Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for giving me an ARC in exchange for a review!

I’ve organized my thoughts into sections because I have a lot of them. Overall, the reading experience was enjoyable. I would recommend this to anyone looking for more sapphic and POC vampires and to those interested in vampire fiction in general, as this book has a really creative take that I love.

As another reviewer put it, I loved every single idea in this book. The 3 star rating is just because I wish some of those ideas had been executed better. A lot of that may or may not be down to editing or other factors, but since I’m not privy to what went on behind the scenes, I have no way of knowing. Keep in mind that 3 stars is above average in my book, and I genuinely find this impressive for a debut. I’m eager for the sequel, as I imagine that the author’s writing will only improve from here, and I’m interested in seeing where the story will go. I look forward to seeing what Dennings does in the future!

General Writing

I’ll get nitpicks out of the way. I wish there had been more descriptions of surroundings because I often had trouble visualizing them. The POV wavered between close and omniscient third person, which I’m surprised wasn’t addressed during editing. There are a handful of anachronisms and some modern-sounding language, especially when it comes to dialogue, though these things definitely could have been worse.

But the most recurring thing I ran into was “telling.” There are several instances where the narration is too on the nose for my taste, and while there are ways to deliver expository dialogue effectively, its usage here, more often than not, felt inorganic and awkward.

Individual scenes felt fast paced, but the actual plot progression felt a tad slow, paradoxical as it sounds. Certain scenes could have used more suspense and buildup, the lack of which made them feel like they were breezing right past. I also wonder if the reliance on telling lended itself to making scenes feel as fast-paced and underdeveloped as they did.

I think the sense of slow plot progression comes from the lack of urgency in Layla and Elise’s investigation, as other reviewers have pointed out. I don’t have anything new to say about this, but I’ll add that I wish the meetings between Layla and Elise carried more of an air of secrecy. Shouldn’t they conduct their investigation with more caution, sneaking around and laying low, instead of shouting in the street about Layla being a reaper?

Speaking of Layla and Elise, I hate to say it…but most of their banter felt forced. I wanted so much to be into it, I really did, but something about their interactions made them difficult to buy into, which I’ll elaborate upon in the “Character Relationships” section.

I really don’t want to be so critical because there are definitely aspects of the writing that are done well. The depiction of emotional abuse is really good, almost a little TOO good. I think the depiction of OCD is pretty good too, though I wish it hadn’t been relegated to the one scene. (There are hints leading up to it but they’re extremely subtle, and OCD is never brought up again after the episode.)

There are moments of true brilliance in the prose that are genuinely beautiful. The elements I’ve critiqued above distracted from that, though, and I wish more had been done to address them. It wouldn't be entirely fair to pin the blame on an editor because the editor doesn’t have final say, the author does; but if an editor didn’t catch these things at all, then I’m sorry to say they weren’t doing their job.

History

When I read a story that takes place in a historical setting, especially one with as much character as the Harlem Renaissance, I want to feel immersed! Attention to detail can be so rewarding. I appreciate the mentions of finger waves and cloche hats, but those were general 1920s fashion trends that weren’t specific to Harlem. Overall, the Harlem Renaissance is felt very little—Why doesn’t Elise ever play music by black musicians, for instance? Why is there barely any mention of popular fashion trends specific to Harlem's black community at the time, such as leopard furs? Why do both Layla and Josi do ballet and not, say, swing dance or jazz? (Likely Josi would be pressured by her parents to do ballet because of its “prestige,” but Layla is under no such pressure. Speaking of, we barely get to see Layla's passion for dance the way we see Elise's love of music, which is depicted rather well.)

On that note…I wish more research had been done on ballet. There are a couple throwaway lines that I think the average reader would not think twice about and therefore are not really consequential; but because I have some very basic ballet knowledge, they took me out of the story.

First is when Layla thinks about “how hard it is to dance on wood,” referring to the Cotton Club stage, which is a truly baffling line when you consider that the vast majority of dance stages across history have been…wooden. Even today stages continue to be constructed of wood, the difference being that many have laminate or vinyl surfaces. Many dancers will agree that wood is one of the best surfaces for dancing since it has some give, as opposed to, say, tile or polished concrete. Obviously if the wood is warped or splintering, or the planks are uneven, it’ll be hard to dance on, but a well-maintained stage—which Layla says IS the case for the one at the Cotton Club—won’t have that problem.

