Frostbite - Vampire Academy #2 by Richelle Mead

Frostbite by Richelle Mead
Release Date – April 10, 2008
Publisher – Razorbill
Publisher Social Media - Twitter
Pages - 327
My Rating- 9/10
Obtained - from the library

Here is the Goodreads 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…

There will be spoilers for Vampire Academy, so if you haven’t read it you may want to wait to read this review. For more information on Vampire Academy you can read my review.

Frostbite returns us to the characters we know and love from Vampire Academy. The characters are ones that you fall in love with. I realized I am now fully invested in Rose, Lissa and the rest. I love that Richelle is able to make us care about the fate of these characters and has us hoping for some form of happiness for them.

Rose’s character is a good balance between the rough, snarky girl we know and the woman she is growing into. She’s changing, and her character growth is amazing. I wish more novels had such an arc for major characters. Her training classes with Dimitri are having a impact in more ways than the physical. Dimitri is still his wonderful, smart, sane self. The chemistry between Rose and Dimitri is electric, and you can’t help by root for them.

Lissa is still the same sweet Lissa from the first book. She is less unhappy, and eager to learn more about her unique powers. I love her and Christian together. Christian is one of my favourites. He’s so haunted by his past, and hurt. I love that Lissa is so good for him and that he is good for her.

The introduction of some new characters spices things up and creates some interesting potential for the upcoming books. Adrian Ivashkov is the most prominent addition. He is snarky, has some great one liners, and can keep Rose on her toes. I love that there is someone that can verbally match Rose’s banter, and look forward to seeing more of him later novels.

In Vampire Academy the fact that the Moroi can use magic was important in the first book, but it plays a major role in this book. The politics of the Moroi society are fascinating to me and I can’t understand why the idea of using the Moroi’s power to fight the Strigoi had not been discussed and implemented.

This series is quickly becoming one of my favourites, and my only complaint is not having book three to dive into right away. Richelle has left enough questions to keep me coming back, answered enough of them to satisfy me, and introduced elements (and characters… I am looking at you Adrian) that I can see causing troubles for some of my favourites. Sigh…Why did I wait so long to start this series? If you haven’t yet please fix this immediately, you won’t regret it.