"Love fades. Mine has."
Spirit Bound is another 'mixed feelings' book in the Vampire Academy series.
While I love Rose, her actions in Spirit Bound, especially towards her romantic relationships, is frustrating. Rose's love life is such a mess and there's no one to blame. Spirit Bound is the Vampire Academy book where Rose leads people on. One minute she's with Adrian, the next minute, she's declaring her undying love for Dimitri. The worst part is that she keeps on lying to Adrian that she doesn't have feelings for Dimitri. Instead of jumping into another relationship straight after the events of Blood Promise, she should have dealt with her feelings and emotions. I understand that Rose's actions are very much in character, but reading about it is so frustrating, also because Adrian has grown on me and deserves so much better than the treatment that he received. I also struggled to see Rose's character development from the last four Vampire Academy books in Spirit Bound. She's still spunky, sassy, impulsive and outspoken, but the maturity that she gained from her experiences are non-existent.
The character with the best growth and development throughout the Vampire Academy series is Lissa. In Spirit Bound her personality shines. I also love Christian. His snarky and sarcastic remarks are A+. I'm so happy about the developments in Lissa's and Christian's relationship. Hooray! One of my favourite bookish couples have come to their senses and realised that they are meant for each other.
Plot-wise, so many important aspects are glossed over in Spirit Bound such as Rose's guardian exams and the prison break. However, a lot of events that occur in Spirit Bound set the foundation for the finale, Last Sacrifice, such as Queen Tatiana's character development and murder as well as the exploration of Lissa's place on the council.
Although Spirit Bound dealt with some aspects badly, there's a lot of events that happened just the way they were supposed to. After that cliffhanger, I'm excited to reread Last Sacrifice.