It's the last week of St. Vladimir's Summer School. I think Jen Ryland, Jen from Owl Read It, and Lauren from The Headless Owl are participating this week. For the first time in two weeks, I'm NOT in detention! Go me!
Total Progress: 6/6
Vocab - (Confused? Check out my previous posts.)
The Keepers - Old school vampire society, they live in caves and consider humans, morois, and dhampirs equal, but have plenty of their own societal quirks that bothered me.
Quorum - Basically, it is a legal technicality that means a royal moroi can only have voting rights if they have family.
Book: Last Sacrifice (Vampire Academy #6) by Richelle Mead
The Keepers - Old school vampire society, they live in caves and consider humans, morois, and dhampirs equal, but have plenty of their own societal quirks that bothered me.
Quorum - Basically, it is a legal technicality that means a royal moroi can only have voting rights if they have family.
Summary: *This is the final book of a six-book series. There will be spoilers for previous books in this summary.* Rose is accused of killing Queen Tatiana. She goes on the run with Dmitri and searches for Lissa's secret half-sister, while Lissa searches for the real murderer at court.
Brief thoughts: This was definitely my favorite of the series, because there is so much going on. Lissa has her own intense story line that intertwines with Rose's quest. Lissa's story line in Blood Promise bothered me, because I was forced to watch Lissa stumble through a series of bad decisions, but in Last Sacrifice, she had her own goal and I was just as invested in her journey as I was in Rose's.
As for the romance, I'll never forgive Rose for breaking Adrian's heart. Dmitri was interesting as a strigoi and he has bugged me since he became a dhampir again. Then he went on and on the whole book about how he would never steal another man's woman, while Adrian gives Rose out after out and she swears up and down that she doesn't want to be with Dmitri. I can't believe this went on for two books. Please. They are both liars and I'd say they deserve each other, but I kind of want them to be unhappy.
Moving on... this book featured two of my favorite elements from this series: Vampire culture, specifically the oppression of dhampirs, and family. Vampire culture was explored more in this book than the others, but not to the extent I wanted. I wanted revolution and I didn't get it. Not even internally within Rose. She still bought into Moroi royalty, maybe even more so because of the events at the end of the book. However, I loved watching her develop relationships with her mom and dad, who had been pretty absent from her life before she started causing trouble.
Finally... I hear that Bloodlines has Jill, Sydney, Adrian, AND Eddie? Those are, like, the ONLY four characters I like. If someone can confirm that Abe will make an appearance, then I will be happily digging into Bloodlines soon.
As for the romance, I'll never forgive Rose for breaking Adrian's heart. Dmitri was interesting as a strigoi and he has bugged me since he became a dhampir again. Then he went on and on the whole book about how he would never steal another man's woman, while Adrian gives Rose out after out and she swears up and down that she doesn't want to be with Dmitri. I can't believe this went on for two books. Please. They are both liars and I'd say they deserve each other, but I kind of want them to be unhappy.
Moving on... this book featured two of my favorite elements from this series: Vampire culture, specifically the oppression of dhampirs, and family. Vampire culture was explored more in this book than the others, but not to the extent I wanted. I wanted revolution and I didn't get it. Not even internally within Rose. She still bought into Moroi royalty, maybe even more so because of the events at the end of the book. However, I loved watching her develop relationships with her mom and dad, who had been pretty absent from her life before she started causing trouble.
Finally... I hear that Bloodlines has Jill, Sydney, Adrian, AND Eddie? Those are, like, the ONLY four characters I like. If someone can confirm that Abe will make an appearance, then I will be happily digging into Bloodlines soon.
What I learned about Romance (after all, we are in summer school):
Your ability to love yourself affects your ability to love others. I said something similar in week one, when Rose was only able to respect a lover when she gained respect for herself. In book six, the message goes deeper. Dmitri hasn't been able to forgive himself for the things he did as a Strigoi and because of this, he can't express or truly love Rose, regardless of his feelings. But Sonya is able to forgive herself and her reunion with Mikhail is beautiful and loving and one of my favorite moments in the entire book.
Dating someone else is not a good way to get over a broken heart. Last week we talked about how you shouldn't be the rebound guy, but ultimately, I felt Rose should have been responsible to not date Adrian until she knew she was ready. You can't be in a healthy relationship unless you are in a healthy relationship with yourself and it is not the pursuer's responsibility to inventory your heart to see if you're ready. It's yours. And breaking someone's heart sucks. Especially if it's Adrian's, because then I will hate you forever.
Dating someone else is not a good way to get over a broken heart. Last week we talked about how you shouldn't be the rebound guy, but ultimately, I felt Rose should have been responsible to not date Adrian until she knew she was ready. You can't be in a healthy relationship unless you are in a healthy relationship with yourself and it is not the pursuer's responsibility to inventory your heart to see if you're ready. It's yours. And breaking someone's heart sucks. Especially if it's Adrian's, because then I will hate you forever.
Last Sacrifice gets a Fake Steph Rating of...
Posts
Yes -- you must read Bloodlines. I think you'll love it. I wish Lissa and Christian would show up too!
ReplyDeleteOkay, we will never see eye to eye on the whole Rose/Dimitri thing, but we will just have to agree to disagree. Adrian will be better off in the end, you'll see!
This has been so much fun!! I'm sad that it's over, but I'm excited for fall too. My favorite season. And no more detention!
School's Out! Where as before I had no intention of reading this series now I'm a bit more open to it. It's been fun reading your posts on the books!
ReplyDeleteI'm with Kate. It's been fun reading your posts on these books. Now I'm itching even more to read them.
ReplyDeleteI've really enjoyed reading these, even though I haven't read the series. Especially your "what I learned" section. You are so wise!
ReplyDeleteOh, great observation about her relationships with her parents! It kind of sucked how Janine tried to progress their relationship in one of the earlier books and then was barely seen again. Loved seeing her and Abe together. So bummed that it's the last week! Love your lessons as always; they're always so deep and, you know, true (unlike mine, haha).
ReplyDeleteOh, these books have made you so wise Steph! I'm going to miss your little life lessons! I bet all of your readers could see how much you were learning through these books and maybe that is why none of them gave you detention! They knew how much you were trying:)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I finally got a chance to read your review, even if I'm supposed to be making cookies right now... lol
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Rose was so mean to use Adrian as a rebound guy, especially when she knew he was so in love with her (how could she not know) I hated how she strung him along forever.. It was awful. Although, I AM glad that it leaves him open for Bloodlines.. lol, should be pretty awesome to get some more Adrian :)
I'm jealous of your Adrian dream.