It was bad enough that Rose and Lissa had to deal with a betrayal so close to them when they were taken back to St. Vladimir’s Academy in the first book. To have your own uncle go behind your back and try to have you sacrifice your mind and spirit just for him to have his health back is enough to make you lose your trust in anyone. But that was only the beginning of the story. Dangers lurk ahead of the lives of Rose Hathaway and Lissa Dragomir, and the Strigoi are nowhere near done with them.
In the aftermath of the events of the first book, St. Vladimir’s Academy feels like everyone needs a break for all the death and destruction. With another Strigoi attack so close to the school, the authorities decide to move the entire school to a winter vacation in Idaho, a “mandatory holiday ski trip” if you will.
But just because you take the kids out of the school, it doesn’t mean the danger takes a vacation and leaves them alone for the holidays.
If anything, it just makes things worse. Putting so many Moroi together in one spot, not just the children but the adults as well, makes it that much easier to cause some trouble. Three of the students end up running away, trying to do what they think they need to do in order for the Strigoi to be destroyed once and for all. They leave the safety and comfort of the ski lodge to the nearest town where they heard another attack occurred, and it’s up to Rose to make sure that none of them end up dead. Does it work out in her favor? Is she able to save them all, or does she end up being captured herself?
This addition to the Vampire Academy series really shows just how much things can change in a matter of days. Rose matures from the impulsive girl we know and love into one that has seen tragedy firsthand and must change the way she does everything. The journey isn’t over yet, but Rose has more than proven just how strong an adversary she can be, and the will to survive and protect those she cares about will be what makes her extraordinary. She has to grow up pretty fast in this book, becoming responsible for her three classmates that escaped the lodge and trying to save them from the Strigoi that want to either kill them or turn them into part of their ever growing army. They even discover that the Strigoi are so much more organized than they imagined, and that there is something way bigger going on than they believed. They are targeting the Royal Moroi families, that much is certain. But the fact that they are now working together in much bigger nests that initially thought is alarming enough, and Rose has to find out what their ultimate plan is and protest Lissa at all costs.
Rose has always been my favorite protagonist out of all the books I’ve ever read. There’s just something about her that really draws me to her, and even though she can be stubborn at times, those moments only remind her of me that much more. Like I mentioned before, she really has grown up into a mature woman and now fully understands the dangers that come with being a Dhampir, with giving her life to protect her best friend and the rest of the Moroi. Classes at the Academy don’t fully show the scope of what she needs to be prepared for, and it was not the same as seeing a Strigoi face to face, one that is older and powerful than Natalie from the last book. In Vampire Academy, she hesitated in killing Natalie, which almost cost her life, and we wouldn’t have had any more books to read. In Frostbite, she had to figure out a way to kill two very powerful enemies, with her being only a novice not even finished with high school yet. Her strength will only increase and that is something that I can’t wait to see in the next book.
Rated: 5/5 Stars
Sometimes Leelynn Reads 