2⭐️ .5🌶️

There is one 🌶️ scene but it’s not smut. Very YA.

The Last Raven is advertised for fans of Twilight and I knew I had to pick up this book!

Emilia’s parents are vampires while Emilia is human. Her parents are rulers and she is meant to become heir. She’s 17 and her dad is like 600 years old so I’m not sure why she’s supposed to take over when her life span is so small compared to them.

I was expecting more world building. Especially since this is a fantasy. But the characters wear jeans and have watch tv (it takes place on earth). I really wanted to see a world where vampires rule.

The MCs were okay. Given their age, it’s normal for them to be kinda annoying, but I found myself skimming a lot through the book. I also wasn’t expecting an insta-love. I didn’t believe in their chemistry at all.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of The Last Raven by Helen Glynn Jones.

I was super excited for this because of the Forced Proximity and Royalty x Bodyguard tropes. This was a decent read, but it wasn’t exactly what I wanted in a vampire romance

This is a great twist on the vampire genre. The idea that two vampires can have a human child is not your normal fare. Add to that the fact that Emelia is the Heir to the throne. She's considered an abomination and she's hidden away for that reason. But now she has to step out into society. Her desire is to live as a human but her view of their life has been hidden from her. They are the cattle that keep the vampire in power. Protecting her is a new guard that wants her to stay right where she is. Definitely interested in reading more.

The last raven was the book that I needed to get out of a reading slump. The first chapter drew me in with the way it was writer . Usually it a hit or miss for me if they writing can’t draw me in it was written so nice and I was able to follow the main character, Emelia.
The push and pull between Kyle is way too cute. The typical hate you but I crush on you hard is what I needed during this cold chilly season !

Thank you to Net galley for letting me read this Arc before it hit the shelf ! You guys are gonna love it the spice is there 😍

ThIs story was “just okay” in my opinion. It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t the best vampire story I’ve ever read either. It has a good premise, however, I think it could’ve used a bit more fleshing out overall. Especially since the characters felt a bit one dimensional and as if I didn’t know much about them, even though they were given time on the page. Overall, I can’t say I enjoyed the book all that much, and probably wouldn’t read it again if given the choice between it and another story.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I fell in love with the cover of The Last Raven and was so excited to read this because it seemed like something I would be into. Unfortunately, I was not a fan.

This is the first time I’ve gotten the chance to review a fantasy advanced readers copy— for which I am very grateful. Thank you @HarperCollins360, @netgalley, and @helenglynnjones for giving me the opportunity.

Tropes:

Forced Proximity
Human x Vampire
Royalty x Bodyguard
Forbidden Romance
YA Romance

4.25 - Stars
1 - Spice

For starters, I really enjoyed this story. It was the perfect length, the pace made sense— and the world building was vague initially but over time, it felt like that was the author’s intention.

It’s important when reading to remember that we’re seeing the world through Emilia’s eyes and she is extremely naive, unexperienced and learning as she goes.
That being said, I was surprised by the plot twist and ending.

Emilia is the human daughter of the vampire king and queen of Raven. She is constantly trying to fight her birthright and responsibility. When she meets her new bodyguard, Kyle— it is attraction at first sight, though they can’t stand each other.

The Last Raven is the intriguing, yet heartbreaking journey of Emilia learning whom her enemies are, growing up and taking on responsibility— all while experiencing her first love.

“The Last Raven,” by Helen Glynn Jones

This was a really good book. It is everything I look for in a YA vampire royalty book. I love how the princess is human despite her parents being vampires, I loved how she was torn between the two worlds of vampires and humans. The morality of their world and how humans are treated was the main focus of the entire book. The main character is such a sheltered princess, her knowledge and thoughts about it was so naïve and innocent. I liked seeing her grow into the person she became at the end. Above all, I adored the forbidden love romance aspect. Those two characters were so good together and I loved every scene. 4 out of 5 stars.

-Vampires
-Forbidden Love
-Royalty

Thank you for the ARC, Netgalley.

My review is simply this... Book shows General Fiction (Adult) and Romance. I thought this meant I would be reading about adults. But this main FL i this book is 17. I stopped reading and looked for spoilers to make sure there wasn't going to be any spicy scenes. There was. I do not and will not continue to read a book with minors. And while the main ML is depicted as looking 18, he is hundreds of years old. That's a double no where minors are concerned. There were no warnings in the genres that it involved someone who was under the age 18. There were no warnings in the blurb that she was under 18. Please for all that is sane......... Let us know the age of characters if they are under 18.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc!

