Shadow Kissed by Richelle Mead

Source: Bought audiobook

My summary:

Rose is trying to recover from the death she feels responsible for while receiving recognition for the two Strigoi she did kill.  Hard to do when she's seeing ghosts.  Afraid of everyone thinking she's crazy, she tries to figure it out on her own, typical Rose thinking.  But when things all fall apart, Dimitri learns her secret and the bond between them grows.  Rose loves him.  His feeling seem to be the same.  But they can't be together and guard Lissa.  Lissa who is growing stronger in Spirit magic even as Rose is falling more apart.  Then the worst happens and Rose faces challenges that she's not sure she strong enough to handle.   Dimitri thinks she is.

My thoughts:


 
5 stars - a must read

Since I listened to this book, let me start with the narrator.  Khristine Hvam reads Frost Bite and Shadow Kiss.  Her voices were very different from those of Stephanie Wolf in the first book in this series, Vampire Academy.  I sometimes get frustrated when they change narrators mid-series.  Even if I don't love the first narrator, I have associated their voices with the characters and it's hard to change.  Dimitri's voice has no Russian accent but Lissa also sounds more like a teenager instead of a child like she did in book one.  I adjusted and can say that Khristine made the listening experience pleasant. 

Determined to finish this series, I have started a VA marathon.  I read book one last year.  You can check out my review here.  It wasn't my favorite and that may be why it took me so long to get to this point.  I did love Frostbite and you can read my review for that one here.  I could have done this marathon right then, but I got busy and put it on hold.  I do that a lot with books.  Now, I'm trying to check up with some books on my TBR pile, so it seemed the perfect time to read all of them.

I love so much about this book.  I love the time Rose got to spend with Dimitri in this book.  I love how their relationship grew in unexpected and surprising ways.  I love how Rose faced some pretty difficult challenges and while she struggled and was overwhelmed at times, she stayed strong.  I was proud of Rose.  Not ever perfect, she just does what's right. 

I love how clues were left around the pages about Spirit and what was really going on with Lissa and Rose.  I love Christian and his snarky personality.  He's perfect for Lissa.  (Oh and can I kick the queen's behind?  That girl bugs me.) 

I love Adrian.  He's so cute with his crush on Rose.  Did anyone notice he was so not hanging on every pretty girl in sight?  Think he's serious about Rose.  She may need some back-up with the way things are going for her too. 

The plot was action packed and shocked me a couple of times.  One of those shocks was very difficult to get over.  Not sure I'm there yet.  I get so very emotionally attached to the characters in books.  It makes it hard when their live falls apart.  Since this is only book three of a six book series, I may have some stress while trying to finish it.

If you are a YA paranormal vampire reader, YOU MUST READ this series.  So good.

Read an excerpt

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