A review by danaichristopoulou
The Last Vampire: Book One by R.A. Steffan, Jaelynn Woolf
4.0
A page-turner until the end!
Having recently finished the other vampire themed series by R. A. Steffan, Circle of Blood, I knew I was in for a ride. Fair warning though: this series is very, well, serialised. The first five books end in cliffhangers (although I'd personally put the end of Book 3 in the HFN category), something that tends to get many readers upset. Well, here's my unpopular opinion: there's nothing wrong with cliffhangers, especially when all the books of a series are already available. As far as I'm concerned, cliffhangers in this case only made me want to keep going.
The world of The Last Vampire is quite nuanced: throughout the 6 books we are being taken on a rollercoaster ride that involves several trips around the human world, the Fae realm and even Hell. We're also being taken on car chases, motorcycle chases, boat chases and several quite explicit battle sequences. Would I, personally, have preferred to spend more time in the two supernatural realms and less in James Bondesque chases across the globe? Potentially yes. But like I said, this is a rollercoaster ride; you need to hang tight and know you'll end up in a good place in the end. You gotta respect a writer who can do thriller/suspense/fight sequences in such a way WHILE ALSO writing the hell out of the many, delicious romance scenes that may be taking place between the same people but are definitely not repetitive at all. Chapeau.
Now, for the characters. When I started reading Book 1, I had some misgivings about how fast Zorah, broke waitress with chronic illness and low self-esteem, falls for the "dark angel" Rans. But you know what? In the long term, it works just fine. The character of Zorah deals with real, human issues we don't quite see a lot in books like these, and in the end, all these issues contribute to who she's slowly becoming (no spoilers). And while Rans may originally be suffering from a case of "too perfect/too tortured" male protagonist, these two grow together quite nicely. I was afraid that reading 6 books in Zorah's first person POV would be a bit tiresome, but instead I found her refreshing. Especially when she got over herself a bit and became-hey, no spoilers.
Plus: as per usual in R. A. Steffan's work, many of the supporting characters are equally if not more fascinating. I would pay good money for an M/M romance between a certain demon of the first order and his demon-bound human magician servant... Or an enemies-to-lovers story between a certain shibari artist and a stuck-up Fairy... Just saying.
P.S. I finished this series too fast and now I can't wait to sink my teeth into Vampire Bound, that's taking place in the same world and features some of the characters we've already met.
Having recently finished the other vampire themed series by R. A. Steffan, Circle of Blood, I knew I was in for a ride. Fair warning though: this series is very, well, serialised. The first five books end in cliffhangers (although I'd personally put the end of Book 3 in the HFN category), something that tends to get many readers upset. Well, here's my unpopular opinion: there's nothing wrong with cliffhangers, especially when all the books of a series are already available. As far as I'm concerned, cliffhangers in this case only made me want to keep going.
The world of The Last Vampire is quite nuanced: throughout the 6 books we are being taken on a rollercoaster ride that involves several trips around the human world, the Fae realm and even Hell. We're also being taken on car chases, motorcycle chases, boat chases and several quite explicit battle sequences. Would I, personally, have preferred to spend more time in the two supernatural realms and less in James Bondesque chases across the globe? Potentially yes. But like I said, this is a rollercoaster ride; you need to hang tight and know you'll end up in a good place in the end. You gotta respect a writer who can do thriller/suspense/fight sequences in such a way WHILE ALSO writing the hell out of the many, delicious romance scenes that may be taking place between the same people but are definitely not repetitive at all. Chapeau.
Now, for the characters. When I started reading Book 1, I had some misgivings about how fast Zorah, broke waitress with chronic illness and low self-esteem, falls for the "dark angel" Rans. But you know what? In the long term, it works just fine. The character of Zorah deals with real, human issues we don't quite see a lot in books like these, and in the end, all these issues contribute to who she's slowly becoming (no spoilers). And while Rans may originally be suffering from a case of "too perfect/too tortured" male protagonist, these two grow together quite nicely. I was afraid that reading 6 books in Zorah's first person POV would be a bit tiresome, but instead I found her refreshing. Especially when she got over herself a bit and became-hey, no spoilers.
Plus: as per usual in R. A. Steffan's work, many of the supporting characters are equally if not more fascinating. I would pay good money for an M/M romance between a certain demon of the first order and his demon-bound human magician servant... Or an enemies-to-lovers story between a certain shibari artist and a stuck-up Fairy... Just saying.
P.S. I finished this series too fast and now I can't wait to sink my teeth into Vampire Bound, that's taking place in the same world and features some of the characters we've already met.