Review of Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead

Last Sacrifice came out 12 hours ago, for me. Considering time zones, in some parts of the world, it isn't even out yet.
Last Sacrifice is the final book in the Vampire Academy series - the series that got me into reading in the first place. So it kind of means a lot to me.


(Also, this will contain a heap of VA, FB, SK, BP and SB spoilers. Continue at your own peril.)


So Last Sacrifice starts immediately after Spirit Bound ends, with Rose in jail for the murder of Queen Tatiana, which she didn't commit. At her hearing she was slipped a note by the Queen's lover from the Queen before her murder saying that Lissa did, in fact, have a half brother or sister, and if found, they could allow Lissa to gain her rightful Council seat.

Last Sacrifice definitely stands out from the other books in this series. In the earlier books, Rose had to save others. In Vampire Academy, she was saving Lissa from Victor. In Frostbite, she was saving Christian, Mia and Mason from Spokane Strigois. In Shadow Kiss, she was saving her entire school from Strigoi ambush. In Blood Promise and Spirit Bound, she was saving Dimitri from himself. Now, she has to save herself.

I have a friend who also reads this series, and we spent a significant amount of physics classes this year ignoring Kepler's laws of planetary motion and instead discussing what could possibly happen in this book. So I thought I had a fair idea of what was going to happen. I can usually pick an ending. But Last Sacrifice totally defied my expectations. Nothing went how I thought it would.

Richelle Mead's writing style remains beautiful - light-hearted and funny at times, and at others, intense and heart-wrenching. Rose's strong voice really shows through the narration.

I was pleased to see all of the characters develop. Rose definitely changed a lot. I also loved to see Lissa change and become stronger and more independent. I began to look forward to the instances where Rose is in Lissa's head - something that I didn't really care for in previous books.

Though romance in this book didn't play as large a role in this book as the others - considering Rose's shift in priorities - it was still great. I was never really sure what 'team' I was on (at least, after Mason died), and I'm still unsure, but as you'd expect from a series ending, the protagonist has to make a choice between the guys. I felt for both Dimitri and Adrian, and the decision was heartbreaking.

The ending didn't tie up all of the loose ends, and leaves plenty of room for future conflict, which I hope will make the spin-off series just as excited as this one. The first book of the spin-off series is titled Bloodlines and will be released in August of next year.

I rate Last Sacrifice 5 out of 5.