Viktoria's exuberant arrival was followed by the rest of the Belikov family. Dimitri's other two sisters, Karolina and Sonya, joined Viktoria in embracing both him and me. Their mother was right behind them. Russian flew fast and furious.

Normally, a haphazard doorstep reunion like this would've made me roll my eyes, but I found myself tearing up instead. Dimitri had been through too much. We'd all been through too much, and honestly, I don't think any of us had ever expected to be sharing this moment.

At last, Dimitri's mother, Olena, recovered herself and laughed while wiping tears from her eyes. 'Come in, come in,' she said, remembering that I didn't know much Russian. 'Let's sit down and talk.' Through more tears and laughter, we made our way into the house and cozy living room. It too was the same as my last visit, surrounded in warm wood paneling and shelves of leather-bound books with Cyrillic titles. There, we found more of the family.

Karolina's son, Paul, regarded his uncle with fascination. Paul had barely known Dimitri before he struck out into the world, and most of what the boy knew came from fantastic-sounding stories. Sitting on a blanket nearby was Paul's baby sister, and another, much tinier baby lay sleeping in a bassinet. Sonya's baby, I realized. She'd been pregnant when I'd visited earlier that summer. I was used to always being near Dimitri's side, but this was a moment when I knew I had to yield him. He sat on the sofa, and Karolina and Sonya immediately flanked him, wearing expressions that said they were afraid to let him out of their sight.

Viktoria, irked at having lost a prime seat, settled down on the floor and leaned her head against his knee. She was seventeen, only a year younger than me, but as she gazed up at him adoringly, she looked much younger. All of the siblings had brown hair and eyes, making a pretty portrait as they sat together. Olena scurried about, certain we must be famished, and finally settled down when we assured her we were fine. She sat in a chair opposite Dimitri, her hands clasped in her lap as she leaned forward eagerly.

'This is a miracle,' she said in accented English. 'I didn't believe it. When I received the message, I thought it was a mistake. She sighed happily. 'But here you are. 'The same,' Dimitri confirmed. 'Was the first story.'

The third book in the series of New York Times best-selling adaptations of Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy. 'Homecoming' in Foretold.

Karolina paused, a small frown crossing her pretty features as she carefully chose her words. 'Was the first story a mistake, then?

You weren't truly. Truly a Strigoi?' The word hung in the air for a moment, casting a chill over the warm summer evening. For the space of a heartbeat, I couldn't breathe. I was suddenly far away from here, trapped in a different house with a very different Dimitri. He'd been one of the undead, with chalk-white skin and red-ringed pupils. His strength and speed had far surpassed what he had now, and he'd used those skills to hunt for victims and drink their blood.

He'd been terrifying-and had nearly killed me. A few seconds later, I began to breathe again. That Dimitri was gone. This one-warm, loving, and alive-was here now. Yet, before he answered, Dimitri's dark eyes met mine, and I knew he was thinking of the same things I was. That past was a horrible, difficult thing to shake. 'No,' he said.

Dual Streaming Is Required For Html Viewing. 'I was Strigoi. I was one of them. Terrible things.' The words were mild, but the tone of his voice spoke legions. The radiant faces of his family turned sober. Rose believed in me.

Rose never gave up.' 'As I predicted.' A new voice rang through the living room, and we all looked up at the woman who had suddenly appeared in the doorway. She was considerably shorter than me but carried the kind of personality that could fill up a room. She was Yeva, Dimitri's grandmother.

Small and frail with wispy white hair, she was believed by many around here to be a kind of wisewoman or witch. A different word usually came to my mind when I thought of Yeva, though it did sound a lot like 'witch.' 'You did not,' I said, unable to stop myself.

'All you did was tell me to get out of here so that I could 'do something else.' ' 'Exactly,' she said, a smug smile on her wrinkled face. 'You needed to go restore my Dimka.' She made her way across the living room, but Dimitri met her in the middle.

He carefully wrapped her in his arms and murmured what I think was Russian for 'grandmother.' The insane difference in their heights made it kind of a comical scene. 'But you never said that's what I was going to do,' I argued, once she was seated in a rocking chair.

I knew I should just drop this subject, but something about Yeva always rubbed me the wrong away. 'You can't take credit for that.' 'I knew,' she said adamantly.

Her dark eyes seemed to bore right through me. 'Then why didn't you tell me that's what I had to do? Snoop Dogg Full Discography Torrent Download. ' Yeva considered her answer for a moment. You needed to work for it.' Chapter 2 I felt my jaw start to drop. Across the room, Dimitri caught my eye. Don't do it, Rose, his look seemed to say.

There was a glint of amusement on his face, as well as something that reminded me of our old teacher-student days. He knew me too well. He knew if given half a chance, I would totally battle this out with his ancient grandmother. Likely I would lose. With a quick nod, I clamped my mouth shut. Okay, witch, I thought.

You win this one. Yeva shot me a gap-toothed grin.