The line is doubly baffling when she goes on to say that the difficulty of dancing on such a stage is that it’s “slippery.” Is wood an especially slippery material? It begs the question of what she’s used to dancing on. The only thing I can think of is perhaps linoleum, which I believe was sometimes used to coat the surfaces of dance stages, but linoleum is at LEAST as slippery as a smooth wooden floor.

But the one that really took me out was when we’re told that Layla, at just 13 years old, could complete 32 fouettés in a row. This is a move made famous by Swan Lake that is notoriously difficult, even for adult dancers who have trained all their lives. I MIGHT be more willing to suspend my disbelief if the story took place in 2024, since ballet is only getting more competitive and rigorous with time, and many dancers are learning advanced skills younger and younger…but it’s 1926. The first 32 fouettés ever performed were done by Pierina Legnani in 1893 and made famous 2 years later when she did them again in the Swan Lake revival. This was an extremely rare ability that, at the time, only she was known to be able to do successfully. Obviously, after she made them famous, more and more dancers would have pushed themselves to match her skill, and the feat would have become more common. And as Swan Lake grew in popularity and prestige (it initially was a bit of a flop before the revival), increasingly more dancers would have scrambled to master this skill as they vied for the coveted part of Odette/Odile that’s become the dream role of so many dancers around the world. It’s true that it’s also a dream role of Layla’s. But I seriously have trouble believing that just 30 years after Legnani, a 13-year-old would be able to achieve 32 fouettés with ease.

I wish the novel had further explored the concept of enslaved people being turned into reapers. It isn’t explained in detail, but I can only imagine that it was done to maximize productivity, of which their slave owners would suck them dry: reapers never age, so they can be passed down through generations as inheritable property; they can’t get sick so they’ll never slow down or need breaks due to fatigue (not that they’d be allowed); they’re supernaturally strong and fast so they can get even more labor done and in less time. I would have been so interested in more elaboration on this idea of enslaved people being turned into productivity machines against their will, by and for their white masters. I get that slavery wasn’t a major topic in the story, but it was definitely present, and the implication that slave owners exploited and abused reaperhood (as a means of further exploiting and abusing enslaved bodies) was certainly there. When we learn what’s going on with the “cure,” this idea of the experimentation on and abuse of black bodies is harkened back to, so I think exploring the idea further would have brought it to the forefront thematically. (Also, the idea of the “elite,” who are usually the ones doing the vampire killing, being the true vampires themselves is a theme in stories such as “The Last Lords of Gordonal” and “The Black Vampyre” (though done rather poorly in the latter, unfortunately), so it would have been really neat if this idea had been driven home even more.)

I would completely understand if the author was under some kind of pressure, whether internal or external, to “tone down” discussions of racism and slavery so as not to “alienate white readers,” as well as to prevent any readers from attacking her. If this was the case, I totally don’t blame the author for relegating this theme to the sidelines. In either case, however, it’s a bit of a shame that the discussion couldn’t go deeper.

Venom, Cures, & Antidotes

This is where some confusion came up for me. I tried to lay out what each thing was to keep them straight in my head, but I still have a lot of unanswered questions. I’ll put in a spoiler warning now because a lot of my questions have to do with major events in the latter half of the book, including the climax and resolution.

1. Antidote to reaper venom: prevents transformation into reaper before it can start, reduces venom’s effects
2. Stephen’s “cure” for reaperhood: infects receivers with a beastly form, uncontrollable bloodthirst, and increased strength, only to kill them within minutes, turning them human in death
3. Antidote to “cure”: prevents those infected with the cure from dying if administered quickly enough
4. Thalia’s cure for reaperhood: actually turns reapers back into humans by stripping them of all reaper abilities, including eternal youth
- (The way Elise explains how this works near the end confuses me, and I wish that Thalia’s cure had been mentioned before Elise uses it. As it is, the explanation feels very convenient and the whole scene feels out of left field because we don’t even know about the existence of an effective cure beforehand.)

