Review: The Last True Vampire by Kate Baxter

The Last True Vampire
(Last True Vampire #1)
Kate Baxter
Release: June 2, 2015
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As Michael’s eyes lit on a female not twenty feet away, he knew without a doubt that it was her blood that called to him and her scent that had awakened him.This female had tethered his soul and returned it to him.

Soul Survivor

He is the last of his race. The one true king of the vampires. Michael Aristov roams the nightclubs of L.A. after dark, haunted by his past and driven by his hunger. The last of the Ancient Ones, he alone has survived the destruction of his race at the hands of the slayers. Now he is forced to hunt and feed like a common vampire, a creature of lust. Nothing in this world can fulfill his needs…until he meets a woman who’s everything he’s ever wanted. And more.

Sweet Salvation

Her name is Claire Thompson. Her blood is so sweet, so intoxicating—the smell alone draws Michael to her like a moth to the flame. Sly, sexy, and seductive, Claire seems to be the only mortal who can satisfy his craving and seal his fate…forever. Can she be trusted? From their very first kiss, the last true vampire sweeps Claire into a world in which darkness rules desire—and where falling in love is the greatest danger of all…

Review by Rose Red:

I'm going to be honest, this book wasn't on my radar until I saw Chelsea from VBC raving about it. I enjoyed the book and I think it's a great start to a new paranormal romance series! I just have a couple of problems with it. First, let's discuss what I liked!

The world building was excellent! It was well done and set up a foundation that has lots of room to be expanded upon as the series progresses. The world kind of felt like a mash up of all my favorite vampire books all rolled into one. It should have been off-putting but it worked. I loved how the dhampires and vampire are so intertwined in this world! That might not sound so original but the reason for their dependence on each other was so unique! I loved it!
 
As fascinating as I found the world, the main characters were not quite as interesting. I found myself liking the secondary characters a lot more than the main ones and I am still a bit undecided about how I feel about the heroine. I liked that Claire is a hustler and that she does what she knows she has to do to survive. She has a spine made of steel when she wants it to be. I also loved that she had taken her young neighbor under her wing because her situation reminded her of her own growing up. That being said, Claire was both oblivious to the danger of the world she'd been pulled into (despite being repeatedly told about it) and too accepting of other things. She's a hustler so she should know about self-preservation. But she doesn't act like the street smart hustler she should be when she doesn't accept the danger she's been put into especially after one scene that should have made it clear what the situation was. As I said, I'm still on the fence about how I feel about her.
 
As for the hero, Michael/Mikhail was broody, possessive, controlling, and he just plain handled Claire all wrong at the beginning. In my opinion, he's the character that did the most growth in this book. He went from mopey last vampire to a real leader by the end of the book. He still possessive and controlling by the end but it's not as bad as at the first. It took a while for me to like the romance between the two main characters but I have to say the sex scenes were pretty hot and a bit on the rough side which totally worked with how the relationship was set up.

Now, let's talk about the writing. The narrative felt like it was jumping around and it made things confusing. The transitions between scenes need a little work. It felt like we were missing significant gaps in the story. In a couple of places, I was thrown out of the story because the transition was to abrupt to the next scene. One of biggest problems was that there was too much repetition during the inner dialogues of both lead characters. I hate when the same thing is pointed out over and over and over again in a book. It bored the heck out of me. I promise I got it the first time.
 
Although, I rolled my eyes at several parts as I was reading but I ended up still liking the story. I'll definitely be grabbing the second book because I want to see where this world goes. It definitely has the potential to become a great series.

Recommended for fans of: Larissa Ione's Demonica series and Lyndsay Sands' Argeneau Vampire series.

An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley.

  

  3 / 5 Stars