'But how did it happen?' Asked Sonya, tactfully shifting us into less dangerous waters.

'The change back to a dhampir, I mean.' Dimitri and I glanced at each other again, but his earlier mirth was gone. 'Spirit,' he said quietly. This caused a quick intake of breath from his sisters.

The Moroi wielded elemental magic, but most of them used only the four physical elements: earth, air, water, and fire. Recently, however, a very rare element had been discovered: spirit. It was tied to psychic abilities and healing and was still something many Moroi and dhampirs had a hard time accepting. 'My friend Lissa used spirit while, um, stabbing him with a silver stake,' I explained. While I would gladly go through it all again to save Dimitri, the image of him being staked through the heart was still a little troubling for me. Up until the last moment, none of us had really known if it would just kill him or not. Paul's eyes widened.

Do you mean Queen Vasilisa?' 'Oh, yeah,' I said. It was still hard sometimes to remember that my best friend since kindergarten was now queen of the entire Moroi world. Thinking of her now caused a slight knot in my stomach. Her election to the throne a couple weeks ago had been controversial in the eyes of many. Some of her enemies weren't above violence, and leaving her for a week to come here had made me extremely nervous. It was only the guarantee that she'd be surrounded by guardians-along with the need for Dimitri's family to see he was no longer one of the undead-that had made me consent to this trip.

Homecoming is part of the Foretold anthology. Release date: August 28th 2012 Published by: Delacorte Books for Young Readers Genre: YA Find it on:, Synopsis of Foretold: Richelle Mead, Lisa McMann, Michael Grant, Meg Cabot, Laini Taylor, and nine more of the hottest YA authors to hit the shelves explore the concepts of prophecy and prediction in this story collection edited by NYT bestselling author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Carrie Ryan. Have you ever been tempted to look into the future?

To challenge predictions? To question fate? It's human nature to wonder about life's twists and turns. But is the future already written—or do you have the power to alter it? From fantastical prophecies to predictions of how the future will transpire, Foretold is a collection of stories about our universal fascination with life's unknowns and of what is yet to come as interpreted by 14 of young adult fiction's brightest stars. I honestly don't know what to think.

I've been waiting for this novella to come out for two years, since Last Sacrifice disappointed me a little. I was hoping Richelle Mead would give us a wonderful closure to Vampire Academy in that book, but instead, all we got was a ton of loose ends and unanswered questions. But that was okay, I told myself.

Obviously Richelle Mead had something else planned, and all these issues will be addressed later on, maybe in Bloodlines, or, umm, who knows, in a novella? And finally, she gave us what we, fans, desired the most. A novella with Rose and Dimitri in Russia. And now that I have read this novella, all I wish for is that it was never published in the first place.

I don't know what the hell Mead was thinking when she wrote this, but this novella was useless. That's it; it's just useless.

It doesn't add anything to the story, let alone give us some closure. Let me make myself clear and just explain why I hated this so much. And yes, I tried to control myself, but there'll be a lot of ranting in this review, so I apologize for my language. You see, the novella starts off with Rose and Dimitri in Russia, about to visit the Belikovs.

Dimitri is nervous, of course, since it's the first time he'll get to see his mom and sisters after being turned back into a dhampir. And that was supposed to be wonderful - I mean, that's what I waiting for, after all - it was anything but. Most of the time Mead simply told us what was happening - she didn't show us. I kept waiting for my heart to break and for me to feel happy for Dimitri but that didn't happen, because for the first time in my life, I didn't connect with him at all. He was like a stranger to me, and that pissed me off beyond words.

I felt betrayed; it was like Mead had twisted everything that I loved, changed Dimitri and Rose so much I couldn't recognize them. Speaking of Rose.

What the hell happened to her? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?! She was all over the place. And Rose was the biggest disappointment of all times. She was ridiculous.

She kept questioning Yeva and fighting her, even when Dimitri was standing right next to her, as if Rose had the right to disrespect Yeva in front of the Belikovs. Not to mention that makes no sense - Rose knew Yeva, she spent weeks with her in Blood Promise. It's like Mead suddenly forgot that, and decided to write these fights just to show us how badass and brave Rose is. Let me tell you, Mead, it didn't work. It made Rose look like a fucking brat. And the romance. I won't even get started on the romance.

There was no chemistry between her and Dimitri, there wasn't a single scene that made my heart race, there wasn't a single dialogue - except for one quote - that made me swoon. Can you sense how angry and disappointed I am? Even the plot of this novella was all over the place. And come on, it's a novella.

It's not even supposed to have that much of a plot, because there's not enough time for it to develop. But of course Mead had to do it. And you know what? I don't care about a strigoi that's been killing humans near Dimitri's village. I don't care about the Blood King.