I found some of this confusing because, before the climax, Elise is given what is supposed to be the antidote to reaper venom (since she tells her dad that Layla infected her with it), but she uses it on Layla to bring her back down from the cure before it can kill her. If it was an antidote to the cure after all…why would her father want her to have that? Or did Sterling purposely give it to her, perhaps knowing that Tobias would use the cure on Layla? But then how did Elise know that that’s what it was?

Also, how does Layla know the cure will make her heart stop within 2 minutes? She does watch her fellow reapers drop off like flies as they start infecting one another during the bloodbath at the Hotel Clarice, but during the actual scene, it sounds like they all just ended up killing each other, not dying from the cure.

Why does Mei seemingly take several minutes to turn into the beastly form caused by the cure (which we don’t actually see because Layla passes out…still don’t know why) when Sterling and the reapers he infects seemingly transform within seconds?

Why didn’t the Cotton Club dancers infected by the cure have the massive claws and gray, sagging flesh that Sterling and the reapers during the bloodbath in the Hotel Clarise are said to get when they’re infected? Maybe different concentrations have different effects, or maybe the dancers were given an earlier form of the cure that didn’t produce the beastly transformation, but I don’t know because it’s not explained!

I was also a little confused about how the reaper venom can make Dr. Harding “tired and obedient,” but then make Elise euphoric and energized. Maybe it’s less about the venom itself and more about how the venom is administered (possibly injected in Harding’s case, vs through a reaper’s bite in Elise’s), or maybe it’s about dosage, or something else I’m missing, but I do wish the exact nature of the exact effects that reaper venoms produces had been clarified.

Valeriya’s blood is said to have negative, possibly intoxicating effects for Tobias when she sneaks it into his drink, despite multiple other instances showing that reaper blood has positive healing properties for humans.

Finally, I didn’t understand Elise’s explanation at all for why all those rogue reapers showed up during the climax. Since when does a reaper bite on a human attract rogue reapers??

Character Motives & Actions

Regarding Layla, I had trouble believing that she’d trust Stephen Wayne and be that optimistic about a cure made by rich white men, considering her knowledge of how reaperhood came about in the first place: white people experimenting on black bodies. I needed to see more of her hopefulness and desperation for a cure. The hope part especially felt underdeveloped, if not nonexistent except in the moments where she blindly accepts Stephen’s promises. Throughout the story she’s shown to be pessimistic and cynical, and you understand why as you learn about her. So why is it that when it comes to a supposed “cure” made by a rich white man, all that cynicism, distrust, and wariness gets thrown out the window?

Next is Elise. I’ll go in chronological order of her “weird” moments, so beware of spoilers. First, I found it odd that she never questions why her father partners with Stephen Wayne, a guy whose stated goal is to provide a cure to reapers, which would render Saint steel, and the empire built upon it, moot—if all reapers are cured, there’d be no need for Saint bullets. It’s clearly a strategic business move, but even so, why doesn’t she ever think, “Huh, this makes no sense?” especially when he outright tells her that Stephen’s business plans are directly antithetical to and will undermine the Saint empire?

Second, it’s REALLY strange that Elise is so willing to inject Sterling, her best friend for the past 5 years, with an unknown substance that, for all she knows, may kill him (and very well /would/ have, if he hadn’t been shot with the antidote in the nick of time). I just can’t believe she’d have so little regard for his life.

But perhaps weirdest of all is when Elise murders Valeriya without telling Layla beforehand, either to get approval or to come up with an alternative. Why go behind her back after everything they’d been through? Maybe she hadn’t realized how much Valeriya meant to her, but then why doesn’t she say so? Elise LITERALLY sees how upset she’s made Layla, yet says to her face that she won’t apologize. Why on EARTH would you tell your girlfriend “hey, I know I killed your mother figure of the past 5 years who’s basically the reason you’ve survived as a reaper, but I literally am not at all sorry and would do it again”?

The last character whose motivations confused me is Tobias. What exactly was his deal with Valeriya? What was the point of giving Josi up to her? Val says that he thought an alliance with her would help him get Layla and Elise to turn against each other…but then why make them work together, unsupervised no less? He can’t manipulate them if he’s leaving them to their own devices. He knows they used to be best friends and that Elise was once “infatuated” with her, so this plan doesn’t feel thought out at all.