This was not for me but maybe I’m just not the target audience. Way too juvenile and meh. Nothing really to grab me and hold my attention.

Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book.
This book is not at all what I was expecting. I feel that this was more of a YA or New Adult Romance than the General Adult Romance it was labeled as and is VERY low on the spicy meter.
Emelia is your typical very sheltered, spoon-fed character that “hates” the guilded cage her parents put her in. I love stories where the main character finds their true self and courage to stand up to what they know is not right during their search for truth and independence. However, Emelia has some major co-dependency issues with her family and other characters that diminish the strength and independence she finds. I feel that this character build could have been stronger by making her unshackle those co-dependent chains and truly step into her own.
The world building and politics are amazing! The mystery and the questions Emelia is trying to answer keeps the reader engaged. The twist toward the end had me ABSOLUTELY floored and gasping out loud. I won’t say much more on that as I don’t want to ruin it for anyone else.
I look forward to the next book and hope that Emelia can progress into a stronger character.

This book was overall ok…definitely a very light fantasy read that resembled twilight but with more human involvement. Was the writing riveting? No. Was the plot intriguing? Occasionally. Would I read it again? No. I felt like it took five ever to get to the meat of the storyline and once it did, it was very anticlimactic. But will I read the sequel? Probably bc I’m ocd and want to know what happens next after the way this ended

First of all, can we talk about this cover? It’s absolutely gorgeous!!!

To be honest, the book itself was pretty mid. The story is predictable and the characters aren’t anything special but it was a quick read and worth it to satisfy my curiosity (which was definitely sparked by the cover). I feel like my 16-year-old self would have LOVED this book and made it my whole personality but unfortunately my 25-year-old self didn’t love it as much.

The human heir to a vampire kingdom finds herself falling for her new bodyguard all the while discovering secrets, rebellions, and betrayals as she gets ready to take her place on the throne. Princess to the Raven family and next in line to inherit the vampire throne, Emilia is a human and has a secret, she is unable to be turned into a vampire. Both of her parents are vampires and in a world ruled by vampires, being a human is risky. Emilia does not want to inherit the kingdom and she does not want to partake in any of the family duties. Yet when she is assigned a hot new vampire guard she begins to find herself questioning everything.... but with the humans getting ready to rebel and someone in her own family looking to overthrow them, who can Emilia trust? Her new bodyguard with secrets that could threaten to destroy the love growing between them or her parents who have done atrocious things to humans.... where will she stand and who will she be when all the secrets are revealed. This is the first book in a series and honestly the protagonist is yet another "I don't want to do my duty to my family, and it's so hard being me" while being naive and extremely sheltered. The romance was insta love and honestly it just didn't really feel believable. The protagonist felt immature and annoying and I can say with my whole heart I will not be continuing this series. The way this book ends and how the story progresses really has you going: really? To say its a miracle I made it to the end of the book is putting it lightly, I forced myself to get to the end of the book hoping it might turn around but sadly this was definitely not for me. I love vampire and bodyguard romances but this was just a complete miss for me. While it didn't work for me if you like vampire bodyguard romances and younger feeling protagonists. I'd say give it a try, maybe it'll be better for you than it was for me,

Release Date: October 31,2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter | One More Chapter for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

2.75 stars

The Last Raven by Helen Glynn Jones is a young adult paranormal romantasy following the incredibly sheltered human daughter, Emelia Raven, heir to the House of Raven (the vampiric rulers of the land).

I’ll be honest - this book was full of cringe. The dialogue is incredibly juvenile and made me roll my eyes throughout the piece. It felt like I was watching a bad movie that you can’t look away from - the quality isn’t high but there’s still some enjoyable parts that motivated me to see it through til the end. The book is a lil too fast paced (romance was a lil TOO instalove); there isn’t a lot of depth or likable characters — the main character is incredibly immature and annoying, along with her parents and her “love interest.” Who names a fantasy book love interest KYLE?! A sexy vampire named KYLE?!! C’mon now. It’s not unreadable, but I’m not invested enough to continue the series — however, I would be curious to give Helen Glynn Jones another chance and read something else from her.

I would recommend this book to middle schoolers who are getting into fantasy books - I think they would find the characters relatable and can overlook some of the plot holes and be less critical overall.

