Cross Country Skiing

Reviews

We Just started Learning to Snowboard With our Grandson And after the First trip we realized the Boards HAD to Be On top Of the Durango, This Car Rack Is very Nice, works well and locks, easy InstaLL and removal after the Season Here In Frederick, Colorado.

Reviews

I began this book in a flurry of anticipation--fresh off the reader's high I got from the first book in this series, Vampire Academy--and found book 2 to be another solid, solid YA read. (Score!) Now that all the character intros are out of the way, this book is allowed to focus on world-building, particularly on the Strigoi threat, which was alluded to in VA, but not really explored. Rose and Dimitri are sent on a training mission, but when they arrive at their destination, they find a house full of murdered Moroi royals and their world-class dhampir guards. The massacre happened during the day and since Strigoi cannot bear the sunlight, this means that they had human help to get at the family. After another large-scale slaying, the whole Moroi/dhampir community is bristling with fear and anger. The students of St. Vladimir's are sequestered at an ultra-protected ski resort during winter break, and most of the aristocracy also shows up, to hold council about how to deal with the unprecedented threat from the Strigoi. Rose has her own issues, as per usual. She still carries a Statue-of-Liberty-size torch for Dimitri, who keeps his distance from her and seems to be interested in Tasha Ozera, a beautiful, fierce royal who happens to be Christian's aunt and the scarred survivor of a Strigoi attack. No matter how much Tasha shows her preference for Dimitri or how much he seems to reciprocate, Rose can't hate Tasha because she's possibly the coolest royal in existence--she's a martial artist who openly derides the Moroi for hiding behind their dhampir guardians and she advocates the use of offensive magic. Then there's Rose's sweet and witty friend Mason who isn't bothering to hide his interest in her (especially after she lets their relationship go beyond just-friends boundaries), and the fact that she rarely sees her beloved friend Lissa since Lissa spends most of her time with her boyfriend, Christian. Icing on the awful-cake: Rose's mom shows up, which makes Rose's mommy issues threaten to come to a boil. I've already come to expect extensive personal drama and plenty of great action from the VA series, and Frostbite delivers. It's more emotionally grueling than the first installment, but it pays great dividends, too. Rose matures a great deal, one-note characters like Mia get to show a different side, and all the plot threads are advanced by the novel's conclusion--nobody's in exactly the same place. The addition of the new character Adrian Ivashkov is intriguing. Rose is inexplicably drawn to him, though not in a romantic way, she has a conversation with him in a dream, and worries over all the questions he's asking about Lissa. This guy has Significant Side-Character written all over him, and I can't wait to see how he'll behave in the next book. There's not a lot of Lissa in Frostbite, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Even on her best day, Lissa is just not quite as interesting as Rose, but Rose's psychic link with her allowed for a handy second POV in VA, which is almost absent here. It limits the narrative a bit to only have Rose's eye-witness POV, but it also spares the reader because Lissa spends most of her time thinking lovey thoughts about her boyfriend, which is mostly dull. But we do learn more about her spirit power, which is always interesting. Remember the old Captain Planet cartoon show? All the kids had these great dramatic elemental powers and then there was the one kid who got stuck with having the power of Heart. But Lissa's spirit power is truly boss, and will only get more awesome as time passes. A note on my pet character: though Dimitri is fantastic, Christian Ozera is my favorite guy in this series, at least when he's not being cutesy couple-y with Lissa. Why is it that they were exciting to read about when they were geting together, but it's mostly uninteresting to see them as a happy couple? Question for the ages, right there. Rose has to team up with Christian in a crisis situation, and that works out tremendously. Rose rocks my socks, and when she works together with Christian and I see the possibility that they could become troublemaking buddies--run in fear, all ye Strigoi. Flaws? None I'm noticing at the moment. Nice, twisty story + character development + advanced plot = even better than then first book!

