You mean, the books are free?

Today, I went to my local library and checked out our next book - The Tea Rose. I haven't had a library card since the card catalog was still a thing. Typically when I'm looking for a book, I'll go straight to Barnes & Noble and buy it new, or if I'm trying to save a few bucks, I'll order it used on Amazon.com. Somehow over the years, I forgot that you can actually "rent" books, and when I got to the self-checkout machine (R.I.P. librarian careers), I automatically began searching for the place to put my debit card.

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead - Review

Who's Pouring: Wine Diva
What's on Tap: Various red wines (I was too busy shoveling homemade chocolate-chip pumpkin cookies into my mouth to catch what the label said)

Vampire Academy was a little disappointing for me. True, my expectations weren't high -- this was just our "fun" book. But, I guess I was hoping for more excitement throughout the book. The bulk of the story centers around high school drama (girls being jealous/catty, who's popular/who's not, rumors, etc.). There is a smattering of magic stuff - teens and their element specializations (fire, water, earth), and a few vague explanations of who the different vampire groups are and what their function is (Dhampirs, Moroi, Strigoi), but none of that really held my attention. I found myself procrastinating just getting through this so much so that I read the last 175 pages the night before our discussion. Fortunately, this is when the story picks up.

Lissa is a Moroi, a royal vampire princess, and the Strigoi are trying to kill all the Moroi. Rose is her guardian-in-training who's learning how to protect her in the event of an attack. Lissa's actual guardian is 24 year old Dimitri. Despite the 7 year age difference (and general creepiness of grown man and teen girl), they are into each other, but he is too responsible to risk his job by acting on his feelings... UNTIL a magically enchanted object holding a lust spell appears in their lives and they can't resist indulging their passion. Well, as much as a Young Adult book will allow. Then, Lissa is kidnapped for her unique abilities and Rose is the only one who can track her because they share a bond which allows her to step inside Lissa's mind. The ending is somewhat exciting, but I still think the author could have done more with it...

Overall, the book was just ok. It severely lacked in character development and plot, so I doubt I'll be reading any more in this series.

I'm very excited about our next book - The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly. It's set in the 1880s in London, and while I don't read a lot of historical fiction, the prologue has already got me hooked. Right-o, Guv'nah!