Review: Blood Promise by Richelle Mead

Blood Promise is the fourth book in the Vampire Academy series.  ***If you haven't read the third book in the series you may not want to read this review.  I will not give any spoilers from Blood Promise, but I can't discuss this book without giving spoilers from Shadow Kiss***

Rose sets off on a mission to find and kill Dimitri after he was turned into a Strigoi at the conclusion of Shadow Kiss.  She searches aimlessly all over Russia and eventually ends up in his home town where she has the opportunity to meet his family.  She sees what life is like in a Dhampir city and is introduced to another group known as Alchemists.  Alchemists are similar to the MIBs in Men in Black.  Instead of keeping aliens a secret from human society, they try to keep the vampire world hidden.

Rose is also introduced to another spirit user and her shadow kissed partner.  She sees how well they can balance their positive and negative energy, but they have had many more years of experience.  She realizes they have a lot to learn, but at least there is hope for her and Lissa.  Lissa and Adrian continue to hone their skills, but Rose can see that Lissa is beginning to spiral out of control.  She needs to find Dimitri and return to Lissa as soon as possible.

I enjoyed the story, but it did not capture my attention like the first three books in the series.  I flew through the other books, but this one took me over a month and a half to complete.  I read 40 pages or so and then read another book.  I returned to Blood Promise for another 40 pages and then read something else.  This process continued until I was about two thirds of the way through.  At that point I was hooked and flew through the last part of the story.  

The first problem that I had was that there wasn't enough of Adrian and Christian in this story.  I love both of those characters and their appearances were far and few between.  Also...with Rose telling the story from Russia while everyone else was at St. Vladimir's, it didn't provide the same level of dialog and interaction.  Rose would slip into Lissa's head every now and then so we could see what was happening at the Academy or The Royal Court, but it always felt like we were outsiders looking in.  The new characters we were introduced to were not nearly as engaging and there was a lengthy period of time in which Rose was "contained" and very little took place.  We were in a loop that I thought might never end.    

There was a glimmer of hope for the series within the last few chapters.  Richelle set up what could be a VERY exciting next book in the series.  I don't want to give away any spoilers, but it looks like Lissa and Rose will need to head out on another quest.  I just hope they include Christian and Adrian this time.