Last Sacrifice - Richelle Mead

Title: Last Sacrifice
(Vampire Academy Book 6 and last)

Author: Richelle Mead

Publisher: Penguin

Release Date: 2010

Category: Young Adult ; Urban Fantasy

Source: From Penguin

Paperback: 584

Summary from Goodreads:

Rose Hathaway has always played by her own rules.

She broke the law when she ran away from St. Vladimir’s Academy with her best friend and last surviving Dragomir Princess, Lissa. She broke the law when she fell in love with her gorgeous, off-limits instructor, Dimitri. And she dared to defy Queen Tatiana, leader of the Moroi world, risking her life and reputation to protect generations of dhampir guardian to come.

Now the law has finally caught up with Rose- for a crime she didn’t even commit. She’s in prison for the highest offense imaginable: the assassination of a monarch. She’ll need help from both Dimitri and Adrian to find the one living person who can stall her execution and force the Moroi elite to acknowledge a shocking new candidate for the royal throne: Vasilisa Dragomir.

But the clock on Rose’s life is running out. Rose knows in her heart the world of the dead wants her back… and this time she is truly out of second chances. The big question is, when your life is about saving others, who will save you?

 

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If you have read my post on the five previous Vampire Academy books (link here), you will know how much I love this series (which I just discovered!).

Sadly, I cannot review Last Sacrifice without sharing major spoilers on the 5 previous books!

 

As I was saying before the spoiler alert bat flew over this review, I have fallen in love with this series and this last book is just packed with the very best!

At the end of Spirit Bound, the Moroi Queen Tatiana is staked and Rose is accused of committing the crime (gasp!). True, Rose has been vocal about her opposition of the Age Law (a law which would bring to 16 the age of dhampirs being sent to the world to become Guardians) and she has such a terrible temper and an aversion to rules that she is the best scapegoat.

She learns from her father, Abe Mazur, that she risks to be executed if she is not proven innocent soon enough (double gasp!). Rose is also given at the end of her trial a piece of paper written by Queen Tatiana herself before her death. Not only does Rose have to prove she is innocent, but she is also given the impossible task to find Lissa's long lost secret sibling to give Lissa a seat in the Moroi Council (triple gasp!).

This book is action-packed and resolves most of the issues and mysteries presented all along the series, leaving enough tension and a cleverly subtle cliffhanger to make you impatient for the next series. Indeed, even if Last Sacrifice is the last book in the Vampire Academy series *cries*, another series set in the same world and featuring most of the same characters will be coming out (really soon I hope!).

The characters are as wonderful as ever. Rose has become one of my favourite characters and I just love her personality. Of course, she has many flaws, like never being afraid of danger and never thinking before acting, but she is the best, really.

In this book, Lissa is learning to rely more on herself than on Rose or Christian. She is really growing up and is becoming, with her progressist ideas, an important figure for both Moroi and Dhampirs.

Dimitri is coming to terms with his transformation back to a Dhampir and his outlook on life is progressively changing. I absolutely love Sydney, she is also one of my favourite characters (and apparently she will feature in the next series, to which I say yes please!).

And I think that my future sentence will suffice itself. 

ABE MAZUR! 

Love that guy! Best character EVER! I just can't help laughing whenever he's there (there in the book, I mean) and I love his interactions with Rose!

Okay so I can go on (and on) for each character like that, but to sum up, they are all wonderful and have great personalities!

There is a lot of romance in there *rolls eyes*, but as you might have understood by now, it's not my favourite aspect of urban/horror YA fantasy. I actually thought there was a bit too much chiseled-chest talk* in there but oh well, one can't always be satisfied!


I already said that the vampire mythology is ace, but it is acer in this one! You will get to meet many many other characters *emphatic background music* which give a nice counter vision to the sheltered life (most of the time) of both Lissa and Rose. I cannot get over how amazing the world Richelle Mead created is. One of the very best.

The writing is just so compelling that you won't be able to let go of the book. And if you do, it's only to start reading the series all over again. The action scenes are brilliantly written and Rose's voice is clear and often hilarious. I am honestly going to miss seeing the world through Rose's eyes.

We get our fair share of politics in this novel and I love how realistic it is (okay, so, technically, Moroi politics and family feuds don't exist per se but honestly, the whole power struggles and interested friendships are totally in fashion in our boring every day world). It is absolutely convoluted and that's what makes it amazing! Go politics! (I mean in books, because I disagree with myself when it comes to real life)

To sum everything up, 

go buy this series and and start reading! 

NOW!

*chiseled-chest talk: A chiseled-chest** talk refers to one of the most prominent features of young adult urban fantasy today and consists of the heroine being so impressed by a male character's chiseled chest that she can't stop talking about it because, let's face it, a chiseled chest is the most important thing in the world when you are in a life-threatening situation. The heroine then goes on to think that the owner of the aforementioned chiseled-chest is the most wonderful person in the world and therefore her soul mate. 


** The chiseled-chest talk is a trademark of mine, you are not allowed to use it because we have enough of this in books!

Many thanks to Penguin for sending me this wonderful book!