Review: Frostbite by Richelle Mead

ISBN: 9781595141750
Source: Christmas Gift!
Series: Vampire Academy #2
Release Date: April 10, 2008
Goodreads  |  Amazon
*Please note: this is a spoiler free review, however there may be spoilers for the previous book in this review*
See my posts for previous book in the series for a spoiler free review

     SYNOPSIS:
Rose loves Dimitri, Dimitri might love Tasha, and Mason would die to be with Rose...

It’s winter break at St. Vladimir’s, but Rose is feeling anything but festive. A massive Strigoi attack has put the school on high alert, and now the Academy’s crawling with Guardians—including Rose’s hard-hitting mother, Janine Hathaway. And if hand-to-hand combat with her mom wasn’t bad enough, Rose’s tutor Dimitri has his eye on someone else, her friend Mason’s got a huge crush on her, and Rose keeps getting stuck in Lissa’s head while she’s making out with her boyfriend, Christian! The Strigoi are closing in, and the Academy’s not taking any risks... This year, St. Vlad’s annual holiday ski trip is mandatory.

But the glittering winter landscape and the posh Idaho resort only create the illusion of safety. When three friends run away in an offensive move against the deadly Strigoi, Rose must join forces with Christian to rescue them. But heroism rarely comes without a price...

     REVIEW:

Even though the writing has improved since the previous book, I still have a have a hard time getting past the "info dumps". There's definitely still too much tell and not enough show. Actually, I think this aspect of the writing has gotten worse since the last book. For example, during the narrative portions of the book, you will see (several times, might I add), "As I've noted before..." Why are you noting things!? You are a fictional character. You are not an author/narrator talking to the reader. It wouldnt matter so much if that was how the book was set up - as if the narrator was talking to the reader. But its not. And it annoyed me. Rant over. Ugh.

As a whole, the writing did get much better... or maybe I just got used to it because the plot became so much stronger and the characters so much more awesome. We are introduced to some new characters... some of which I didn't really like that much.. but I connected with the existing characters much better this time around. Rose is much less annoying, and I respect her for the way she is... she cares what people think, but she cares about herself and Lissa more. She does what she wants, when she wants to, but she also takes care of her responsibilities.

About halfway through Frostbite, I decided to look at reviews for the next few books, and I was pretty pissed when I came across some spoilery reviews that gave no warning! So in reality, I knew how this book was going to end, which really, really sucked. With that in mind though, even though I didn't feel the impact of the events, it was still very well done and probably would have made me cry had I not known what was coming.

Overall, this second book started off a bit slow, and the writing still isn't wonderful, but it was a whole lot better than the first one. About halfway through, things really started to pick up and I couldn't put the book down. Frankly, Mead does romance and action scenes really well. Her dialogue is actually pretty great too. My problem is with the narrative, Rose's stream of consciousness, which is what ruins things for me. By the time I was done with this one, I was itching to go out and get the next few because I truly do believe the books will get better - there is just so much potential here! Actually, as I'm writing this, I am in the middle of book 6 (the final installment) and I can tell you that the next few are even better than the first two. Anyways, I enjoyed this one well enough, and can't wait to talk about the rest of the books in the next few weeks!

     RATING: ★★★ 1/2

After feeling rather "meh" about Vampire Academy until the very end, Frostbite did a much better job in keeping me interested. The writing was slightly better and with Rose's little bit of development since the previous book, it was easy to like her and care about her more. The romance was.... perfect, for lack of a better developed thought, there. It was heartbreaking and heartwarming all at once.

Did any of you who read Vampire Academy decide to keep going and read book 2? What did you think? Love it? Hate it? Still kind of meh? Let me know what you think!

Get a second opinion

Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell [2 of 5]
Effortlessly Reading [3.5 of 5 stars]
Blog of Erised [5 of 5 stars]

P.S. Did you hear!? The release date for the Vampire Academy movie got pushed forward and will be released on February 7, 2014. Just so happens to be my anniversary (7 wonderful years, might I add..) and I'm forcing my awesome fiance to take me to the movies to see it that day (I'm sure you can imagine how thrilled he is about that one, haha). I still think the movie is going to suck but as I get more into the series, the more excited I am about it, regardless. Your opinions on the movie? Talk to me!

A.