I don't care about a new villain. I don't care about hot dogs - because, you know, there is a conversation involving hot dogs that lasts 2 pages. This was like an awful fanfiction - and I call it 'awful' because I've read amazing fanfictions that are way better than this. I'm not saying this novella was supposed to solve every single loose end in the series. Of course that's not possible; like I said, there's not enough time for this to happen. At least give me some closure on Dimitri and Rose themselves. Show me how they're living, show me what challenges they have to endure on a daily basis to stay together, how they're managing the whole 'being Lissa and Christian's guardian' thing.

Please, just show me something important, something relevant. We never even get to know how they went to Russia in the first place - something is mentioned about how Rose is nervous about leaving Lissa alone, but what about Christian? I find it hard to believe that Dimitri would just leave his Moroi alone in the Court, even if he was protected by Lissa's guardians as well. Dimitri isn't like this. I'll just put it in a blunt way: Homecoming was unnecessary. It failed in every single aspect.

It lacked creativity, it lacked writing - and I don't say this lightly -, it lacked romance, it lacked substance. I honestly regret all the time I wasted being excited for this novella. It was uncalled for, because you know what? It didn't add anything new to Vampire Academy, it didn't add a single thing to Last Sacrifice, and to be honest, the only thing I'm looking forward to, right now, is forgetting Homecoming was ever published. Thank you for your review! Like you, I was waiting for Mead to write a short story, novella anything to bring some closure to the Rose/Dimitri story. I assumed they would go to Russia-that is not a surprise what is a surprise is that there was nothing about how they were handling their personal vs work lives.

Rose and D's love story was so well written I don't know how it could be ruined,was the book ghost written?:( Being you cannot buy the story as a stand alone I was debating whether I wanted to spend 10 dollars to get one short story about R&D. So, I went searching for reviews and am so glad I found your review. You just saved me 10 dollars and tons of disappointment.

I love the series, I was not thrilled with the abrupt ending however, I hoped there would be another book or they would give us some closure in Bloodlines. It appears that is not going to happen and what a shame. Rose and Dimitri are two of my favorite characters - forget Bella, Sookie, Elena, Dimitri and Rose were so well written one feels as if they were real. I never cried so much while reading a novel!

What a bummer. Hoping we will get some closure in Bloodlines! As a quick aside I love the character Abe! He was hilarious and I was hoping he was the reason they were going to Russia. That Dimitri's sister had been kidnapped and Abe sent/went with them to help get her back.

Thanks again! I couldn't agree more. To say I was disappointed wouldn't even begin to describe how aweful this tale was. It had taken me a while to actually find and read this little disappointment. As a fan of vampire academy I was hoping for something longer and more in depth.

To me it seemed like she wrote this one day out of sheer boredom. Nothing more. I can't really sum it up in words how utterly annoyed I am. The characters seemed wrong. They had no depth. When Mark and Oksana showed up I was disappointed that she didn't even mention how Rose and Lissa had no bond anymore. It would have been one redeeming quality then.

It wasn't worth reading and I wish it wasn't written at all. One of the things I missed when she saw Oksana was that she didn't get inspiration from the ring.

Because Oksana made/charmed that ring to Rose to help her with the side effects of Spirit Rose wouldn't have seen a difference in Demetri when he was holding the ring and she saw a difference in him. While he was holding her captive and trying to convince her to let him awaken her. Rose realized it was the ring's effects so THEN she went down the path that eventually got her to Victor's brother and using Spirit to save him. She owed Oksana a GREAT deal of thanks but she doesn't even mention it. I hated how the series ended.

Abrupt and leaving so many questions. As a parent/grandparent I instantly felt horrible that Demetri's mother didn't know he was alive and healed, for lack of a better word. I couldn't believe in the entire Bloodlines series there was no mention, when Rose and/or Demetri were mentioned, that said 'Oh, they're off in Russia seeing his family' or something, ANYTHING!, to close that line of thinking. SO I was glad to read this story. If only for getting that satisfactory ending to him NOT even calling his family to let them know he was whole again and would be coming to see them as soon as he could. I would have liked to know more about their life though. In Bloodlines they do pop in every now and then but I hated how those stories ended too.

I wanted Sonya to draw blood from that baby and do research on herself and Mikhail Tanner, to find out if she ever got pregnant like Olive did after she was restored from a Strigoi. Sydney is a scientist at heart and her need to know should have helped her to find a way to do research without making Declan a science project.

Sonya and Sydney should have been able to announce their results to Lissa so that they could show why Dhampirs couldn't reproduce together. For instance, if it takes the female to be restored for her eggs to accept the Dhampir sperm and create a fetus. Or if the tag in their genetics makes it where one or the other can be restored and no longer have that tag where they can't make babies together. I NEED TO KNOW!!! Overall I love both series but would like more closure.

I am exceedingly glad to have this story but the Blood King? Not interesting at all. Didn't need him. Did need Rose to acknowledge the part that Oksana contributed to Demetri's restoration.

I'm going to find some fanfiction to read. If another short story came out I'd read it. Gladly, but I want it to be more.

Ask the fans what questions they have, what would they like to read then write the story we need to read.