Review: Good to the Last Drop, by Declan Finn
An epic conclusion
In Good to the Last Drop, Declan Finn brings the story of Love at First Bite to its epic, if not unexpected, conclusion.
In the previous book, vampire hunter extraordinaire Marco Catalano and his now girlfriend, the Catholic vampire Amanda Colt, confirmed the existence of a secret council that stands atop the vampire world.
Now, the council’s last surviving member is coming after them, and he is not happy.
The story
Things really get kicked off with a werewolf attack on Marco, an attack that leaves him infected with the werewolf virus. At first, you may be tempted to think that this isn’t too big of a deal. After all, Marco with super-strength and enhanced speed should only make him a better hunter. While that is true, Father Rodgers (local head of the Vatican’s own vampire hunting team) points out that this is far from a good thing. The werewolf virus doesn’t just grant extra strength, speed, and senses, it also increases the host’s personality traits. Given Marco’s own intense and often violent personality, one can see where the priest would be concerned.
That is the least of their worries though. As a newly turned werewolf, Marco is susceptible to control by other werewolves. Werewolves that will probably not be on his side. Soon it is revealed that the werewolf that attacked Marco was sent by Misha, the final member of the vampire council uncovered by the last book.
While he may be the last surviving member of the council, Misha isn’t exactly alone. Marco and the others begin to wonder about this after Misha leads an attack on Marco’s home in broad daylight. Not only does Misha seem immune to daylight, he shrugs off hundreds of rounds from the Vatican Ninjas, seeming to only respond to wooden bullets and holy water.
I’ve no desire to give anything away so I will only say here that the vampire is able to do this because of a very close partner, an enemy Marco has already met and defeated once.
The characters
How deep does Marco’s darkness go? Will he give in to the worst of his urges and succumb to the werewolves? As it turns out, there are two things deeper than Marco’s violent streak, his love for Amanda and his Catholic faith. Amanda in this book finally develops into the vampire she has been afraid of becoming all along. She has feared her possible power but with the relationship between her and Marco finally acknowledged she has an anchor and a reason to take the plunge.
Misha may be Mikhail’s brother but he is much colder, much more intelligent. This, plus his alliance with a certain demon, he personal vendetta with Marco and his history with Amanda make him the most formidable foe Marco and his team have faced.
The world
We now have vampires, demons, werewolves, and shapeshifters populating Marco and Amanda’s world. Not only that, there are wizards, vampire societies and an apparently hierarchy amongst the creatures of the supernatural. The forces fighting them are also extensive as at one point there is a fleet of helicopters dumping Holy Water on an army of vampires.
Finn also applies some of his trademark creative thinking in putting together his creations to get around their weaknesses. The result is a foe that leads to Amanda finally unleashing her full potential as a white vampire.
The politics
The UN is a haven for blood sucking denizens of the undead. What else do you need to know?
Content warning
The recently acknowledged romance between Marco and Amanda gets pretty heated and racy at times. While things on the romantic angle stay PG-13 (passions aside, they are good Catholics after all), the amount of blood necessary to keep Marco in check definitely would push a movie based on the book into R territory.
Who is it for?
If someone combined John Wick, Batman, and Blade, you would have Marco Catalano. If you like seeing the undead get what’s coming to them, you’re going to love this. Or if you liked characters like Shi or Red Sonja, then Amanda Colt will be right you your alley.
Why read it?
If you’ve come this far with Marco and Amanda, why wouldn’t you finish the story? More importantly, if want an action packed adventure mowing down the undead hordes, then this entire series is something you should get into. And once you’re done, you’d be remiss if you didn’t check out Finn’s St. Tommy series.