If tearing them apart was his goal, I wish we’d seen him try to brainwash Elise into perceiving all reapers as inherently evil, seeing Layla as too far gone, believing Layla can never be her friend again and maybe never was in the first place, thinking Layla’s parents were evil and not to be trusted, which extends to Layla herself, etc. (Elise mentions her father sending letters spewing this kind of rhetoric…but we never see her read or refer to them before or after the one time she brings it up.)

Character Relationships

I don’t know precisely why, but I had trouble “feeling” that Layla and Elise had been super close friends. I know they were because I’m told this, but while reading, I didn’t get the sense that these two knew each other more deeply than anyone else on the planet—in their POVs, they rarely bring up knowledge of each other’s secrets, fears, quirks and mannerisms, those personality flaws that are sometimes annoying but they can’t help but love anyway. The kinds of things only best friends know. I have to assume my inability to connect with their friendship is partly because, again, there’s so much telling and not a lot of showing. I also wonder if padding things out with more flashbacks depicting the depth of their bond would have helped.

Specifically, I kept waiting for an actual flashback of the night Layla became a reaper and attacked Elise. We get it in bits and pieces, but I would have loved to see it written out fully. There’s an argument to be had that this would’ve been superfluous, as that night comes up repeatedly throughout the story, with new pieces to the puzzle gradually revealed as we get more of each girl’s experience of that night. This is best demonstrated by the confession scene towards the end. That scene was one of the strongest in my opinion because of the way some of the revelations are delivered, so for that reason I can see why Dennings might have wanted to keep the circumstances surrounding the night of the attacks blurry.

At the same time, I don't think a fully written flashback would have hurt. A flashback dramatizing the horror of that night (which, in turn, would’ve increased its emotional weight by allowing readers to experience that night with them) wouldn’t necessarily mean that every detail pertaining to each girl’s perspective has to be elucidated. And if they were, that wouldn’t be a bad thing. There’s information revealed during Elise’s confession that feels like it should have come up sooner, whether through direct conversation between Elise and Layla, or as passing thoughts in either or both of their POV narrations.

Namely, it’s a little odd that we don’t learn what Elise reveals to Layla (about her dad purposely lying) sooner when this was known to her from the beginning; it would be different if this knowledge had only been discovered recently. But that isn’t the case, so it begs the question of why Elise and Layla didn’t just dish this out sooner.

And if Layla and Elise had been such close friends, why /wouldn’t/ they try to communicate and seek an understanding sooner? I feel like their initial reunion could have been the time for them to hash things out and lay out most of their resentment, hurt, and regret on the table, then agree to TRY setting it aside for the sake of the investigation. Doing so would have paved the way for them to start earning back trust, reach a basic understanding down the line, THEN enter a tentative playful banter/flirting stage once they’re more comfortable around each other. That doesn’t have to, and in fact shouldn’t, lead to immediate healing (how else would we get our angst?), but at least it could have shown what made them such good friends in the first place and demonstrated that even after all this time, even after all this hurt, they still care about one another and want to repair their bond.

On the other hand, I’m fine with them hating each other’s guts, but it would have felt more earned in my eyes if, again, we’d seen how deeply they loved each other beforehand (the greater the love, the greater the heartbreak and ensuing hatred, and all that). And even when Layla and Elise are basically insulting and threatening to kill each other, it doesn’t feel like it runs deep enough, partly because Layla will be mean to Elise one minute and then flirt with her the next (and not quite in a Catradora “I’m making fun of you and pushing your buttons” way), and Elise will be blushing and getting flustered.

I get the appeal of that dynamic where two people can’t stand (within reason) but also can’t help being attracted to one another, but it didn’t work for me here. I feel like the awkwardness isn’t helped by the fact that Layla starts flirting with Elise maybe 2 or 3 days into investigating, which felt way too soon. Layla should have still been firmly in the resentment stage. Even if she harbors tenderness for Elise, it shouldn’t come out through blatant flirting. It just doesn’t make sense to me that she’d do such a thing while also trying her best to convince Elise of how much she hates not only her, but also everything she and her family stand for.

Moving on from that. Another reason I had trouble seeing that these two once cared deeply about each other is that Elise has no cognitive dissonance regarding her promise that she’ll kill Layla after the investigation. It almost never comes up. Surely she’d have some guilt about that? Some second thoughts?? Even if she fully hates Layla, being ordered to kill anyone, let alone your former best friend and the girl you loved, would be rather horrific, yet we don’t get any emotional reaction whatsoever.

