Pride & Prejudice meets Crave when Austen-loving Lorena Navarro attends a new boarding school expecting to find her own Mr. Darcy, but accidentally finds the world’s last vampire instead!
Pride comes before the fall.
When a boarding school opens in a once-condemned Victorian manor buried in the woods of New Hampshire, Austen-loving Lorena Navarro enrolls in hopes of finding her own Mr. Darcy. Instead, she stumbles across a coffin and accidentally awakens the world’s last vampire.
After hibernating for nearly three centuries, William Pride is desperate to find his family—and clueless about the modern world. Relying on Lorena for more than just blood, he enrolls at the school to catch up on all he’s missed.
Soon, William uncovers a chilling truth: He is the last hope for his kind’s return to power. Torn between protecting the humans around him and fulfilling his fate, William must make a choice that could change everything. Will he sacrifice his species for love . . . or will he embrace his dark destiny at last?
Pride comes before the fall.
When a boarding school opens in a once-condemned Victorian manor buried in the woods of New Hampshire, Austen-loving Lorena Navarro enrolls in hopes of finding her own Mr. Darcy. Instead, she stumbles across a coffin and accidentally awakens the world’s last vampire.
After hibernating for nearly three centuries, William Pride is desperate to find his family—and clueless about the modern world. Relying on Lorena for more than just blood, he enrolls at the school to catch up on all he’s missed.
Soon, William uncovers a chilling truth: He is the last hope for his kind’s return to power. Torn between protecting the humans around him and fulfilling his fate, William must make a choice that could change everything. Will he sacrifice his species for love . . . or will he embrace his dark destiny at last?
Title: The Last Vampire
Author: Romina Garber
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Expected Publication Date: December 2, 2025
Review:
Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
It's been a while since I've read a paranormal vampire book. I will admit, my expectations for such books are high considering what I've read in the past. And given my penchant for loving dark academia, I had a certain picture of how things would play out in my mind. I was excited to jump into this one and see what the author had to offer.
The book had a fairly strong start. The writing was a bit more juvenile than I would have expected. But the book is YA so I know that writing for that age group can fluctuate. However, this book definitely comes off more middle grade than YA for me. I believe older teens or teens who have a larger vocabulary will not enjoy this title because of how simple the writing is. For this reason it's hard to really pinpoint who exactly should be reading this book.
But the story started off fairly quickly. I will admit I would have liked to have seen more character development to begin with but I figured I could get that later on in the book. Unfortunately, that never happened. The characters lacked depth. I didn't believe in any of the relationships be they friendships or romantic. There was nothing that had me believing how quickly all these kids became friends and decided to do bad things together. And there was nothing that made me believe in the romance, other than being told it was there. Not a lick of chemistry between the FMC and MMC which made it terribly hard for me to buy into their connection and romance.
Unfortunately, the book did not take off as I expected. It devolved into kids I didn't know (poor character development) and kids jumping into breaking the rules right away without any real background (see poor character development). The plot kind of slogs along with reveals that just make no sense considering the genre. So many of the ideas we know associated with vampires are challenged in this book. And, while I appreciate the idea of this, I just could not suspend my disbelief enough to believe in those changes.
I've seen other reviewers say if you like Twighlight you'll enjoy this. I do not agree with that assessment at all. For me, this story was a Twighlight wannabe. Add to this the pacing (SLOW) and the plot inconsistencies (many, even from one chapter to the next) and this book just did not hit me right. The plot definitely has potential and perhaps a bit more editing would have done this book wonders since most of the dialogue and plot felt choppy and underdeveloped. Overall the story was just not well executed. I'm sure someone will enjoy it but that someone just was not me. The ending seems like there may be more to the story in the future but I will be passing on reading it if it does happen.
Author:
Romina Garber is a NYT/International Bestselling YA author who also writes under pen name Romina Russell. Born in Buenos Aires and raised in Miami, Romina landed her first writing gig as a teen—“College She Wrote,” a weekly Sunday column for the Miami Herald that was later picked up for national syndication—and she hasn’t stopped writing since. She is a graduate of Harvard College and a Virgo to the core. For more information about her books, visit www.rominagarber.com
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