who i think you are, then i will say that i was glad for that, i am a big rose and Adrian fan, i felt bad for him and i felt like richelle did something that authors don't tend to do, she made us see from a perspective of those whose say is not heard

many sacrificed themselves for her, and Rose for me didn't seem to see that until she had to hear it, it shows i think that not everyone has a happy ending. great review :)

brandileigh2003 said...

I agree with the other team ending. I think that there is more for him in the spin off.
I think that Rose did make the right decison, although I was leaning towards the other person in the last book.

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