Shadow Kiss is the third installment in the Vampire Academy series and was published in 2008.
The story continues with Rose's struggle to cope with the guilt of Mason's death in Frostbite whilst undertaking her training to become a "Guardian" and fighting off the attraction she feels for her older instructor, Dimitri Belikov.
The world that Mead has conceived revolves around a battle between the 'good vampires', otherwise known as Moroi, and 'bad vampires', known as Strigoi. Mead was intrigued by and researched Romanian folklore prior to writing the novel and based the series on traditional Romanian folklore on vampires.
The Vampire Academy series has sold over 8 million copies worldwide with Shadow Kiss making the New York Times Best Seller List at #4. The books following Shadow Kiss have also followed onto the Best Seller List, as well as Mead's spin-off series, Bloodlines.
It has been published in multiple foreign countries and recently Vampire Academy has been made into a movie, produced by Mean Girls director Mark Walters.
