*sigh* 
 Okay, here's the deal. 
 You know how for some series, you have a momentum going? Where you read the new books as soon as they come out, where you love the characters and the writing so much and every new book seems even better and more exciting than the last? 
 And then, if you slack on reading the series, the momentum breaks, and you're left with a book that was good, but you can't really remember why you loved the others so much? And the most annoying thing is, if you had read it sooner, you would have loved it as much as the others? 
 Yeah, that's what The Ruby Circle was for me. 
 I loved Vampire Academy. I loved the rest of the books in the Bloodlines series. I loved Richelle Mead's writing (except for the unfortunate Soundless). But for The Ruby Circle... I enjoyed it, but I felt a bit separate from it. I wasn't as caught up in the characters, the plot, the world. My suspension of disbelief had snapped, and instead of being awed by every new plot point, all I could think was really, they're doing that now? 
 I'm saying this all so when you see that I gave this book three stars, you know I was expecting to enjoy it a lot more. And you know that I probably would have, if I had just read this thing sooner. And you know that it isn't the author's fault, but mine. If I had read this book two years ago, I would have loved it to pieces and squealed over every single thing in here. But now... the magic is gone, and I'm the one who let it fade. 
 The actual book was pretty good in and of itself. The plot was fast paced, we got some (correction, a lot) of romance between characters old and new. It wrapped itself up quite nicely, and I think Richelle Mead did a good job of giving the characters satisfying endings (while also providing fans with some heart-pounding moments). At first, I was a little annoyed by how some things occurred, but then I realized how Richelle Mead wanted it to effect the other characters, and it made sense why she wrote it like this. (view spoiler)[Like the whole baby thing. That, honestly, was not needed in the story to support the plot line. But, it was needed for the characters to advance in their romantic lives, and Richelle Mead is all about that. So at first I couldn't understand why, in the last book, some random character gets pregnant and runs off and then dies. But once the baby is given to Sydney and Adrian, and Rose and Dimitri are told they actually can have kids, it makes perfect sense for Richelle Mead to include this side plot. Also it provided some lessons for Adrian about spirit, so that was good too. (hide spoiler)] One thing about the ending that I'm actually still annoyed about, is how naive Sydney was about one particular thing. (view spoiler)[The fact that she made one of her bargaining chips "stop reeducation." That seemed, to me, like a pretty naive request of her. Reeducation is (unfortunately) a long-held practice among the Alchemists, and I didn't see how one despised ex-Alchemist's request would affect its practice. But, apparently, it does. And apparently all of a sudden there's disagreement about the effect of reeducation and Alchemists were questioning the process on their own? I was glad when the Alchemists said it'd take a while to discuss everything, instead of agreeing right away, because that would have been ridiculous. (hide spoiler)] Oh and another thing annoyed me about the ending too: (view spoiler)[the fact that Sydney's dad was betraying the Alchemists and giving the Moroi blood to the Warriors, I thought that should've been a huge shock to Sydney, that as terrible as her father was, she never would have expected this from him. But instead it's all wrapped up with a simple "well he was always terrible so it's not like him doing another terrible thing is much of a surprise." (hide spoiler)] 
 In the end, I liked this book and understand why it was written: to give the characters closure. They've been fighting and fleeing for too long, and working in a quick little epilogue at the end of the last book wouldn't have given these characters the end they deserve. I'm still a little frustrated with myself for waiting so long to get around to read this, but for anyone who is currently in love with the series, I will say this: The Ruby Circle is an epic conclusion, and you are going to love it to bits.