Review – Last Blood (House of Comarre, Book 5) by Kristen Painter (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 464 pages
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: July 30, 2013
ISBN: 978-0316200189
Stand Alone or Series: 5th book in the House of Comarre series
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 3/5 stars

This is the fifth, and final, novel in the House of Comarre series. First and foremost these books have beautiful covers. This book however, seemed mostly there to wrap up loose ends and end the series. I just didn’t find it as engaging or interesting as previous books.

There are spoilers ahead from the previous books so that’s a warning for if you haven’t read those yet.

Chrysabelle is still reeling from Mal losing his feelings of love for her in the last book and from finding out that she is carrying his half vampire baby. She has vowed to get Mal back his emotions of love and to put a stop to the evil Titania once and for all. She will need the help of all of her friends to stop all of this craziness and get some peace for her and Mal.

This book continues to read like a paranormal soap opera. We gets lots of tiny, quick, glimpses into all of the characters’ lives. The point of view switches often and abruptly, sometimes many times in one chapter. While this works okay, it does make the story kind of choppy and hard to follow at points.

We read a lot more about Crysabelle than we did in the last book. She is finally starting to form an identity outside of being a Comarre. Mal isn’t in the story a ton in the beginning but we see him more as the story progresses.

The story again focuses on Titania quite a bit. I really don’t like her as a character and didn’t really enjoy reading the parts from her point of view.

Fi and Doc are in the story as well, this book ties up some loose ends from the last book. Basically Doc and Fi are trying to keep the shapeshifter pack stable, their story is kind of a separate side story from the main one with Crysabelle and Mal.

The plot progresses in a fairly predictable way. There are a couple of surprises, but mostly this just ties things up for the series.

I did feel like the book ended kind of abruptly and would have liked a little bit more closure. For example an epilogue about what happened to the characters down the road would have been nice.

Overall I am glad I read this book, it did a decent job of tying up the series. I thought the way the chapters were broken up into short sections from different points of view made the story a bit choppy. I also didn’t enjoy all the time spent reading about Titania. Still everything was nicely tied up. If you are a fan of this series definitely make sure to check this book out. The series is a decent paranormal vampire series, but not one of the best ones out there.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– 100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge
– 150+ Reading Challenge
– Paranormal Reading Challenge