Reread: May 3rd, 2016 
 Rating: 4.5/5 
 ***Minor spoilers & spoilers for book one*** 
 We start off with Rose's everyday life at the Academy, taking her classes and training with Dimitri. Dimitri is taking Rose to another Guardian's house to take an exam (a bit like an interview) that every Guardian must pass in order to graduate. Except, when they arrive, all they find is slaughtered bodies from a Strigoi attack - the members of the royal Badica clan living there, their servants, and their Guardians. The most concerning thing is that the only way for the Strigoi to have gotten in is to have gotten humans to willingly break the wards protecting the house. On account of the slaughter, students and teachers at the Academy are going to a ski lodge where it will be safer with more Guardians around, but it seems that the Strigoi are starting to team up with humans in order to kill the Moroi royalty. 
 I was so excited to pick this book up again. I experienced so much nostalgia when I reread Vampire Academy in January, and I'm surprised I held out this long picking up this one. I was only in grade 7 when I first read this series, so picking this series up again several years later feels like revisiting my elementary school experiences. That said, I might be a little more biased than normal in my rating for this book because some of my enjoyment was in the fact that I'm rereading a series I love rather than based on the actual content of the book. 
 This one was actually slower than I expected. I didn't mind too much because I knew we were going to get to a very good part, but until I got to that good part I was going to rate this 4 stars. After all the stuff went down at the end, I increased my rating on account of all the emotions it caused. I haven't cried at a book in a good while, and I wasn't expecting to cry in this book but I did, even though I knew what was coming! I feel like besides the fact that the middle bit was a bit dull at times, some people may not have liked this because of the whole strange romance thing with Rose and Dimitri being interrupted by Mason and Tasha, Christian's aunt. It didn't bother me all that much because I still remembered how that stuff would end up, but I can see why it would annoy some people. 
 Overall, I loved this more than the first one, just because of all the action at the end and how it made me feel. I loved the introductions to new characters who will be vital later. Since I don't remember much of the third book besides how I THINK it ends, I'm super excited to read it. When I went into this one I didn't remember all of the details, of course, but I did remember many things and I'm sure I would've had an even better experience had I forgotten. Anyway, you definitely need to pick up this book. So far, it's been pretty much as great as I remembered. 
 Original Date Read: November 2011 
 Rating: 5/5