Day’s YA: THE LAST VAMPIRE

THE LAST VAMPIRE by Romina Garber

9781250863911
12/2/2025
Wednesday Books
Ages 13-18

E-galley available on Edelweiss and NetGalley

Lorena Navarro is ready to start over after a viral video leaves her in poor standing with her influencer mother. And what better place is there to do that than a Victorian manor turned boarding school deep in the woods of New Hampshire? Huntington Academy is a brand new, exclusive boarding school housed in a renovated 1800s estate, and for Jane Austen-loving Lorena, it’s the perfect Pemberly-esque place to get a clean slate, and even find her own Mr. Darcy. But on her first day at the new school, Lorena and some of her new friends decide to break into a strictly off limits section of the manor, where ongoing construction is occurring and still deemed unsafe. Instead of a fun, exhilarating adventure, though, they find a coffin, and Lorena accidentally awakens the world’s last vampire—William Pride.

William Pride has been asleep for nearly three centuries. When he awakens, confused and clueless about this new world he is in, he is desperate to find his family. That’s where Lorena comes in. After he nearly kills her by biting her when he is released from the coffin, he decides that she might actually be a helpful ally. While he enrolls in the school to learn about the modern world, she can help him by giving him blood and joining him on his search to learning what has happened to all of the world’s vampires. But he soon discovers a chilling fact: he is the last vampire, and the last hope for his kind’s return to power. He must make a choice—either protect the humans he’s come to care for, or fulfill his fate. Will he sacrifice his kind for love, or will he decide to completely embrace his dark destiny?

Fall is officially here, and there’s no better way to celebrate the fall season than with some vampires. Well, maybe there is: vampires in a creepy boarding school. Add a slow burn romance with a moody immortal love interest, and a unique twist on the normal vampire stories we know and love, and you’ve got THE LAST VAMPIRE. This book is simultaneously paranormal romance, gothic fiction, dark academia, and mystery all wrapped up in one book, which makes it extremely atmospheric and addicting. But it doesn’t just stop there—there’s also a great cast of characters, friends who start as individuals and slowly grow together despite their wildly different personalities and hidden secrets. They make risky decisions, reckless choices, and face many ups and downs in their friendships, making it feel so accurate to real life teen friendships. 

And as for the romance, William and Lorena are the epitome of enemies to lovers (especially since William considers killing Lorena on multiple occasions), so getting to see their relationship shift over time made me giddy. From their anger to their banter and to their class debates on literature, they were a perfect match. One of my favorite parts of THE LAST VAMPIRE is that it is a dual POV story, told from the perspectives of both Lorena and William, which made it so much easier to see their growing relationship and understand why they each made certain decisions. William is the perfect confused, broody vampire book boyfriend, and better yet, he even gets to learn about humans’ understanding of modern day vampires through a screening of Twilight.

This was a book that I hoped would never end—it fed my vampire addiction, and was the perfect eerie read for a rainy day. If you were a TWILIGHT or CRAVE mega-fan, love books that drop literary and movie references, and swoon over morally gray love interests, THE LAST VAMPIRE will be your perfect fall read.

Happy reading!
<3 Margo

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