Frostbite

A Vampire Academy Novel

By: Richelle Mead

Narrated by: Khristine Hvam

Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

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....

©2008 Richelle Mead (P)2018 Listening Library

Great

I loved this book and the narrator does a great job of getting the emotions of the characters across. I only wish sh had at least tried with the accents Dimitri and Adrian feel only half themselves without it.

Better story than narration

I used to jokingly say those who designed the covers for Richelle Mead’s VA books had it against her, now I have to add that so did whoever produced these audiobooks.

I’ve been revisiting books I read in my teenage years to see how they hold up now I’m an adult and thought a gentler vehicle for that excursion would be trying the audio versions. I was expecting to cringe at some of the story lines, but did not expect my biggest problem with these to be the narration.

I’ve listened to Vampire Academy and Frostbite so far, they have different narrators and while I believe they were doing their best, neither managed to capture the characters. The first one felt a bit too old, the second one a bit too young. I see a third narrator was brought in for the latter books, will see how that went.

However, I think the biggest failure was of whoever produced or directed them. I’m sorry, I had to laugh, these are comical but not intentionally so and that’s a problem. On this book the narrator dropped the [again, unintentionally comical] accents the original narrator used in the first book, that was definitely an improvement. They also gave this narrator the proper pronunciation of dhampir, Moroi, etc., so good on that too. But then the oddest thing happened when halfway Mia becomes Maya. I was like ‘wow, I forgot more than I thought about these books, I don’t remember a character named Maya,’ then laughed out loud when it quickly became apparent that was supposed to be Mia. She’d already been introduced introduced as Mia a few chapters earlier, so how did that even happen??

Anyway, I’m still battling with the over the top mean girl-ness of the story that is so present in the first two books of this series, but I think I can already see the depths to the plot that captured my imagination over a decade ago. If I remember correctly, book three is where things really heat up, so I’m looking forward to that one at least, even though this narrator is coming back again and the juvenile tone may ruin it.

If nothing else, though, it’s an enjoyable time capsule. The bits about shopping and fashion feel sooo dated, but it’s fun to be transported back, the whole thing has a late 90s/early 2000s vibe. I really just wish the narrations were a lot less distracting.

Crossing my fingers, on to the next.

Great reread

I’ve read the books but I find audible really relaxing, one thing is that in book 2 there was no Russian accent like there was in book 1. I really enjoyed the accent.

Great book, iffy narration

The continuing storyline of Rose and her friends is great. Unfortunately, the voice of the narrator was off.

The book is great. the narrator is okay

I loved the book. the narrator however pronounced ME-A ( Mia) as MY-A and Dimitri should have had a Russian accent.

The narrator is terrible

Like others have said, her pronunciation is terrible and inconsistent. Also, I cringe at the voice she used for Rose.

One of my faves

This series is one of my favorites and this book is one of the top. This narrator is way better than the last one but she mispronounced some words and names like dhampire and Mia. She calls her Maya. A little annoying but is overall good.

Good read

This was a good read (listen). Just wished there were more hype moments and a little less plot line .

love it!

It was so so good. I wish the movie or show continued so on to the next book.

Occasional mistakes

Narrator confused Mia Rinaldi's name and called her MAYA. Starting when Rose meets Adrienne Ivashkov.