Emily May's Reviews > Vampire Academy

So I said I wouldn't read this after being warned about 10 million times that they stop being worth the bother after book 3. I said it repeatedly, earnestly... and then I caved. I mean, what do you do when you've nothing ahead of you but a day at the library and when you turn around...dum, dum, dum... there it is, the internationally praised series that you swore you would never... but then what if you felt different?... how can you expect to deal with not finding out for yourself? So I guess I'm going to be the whole 'curiosity killed the cat' cliche when I get past book 3, not to mention the one about being a 'glutton for punishment'.

But, as I've been told and as I therefore expected, this first book in the series I've been putting off was really good. I'm not surprised I liked the writing style seeing as I'm already a Richelle Mead fan after reading her Succubus series. She uses traditional urban fantasy features like supernatural creatures and mythology but has a very chick-lit feel to her books which I like. My favourite hobby is to read about spunky, sarcastic heroines who aren't afraid to express their sexuality. I expected Mead to be somewhat more vanilla in a young adult novel but she (not surprisingly) pushed the boundaries and made this quite a sexy novel.

It's basically the vampire version of high school, complete with bitchiness, cliques and hot but obnoxious guys. I also found it one of the best depictions of friendship between two teenage girls that I've read in a long time, Rose and Lissa are simply delightful characters. It did make me really want to read book 2 but I will be progressing with caution throughout. I couldn't help myself, I've been warned countless times and read reviews that talk about Mead's later failures with this series, but I still had to find out for myself. I'm annoying like that.