Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

The basics

Title: Vampire Academy

Author:

Series: Vampire Academy #1

- Vampire Academy (August, 2007)
- Frostbite (April, 2008)
- Shadow Kiss (November, 2008)
- Blood Promise (August, 2009)
- Spirit Bound (May, 2010)
- Last Sacrifice (December, 2010)

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Goodreads Summary:

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.

Read a full summary of Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead below. If you can’t remember what happened in Vampire Academy and you need a refresher, then you’re in the right place.

In short

Rose Hathaway (Dhamphir and guardian in training) is trained to protect her best friend Lissa Dragomir (a Moroi vampire princess) from evil vampires. However, when they get back to their school, weird things start happening and they find out that a) Rose is shadow-kissed, whatever that means, and b) Lissa has affinity for Spirit, which is unheard of. Oh, and she has this evil bastard of an uncle who kidnaps her to save his own sorry ass. No big deal. Along the way, Lissa falls for Christian Ozera, and Rose falls for Dimitri. *swoons*

What happened in Vampire Academy?

  • After two years of living in the human world, Rose and Lissa are discovered and taken back to St. Vladimir’s Dimitri Belikov, the guardian (Dhampir) who brought them back, is assigned to be Lissa’s guardian until graduation. But um, aren’t they forgetting something?
  • Rose and Lissa share this psychic bond, which has never been heard of before. This means that Rose knows Lissa’s thoughts and emotions. So SHE should be Lissa’s guardian. Thank goodness Dimitri knows that too, and Rose can stay on the Academy and train to be Lissa’s guardian.
  • They go back to their normal school life, but Rose’s lack of battle training made her fall behind on her classmates. In comes Dimitri (are you drooling yet?) to give her extra lessons and become her mentor. (This means lots of alone time in the gym. Teehee.)
  • On the social agenda: Lissa is not as popular with her fellow royal Moroi anymore (running away just sort of does that to a person’s status) so she and Rose stick with Lissa’s cousin Natalie. Oh, and then Lissa’s ex is dating this small, very annoying Moroi named Mia, who hates Lissa, apparently. (Whatever.) And then Lissa befriends loner Christian Ozera (who everyone hates because his parents turned Strigoi). Rose doesn’t like him, Lissa does. (A lot, apparently.)
  • Things with Lissa are becoming weirder and weirder. Dead animals start to turn up wherever she is, and they’re worried that she hasn’t specialized yet. (Moroi can perform magic in one of the four elements.) She does have the power to heal
  • They find out that Lissa has affinity for Spirit, an element that no one knows of. Rose looks into it, and discovers that St. Vladimir (who their school was named after) had affinity for Spirit too. Furthermore, he and his guardian Anna, who is called “shadow-kissed”, share a special bond as well. Rose, being brought back from the dead by Lissa after a killing accident, is also “shadow-kissed”.
  • Lissa, Rose and Natalie go on a little shopping trip with Natalie’s dad (and Lissa’s uncle) Victor, who is very sick and probably won’t live that much longer. (Oh boo-hoo.) Victor gives Rose a gift, a very expensive necklace, as a thank you for everything she does for Lissa.
  • Rose and Lissa fight, because Rose doesn’t want Lissa to use Spirit anymore. After all, it makes her VERY depressed and all.
  • But then Rose sees, through the bond, how Lissa is being kidnapped while she was off making out with Christian, and runs to get Dimitri immediately. Only they end up making out instead. And man, that scene. You might want to re-read that anyway.
  • BUT it turns out that it was Rose’s necklace put a curse on both Rose and Dimitri (we later find out that it was Victor who cursed it) and Dimitri breaks the spell just in time to save Lissa. (Boooo?)
  • Rose finds out where Lissa is (somewhere in a cabin in the woods) and that it was Victor who kidnapped her. (Because he has this disease and wants Lissa to heal him, again and again, so he can take over the world or whatever he planned.) and they save Lissa just in time.

How did Vampire Academy end?

Victor, evil bastard that he is, gets Natalie, HIS OWN FREAKING DAUGHTER, to turn Strigoi and help him escape from prison. Rose gets injured when she comes across Natalie, but thank goodness Dimitri is there to save her and kill Natalie. Dimitri and Rose discuss their relationship, which can’t happen because, as Dimitri says, “If I let myself love you, I won’t throw myself in front of her. I’ll throw myself in front of you.”. BOO.

anything else

Dhampir: Half human, half vampire, Dhampirs usually train to protect Moroi from Strigoi. Also, Dhampirs can’t survive without Moroi, needing them for generation and everything.

Moroi: Vampires who are alive. Which means they can die and everything. They don’t die immediately in sunlight, but it’s no good for them either, which is why they live at night. Moroi do need blood, but they don’t kill for it. Instead, they have feeders, humans who are willing to feed them. Oh, and a Moroi’s bite is described as something like an orgasm, basically. Oh well. (Also, Moroi are ruled by a queen and have seven royal families.)

Strigoi: Vampires who are dead. Also known as EVIL. Moroi become Strigoi when they a) kill someone on purpose, or b) are fed Strigoi blood. (Correct me if I’m mistaken, but I think that was the second thing.) Strigoi can’t go out in the sunlight, and also, they don’t have magic. They ARE very strong, which is a problem sometimes.

Blood-whore: Dhampir women who, instead of becoming guardians, decide to live in a group and raise their children. The accusing term ‘blood-whore’ is used because some of these women are known to let Moroi bite them while having sex. Which is basically a no-go in Moroi land.

This is a full plot summary of what happened in Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. Check out our recap list for more recaps. If you can’t find what you need, you can request a recap from us!

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