The Warrior Vampire

4.5 - "I'm not an all-you-can-drink dinner buffet. Got it?" Stars!

Kate Baxter continues on with the Last True Vampire series with absolutely stunning story-telling in The Warrior Vampire we met Ronan Daly in the previous book as Michael Aristov’s right hand man, a lot happened in that book and some of the changes directly involved Ronan, especially towards the end.

IMAGE.

The Warrior Vampire is Ronan’s story, and boy was it a good one. I was pulled in from the beginning, and I liked that the author took us away from Los Angeles for most of this one and gave Ronan his story in a different setting, you are given an indication that this may be the case at the end of the last book as Ronan sets out to find his sister Chelle.

I really like that the author gives us really strong female leads in this series as well, Claire in the previous book and now Naya in this one. Both were strong and assured in themselves, and although there is vulnerability there it is not played upon and it added to the characterizations in a positive light rather than making either women seem weak or clingy.

”I fucking love a female with a violent streak.”

Naya gives as good as she gets, the verbal sparring in the early stages of the book between her and Ronan is really enjoyable, and the dirty-sexy chemistry between them from the get-go positively vibrates through your Kindle.

”Whats it like?”
“Whats, what like?”
”Drinking my blood.”
“It’s Everything”.

There is a bit of a slow burn going with this one, but I liked that, Ronan’s past allegiances really do rear up and affect his present connections, and Naya is dealing with a whole set of issues herself in that her Pod and the rules that she is governed by do not leave room for a relationship in any way, shape or form with a Vampire. Magic is being used and for nefarious purposes and it is very much something that she needs to be dealing with. I found it refreshing that the author worked through everything at a steady pace rather than finding a quick resolution to some of the more important tropes and moving on, the suspense, the romance and the character development all worked in-line with the overall pacing of the book and the development of the rest of the story-line going on around them.

”It’s like finding peace after centuries of restlessness.
I don’t want to want you…
I can’t afford to need you.
Especially now.”

The story does continue to play out back in Los Angeles and we are given snippets of it through Claire, Michael and Jenner to name but a few. This is my only small niggle in that due to quite a large time lapse since reading The Last true Vampire my mind is a tad fuzzy on the whole Sortiari element of the story now. It didn’t really impact my enjoyment of this one though, but I did at points wish I could remember the relevance of them especially in the latter stages of this book.

”I’m lost to you… Addicted. I don’t have any control when it comes to you.”

From the snippet we are given at the end of this instalment, The Dark Vampire is due in 2016, and I am guessing it is Jenner’s book, the guy pops up quite a bit in this one, and from what you see it is evident that he is struggling with his newly turned Vampire status and the uncontrollable urges that come with it, I think the author may have another hit on her hands if she offers up another strong female to take him on!

ARC generously provided via Netgalley, and it was my pleasure to provide the above honest review.