Review - Last Sacrifice (Vampire Academy, Book 6) by Richelle Mead (5/5 stars)

Reading level: Young Adult

Genre: Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance
Size:  594 pages
Publisher: Razorbill
Release Date: December 7th, 2010
ISBN-13: 978-1595143068
Stand Alone or Series: Book 6 (final book) in Vampire Academy series
Source: Bought
Rating: 5/5 stars

This is the sixth, and final, book in the Vampire Academy series by  Mead.  Mead has stated that while there will be spin-off books of this series, no more books will tell Rose's story.  This was an excellent conclusion to the series, if a bit predictable at times.  I can say I was thoroughly pleased with the way everything is wrapped up.

This book starts with Rose in prison for killing the Moroi queen.  She is quickly sprung from jail by her friends and Dimitri; Dimitri, Rose, and Sydney go off on a mission to find Lissa's lost family member and to try and clear Rose's name.  Meanwhile back at court Lissa is also struggling to clear Rose's name while opposing some of the harsh measures the Council has forced on the dhampirs.

This was a satisfying conclusion to the series and I was pretty happy with it.  The story is mainly told from Rose's point of view, although she spends plenty of time in Lissa's head so you can stay on top of what is happening back at court.  Rose and Dimitri spend a lot of time together so there were lots of wonderful scenes featuring the two of them.  All of the little bits of plot come together nicely in the end.

The book moves along at a good pace and is never boring; I whizzed through this almost 600 page book and had trouble putting it down.  Mead has a wonderful writing style it is engaging, easy to read, and sounds very natural.

I have a couple small quibbles.  The things that went on in this book were a bit too predictable.  Basically everything happens exactly how you think it will (except for one item at the end).   On one hand this was nice because none of the characters got beat up too much, on the other hand I would have liked to see more surprising twists and turns.  The other complaint is that there are a lot of things left hanging, not with Rose's story, but with others.  So, you can definitely tell that this is being planned for spin-off series.  Adrian, Sydney, and Jill in particular have huge unresolved issues at the end of this book.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and thought it did a great job bringing this fabulous series to a close.  I really enjoy Mead's writing and am excited to see what she comes up with next.  I was a bit disappointed that this book was so predictable and left a lot of the other characters hanging.  Still that didn't detract much from what a wonderful book this was and how nicely it wrapped up Rose's story.