Vampire Academy is the first book in Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series and was published in 2007. 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 novel follows the story of young damphir (half human, half vampire) Rosemarie Hathaway and her best friend, a Moroi, Vasilissa Dragomir. Rose is training to be a "Guardian", a protector of the Moroi, whilst at the same time battling a forbidden attraction for her instructor, Dimitri Belikov.
The Vampire Academy series has sold over 8 million copies worldwide with books following the third installment, Shadow Kiss, making the New York Times Best Seller List, as well as Mead's spin-off series, Bloodlines.
It has been published in multiple foreign countries and recently has been made into a movie, produced by Mean Girls director Mark Walters.
