Spirit Bound is a return to the Rose I had loved from the first few books of the series. She's still on a mission - and an absolutely crazy one at that - but she's using the lessons she's learned from St. Vladamir's and is starting to think like a Guardian should. 
 I really enjoyed this book for so many reasons. We're getting to see more of the world the dhampires and Moroi (and Strigoi) inhabit and how the adults of that world operate. 
 There's so much action in this book - and I loved every minute of it. Rose is back to her kick-arse self who is still learning on the job. She's no perfect and she's making mistakes but I like that she's being seen to have grown from her experiences. She's taking her Guardian training into consideration in the real world - scoping out environments and taking in the minor details that a civilian may have missed. 
 The other characters are all growing up and growing into the vampires they're going to be - Christian, Adrian, Eddie and most importantly Lissa. The developments in their powers and personalities are great to read. 
 Although I'm generally not a fan of love triangles, the tension between Rose, Adrian and Dimitri amuses me. These characters are all so flawed and whilst I have a hope as to how things will end for Rose romantically, I can't help but appreciate her internal struggle when faced with her relationships with these two very different vampires. 
 There are some things that were happening that felt like an obvious attempt at setting up for drama and pivotal plot points in the final instalment (Last Sacrifice) but despite these I was impressed as always with the strong writing and attention to detail over the course of the novel.