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Vampire Academy Series – Book 3 – Shadow Kiss By Ruby Groves Shadow Kiss is the third book in the Vampire Academy Series by Richelle Mead. This book is not the best book to read by itself, the first two books set the tone for this book, and having a little background knowledge is very helpful. But in case you didn’t read the first two here is a synopsis of them. The story is told from Rose Hathaway’s point of view. Rose is a Dhampire, training to be a guardian at St. Vladamir’s Academy. St. Vladamir’s Academy is a school for Moroi Vampire’s and Dhampire’s. Moroi are good Vampire’s that possess special magic, dhampire’s are Moroi guardians, they are half Vampire and half human. Rose is Lissa’s best friend and guardian in training. They have a special psychic bond, in which Rose can hear and feel all of Lissa’s thoughts. She can even get in her head to an extent where she has an in body experience inside Lissa. In this book, Rose and Lissa are in their last year at the Academy. Rose and the other novice guardian’s are going through their 6 week in field training experience. This is where the instructors stage attacks on Moroi and the novice guardians have to use what they have learned to protect the Moroi. Even though Rose is set to protect Lissa when they get out of school, Rose has been assigned to protect Christian for this exercise. Christian is Lissa’s boyfriend, and Rose and Christian don’t exactly get along. In this book though, they become better friends, and end up trusting each other and fighting side by side. The plot for this story starts out with Rose seeing Mason’s ghost. Mason is a friend of Rose’s, you could even say they dated a bit, but Mason died in the last book trying to fight Strigoi. Rose is confused and frightened by the sightings of him, and is determined to find the meaning of these sightings. It soon comes to light that Rose is seeing Mason because the Academy’s magical protection is faltering, and Strigoi have planned to attack the school, and they soon do. Rose and Dimitri learn this just in time to warn the school, but not before Strigoi get inside the barrier and declare war on the Moroi and dhampire population living in at the Academy. A huge fight breaks out between Moroi and Strigoi and many are killed. Dimitri, who is the love of Rose’s life, is turned Strigoi, and this sets Rose out on a mission to find and kill him. At the end of the book Rose drops out of the Academy and goes on a search for Dimitri. And even though the book leaves more questions than answers, I think it set the stage for the fourth book. All in all, this is the best book in the series thus far, as far as I’m concerned. The characters are developed a lot more, and the plot is well thought out and blends very well with the rest of the books. If you are interested in reading Vampire Academy, look forward to this installment, you will not be disappointed. Vampire Books