The recent attack on St. Vladimir’s Academy devastated the entire Moroi world. Many are dead. And, for the few victims carried off by Strigoi, their fates are even worse. A rare tattoo now adorns Rose’s neck, a mark that says she’s killed far too many Strigoi to count. But only one victim matters . . . Dimitri Belikov. Rose must now choose one of two very different paths: honoring her life’s vow to protect Lissa—her best friend and the last surviving Dragomir princess—or, dropping out of the Academy to strike out on her own and hunt down the man she loves. She’ll have to go to the ends of the earth to find Dimitri and keep the promise he begged her to make. But the question is, when the time comes, will he want to be saved?

Now, with everything at stake—and worlds away from St. Vladimir’s and her unguarded, vulnerable, and newly rebellious best friend—can Rose find the strength to destroy Dimitri? Or, will she sacrifice herself for a chance at eternal love? -Goodreads

Review: *this review contains spoilers. I get a little ranty, and it’s hard to do that without giving a little away*

Going back to Blood Promise the second time around, I really hoped I’d like it better than I did the first time. I think maybe I did, but only marginally. For me, this is definitely the week point of the series and just comes off as so unneeded. Separating Lissa and Rose not only makes for a really convoluted double story but really takes away from some of the essence of this series. In my mind Rose would never abandon Lissa. Yeah, love makes you do the crazy but as much as Demitri wouldn’t want to be Strogoi, he wouldn’t want Rose to abandon her purpose either.

I found the newest addition to this series, Sydney to be oh so blah. She just doesn’t grow on me at all and to me it seems like the story would have benefited from removing her role entirely. The idea of the alchemists is an interesting addition, but give Sydney a little spunk, she’s just too timid to fit into Rose’s world.

Also, is anyone else reminded of Season 2 of Buffy? Buffy and Angel are in love, he’s a good Vampire (okay, only half Vampire in this case). Oh damn, now he’s a bad vampire and Buffy know she has to kill him even though it breaks her heart. Except in Buffy’s case, she didn’t have to trek all over the world and away from her friends to do what needed to be done.

Okay, so maybe I’m being a bit harsh here and if this book was a standalone, I might have even thought it was pretty good. But as a part of VA, I was disappointed. It just doesn’t live up to the incredible writing of the rest of the series. Thankfully, from here this series explodes and is nothing but fantastic. So, if like me, you were disappointed by this book, stick it out! This is just a rough patch in an otherwise great series.