Thanks so much to Harper 360 & NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

A very YA fantasy about a human girl born to vampire royalty expected to take the throne on her 18th birthday despite the low standing humans have in their world. There were things I liked about this such as the human/vampire conflict and some decent twists. However this definitely reads on the younger side and the dialogue often reflects that. There was pretty much zero development for the romance and the love interest didn’t hold much appeal. There were very few likable characters in general. I will say I didn’t think it was quite as bad as other reviews made it out to be. There is some intrigue about what’s to come, but I’m not sure it’s enough to want to continue.

Thank you to Harper 360 and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an ebook arc in exchange for an honest review.

In the beginning I personally didn’t like any of the characters and I felt like the book was scrambled and had too many different things going on to generally have a good plot. I got interested around 30% into the book and wanted to keep reading since the story line had picked up along with the pace. I did feel a lot of the parts of the book were unnecessary and didn’t help move the plot forward. Emelia frustrated me in more ways than one since she was quite foolish at times but I do believed her character did change and grow by the end and just throughout the story. I did struggle with her acting like a bit of a toddler at times but the poor thing was just way to sheltered and I honestly understand her character and would be interested in reading a second book about her and what’s to come. I also love that she’s truly a bad ass 🙏🏼! (I was so fricken happy by the end 🥹) 3.5 stars!

I was excited to pick up The Last Raven after hearing it described as a vampire romantasy inspired by Twilight. Unfortunately, there were many aspects of this novel that missed the mark for me, mainly being that the similarities to Stephanie Meyers’ series were few and far between. If anything, I would equate The Last Raven to the From Blood and Ash series. The bodyguard trope is employed in both, as are some similar character and plot devices.

The Last Raven follows Emelia, the human daughter and heir to the House of Raven — the vampiric rulers of the land. Overwhelmed with her sheltered life, Emelia yearns to flee the confinements of her home. Escape finally becomes possible after meeting her new guard Kyle, a vampire whose charm and beauty draws Emelia in immediately. With her plan fast approaching and a rebellion threatening everything she’s ever known, Emelia will have to make a decision to either face her destiny or stand up for a new and brighter realm.

The Last Raven had a lot of potential, but the world building and pacing held it back from reaching the heights I hoped for. Due, in part, to the deceptive cover art, I thought it was going to be set in a fantastical world but it ended up being a contemporary, almost dystopian setting. The lore was also fed to us in info-dump chunks, disconnecting me from the universe. There were many interesting details about the world, one of which being the blood dancers — humans who perform at vampire parties and consent to feedings — but the author never went into enough backstory to explain how jobs like this existed and what it meant for the other humans living in a vampire-run society.

The pacing was jarring, launching readers too quickly into a half baked narrative. This impacted the character’s progression and the chemistry between Emelia and Kyle was rushed. The plot also relies on insta-love, a trope that is difficult to suspend ones disbelief for. I never quite felt invested enough in Emelia and Kyle’s relationship and therefore didn’t engage with the romance, which is usually my favorite aspect of a story. Emelia, as a whole, needed a bit more refinement. I couldn’t grasp how she was expected to be the heir of the kingdom, only for her to be sheltered to a point of incapability. It seemed like a glaring oversight as did the confusing way her parents treated her. They were warm and comforting one moment only to lash out and lock her up the next.

Additionally, this is just a personal preference, but the love interest’s name being Kyle took me right out of the story. There is something so starkly modern about the name that it felt disjointed to see it appear in a vampire story. Maybe it’s because I read a lot of fantasy but Kyle feels like someone I went to high school with, not a gorgeous, formidable vampire guard.

Regrettably, this one did not work for me despite it containing many tropes and plot elements that I adore. Maybe it’s because I read so much in the genre, but I was hoping for something new and innovative and never felt like The Last Raven went deeper than surface level.

Many thanks to Harper 360 and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a fun ride. I would give it 3.5 but since I can only go by 1’s, I’ll give this 4 stars. I enjoyed the stubbornness and the complexities of Emilia’s character and her coming into her own more and more as the story went on. The politics, magic systems, and the royal realms were easy to understand and intriguing. The romance could’ve been felt a bit more with some added tension and less repetitiveness in monologues.

This book is unreadable. I get that “Raven” is significant, but the word did not need be used over 260 times. I only made it to chapter 3 and the word “Raven” was used 28 times. There is also nothing about the writing that makes the story feel unique. I felt like I was reading story I’ve already read.