Review: Frostbite by Richelle Mead

WHY ARE THESE covers so terrible?
They look like they were made in some
teen's basement rec room as fan art.
Seriously.

Welcome to rich-vampire-teens-go-skiing-ville, otherwise known as Frostbite by Richelle Mead.

Rose loves Dimitri, Dimitri might love Tasha, and Mason would die to be with Rose...  It’s winter break at St. Vladimir’s, but Rose is feeling anything but festive. A massive Strigoi attack has put the school on high alert, and now the Academy’s crawling with Guardians—including Rose’s hard-hitting mother, Janine Hathaway. And if hand-to-hand combat with her mom wasn’t bad enough, Rose’s tutor Dimitri has his eye on someone else, her friend Mason’s got a huge crush on her, and Rose keeps getting stuck in Lissa’s head while she’s making out with her boyfriend, Christian! The Strigoi are closing in, and the Academy’s not taking any risks... This year, St. Vlad’s annual holiday ski trip is mandatory. 

But the glittering winter landscape and the posh Idaho resort only create the illusion of safety. When three friends run away in an offensive move against the deadly Strigoi, Rose must join forces with Christian to rescue them. But heroism rarely comes without a price…(GoodReads)

• Originality: 6. I think the vampire politics seem pretty "new" in this series. The feeding politics, for example, are well done and districtive.
• Absurdity: 10. POSH RESORT= Cheesy. This reminds me of Blue Bloods WHICH I DON’T LIKE. A combo of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous opulence and vampires is not my thing.
• Level of Paranormal Romance: 5. Ok, I have to admit, Dimitri is attractive. But really I feel I should be scoring "level of paranormal sluttiness"-- who are these people!?!
• Level of Harry Potter-ness: 1. You know how some books “show” and some writers can only “tell”? So much of the plot is “told” to us, the reader is never left to figure anything out. See: the preface to book two. CRINGE. I have already guessed the plot of book 3. And My mom, also having been “encouraged” by Crazy Camper to read these, has confirmed that I am on the money. Thanks, graduate school education, for teaching me to be such an effective critical reader.

CRAZY CAMPER (and the rest of the book blog world) DO NOT HATE ME FOR YUCKING YOUR YUM. I am going to continue to read these books. Because they moved CC to Google Dimitri and took over your life for a week. I have faith in your YA fiction choices.