Before I get into the review, I am in the process of moving so I listened to Vampire Academy and Frostbite on audio book while driving from my old house to my new one. The reason I bring this up is because in the first book the voice of Dimitri has this really thick Russian accent and then in the second one it is gone...weird...if anyone else listens to it you'll have to help explain that to me. I know in the book it mentions he has a slight accent but it definitely goes from one extreme to the other in audio book land which I found very peculiar. Ok so onto the review we find ourselves back at St. Vladimir's academy with Rose and crew. It is winter break and a recent attack has made everyone a little concerned about the students traveling, therefore they are all sent to an elite ski resort with the thought that there is safety in numbers. But if that were the case this would be a pretty boring book wouldn't it? Yep, so of course there are problems that arise, one of them at the very start of this book. A beginning that put things in perspective for Rose very quickly and sets the tone for this book in my opinion. While the first book did have some dark moments in it, Frostbite has a shadow cast down upon the entire story with the emphasis being on Rose's life and those who surround her. I feel the best comparison to what I am talking about is Harry Potter, I know you are sitting there saying "What!?!" but hear me out. Did you notice that with every Harry Potter book that came out the story got a little darker? That is what I feel like here, as Rose starts to get older, her job becomes a little tougher. Darkness is closing in on her world a little at a time and that seeps into the tone of the book. Rose is definitely not an average 17 year old girl and that becomes very apparent as this story unfolds. However, with dark there is also light. In this book the "light" in my opinion was found in Lissa and her budding relationship with Christian. They are so happy and in love you cannot help but smile while reading about them. Lissa is having a good year and while her highs are great to read about my heart still goes out to Rose because her life might never be like that. She will always put her emotions and wants second to Lissa because it is her job and she feels a responsibility to do so. We do get a few glimpses into the Rose/Dimitri world, but not as much as I would have liked. They are both trying desperately to keep their emotions for each other in check and are both having a very difficult time doing so. And while we are on this talk of romance, there is a new character introduced, Adrian, he comes in toward the end of the novel but I have a funny feeling he is going to cause some problems in upcoming books. Time will tell for that I guess... The end of this book was very emotional for me and my heart broke for Rose for multiple reasons, sometimes I forget that she is only 17 because she is forced to mature so quickly. She handles this responsibility like any teenager would, she makes mistakes! She acts before thinking, and is crazy stubborn, but she does learn her lessons and works very hard to better herself both physically and intellectually. That is why I love her, she is a real character. She is not perfect and you can relate to her. To sum up, I really liked this book and I am enjoying this series. If you have not picked it up you should. Language Love: "Icicles hung from the eaves, and the tinted windows reveled no secrets." I like how darkness is related to the secrecy of the house in this description.

This series is amazing. The plots are just mind blowing. I don't like a couple messages it sends, but I feel the good out weighs the bad. A highly entertaining and action packed read.

I enjoyed this book nearly as much as the first one in the series, but I'm getting really frustrated with the lack of progress in Dimitri and Rose's forbidden romance. Instead, it seems to have taken a backseat to other plotlines, such as the turmoil between Rose and her mother and the political climate that Lissa is moving into. I find Rose's mother, Janine, intriguing in that she seems to be what Rose could become if Rose chooses duty over love. I sure wish that Janine would open up more since there seems to be a lot of great plot material there that was not exploited very much - Rose's black eye being a perfect example. The politics that Lissa is dealing with appear to be moving in the direction that I guessed might happen when I read the first book, which is an equalizing between the Moroi and Dhampir classes of their society, especially when it comes to dealing with the Strigoi. Despite how Rose views Adrian, I actually rather like him. There is always something attractive about the flirty-jokester that entices women - afterall I don't know a woman who doesn't like to laugh. It's obvious that he really likes Rose and I find myself feeling sorry for him since Rose is definitely taken, even if not in the literal sense yet. Mason really ends up in the worst position, though, even if I don't include what happens to him in the end. Rose all but lies to him while he falls for her hard, all the while being the perfect gentlemen. In a way, Mason and Adrian are opposite in styles, and yet Rose is blind to both - not that I blame her, as she likes to say, "Dimitri is a badass." Why is it that female protagonists always seem to have hords of guys going after them? (Think - Twilight saga, Rachel Morgan series, Mercy Thompson series, House of Night series, etc.) I wish that Rose's nazar could be explained a bit more, as there seems to be more to it than anyone is discussing. Adrian knows things that he is not spilling, and Janine sure is tight-lipped about most of her life, excluding what she does in the line of duty.

This is the best vampire series ever! It's beautifully written! An amazing author with a very creative and detailed mind! This makes the Twilight series look like even more trash than it already is! For any paranormal, action, romance, political view lovers! Give this series a chance!!!