The fact that Layla was not only Elise's best friend, but also the girl she’d been in love with before Tobias sent the reapers to attack the Quinns, makes me think that Elise should have hated her dad way more. If she knows from the beginning that her father was responsible for the transformation of her best friend into a reaper and the deaths of her parents, why doesn’t she absolutely despise him? I understand that he emotionally abuses Elise, which results in lots of complicated feelings of wanting to please him while also seeing what a horrible person he is. But it didn’t seem that Elise harbored enough anger for what he did to Layla.

I’d had a feeling that she was in the dark or in denial about her father’s culpability until the confession scene, where it’s revealed that Elise has known all along that Tobias lied about ensuring Layla's safety. And before that, it’s made clear that Elise knew he was responsible for the attacks on the Quinns, because when Layla confronts her with this information early on, Elise says nothing about it, suggesting that it isn’t news to her. So she’s known that her father sent reapers to attack her best friend, yet we never see this inspire much horror or revulsion in Elise at all.

Lastly regarding that night of betrayal, I feel that if Elise had loved Layla so much…she should have been more apologetic and guilty for what happened. Shouldn’t it kind of tear her apart inside? I didn’t get the sense that it did at all. Maybe I’m a sadist but I’d have liked to see the whole situation cause Elise more torment.

(I also wish we learned about Layla’s relationship with her parents. A couple flashbacks could have made us feel her loss a bit more. In general I wanted each girl’s sense of loss to be driven home a lot more.)

There’s a scene where Elise plays a song for Layla that she wrote about and named for her, but we don’t learn about the existence of this song beforehand. The scene is supposed to be really emotional for them both, but it’s hard to get invested when the song isn’t made known sooner. Layla had choreographed a dance to it after finding its sheet music, and she’d wanted to surprise Elise with the dance before she was turned into a reaper. This sounds like important backstory to me, and I'm a little surprised that it never comes up earlier in Layla’s POV.

Knowing that this is going to be a duology, I kind of wish that the culmination of the romance between Layla and Elise (ie, the kiss) had been delayed until the second book so that they had more time to develop their relationship. Obviously they have a history before the start of the novel, but the way Layla was betrayed by Elise (unintentionally) and Elise by Layla (also unintentionally) makes me think that they need more time to heal before they can enter a romantic relationship.

All in all, I wanted their friendship, their hatred, and their eventual love to feel deeper. I can see that the author was going for tumultuous, complicated feelings of love and hate tangled into one, but for the reasons I’ve attempted to explain here, it didn’t completely land for me.

Final Thoughts

I’m so glad I got approved for this ARC because I was so excited to read this. I know I had a lot of critiques, which may make it look like I’ve left a negative review, but I didn’t dislike this book. There’s a lot to love about the ideas presented here, and I can only hope that they will be taken a step further in the sequel, which I will definitely be keeping an eye out for.

The world always needs more Sapphic vampires, and with the New York Gothic backdrop, I had a great time with this read. I think the relationship between Layla and Elise was well established, though the pacing at times felt a bit stilted alongside the mystery plot. While I love Vampires in all their forms, I do think the lore with the reapers needed a tad more polish. I'd say this is definitely one of those books you wish you could of picked up when you were a teen/fresh early twenties as I do think the character writing for the main girls (especially Layla) was brilliantly handled. Overall I'd give this one 3.5(and a bit) stars!

I'm all in when it comes to vampire stories, and especially when it twists things into something new and different! The 1920's setting was also very fun, and I enjoyed the rapport of the characters a lot! Will definitely be recommending!

Hayley Dennings' "This Ravenous Fate" throws you right into 1926 New York, where reapers, those once-human vampires, are running the show. Elise Saint, stuck between family duty and enemies from Harlem, makes for a compelling lead. Joining forces with Layla Quinn, a young reaper with a grudge, they dive into a hunt for a cure amidst some seriously shady killings. Dennings crafts a gripping story full of secrets, tension, and a dash of forbidden romance. "This Ravenous Fate" is the kind of book you won't want to put down, with every page packing a punch.

What a fun and thrilling debut! I really enjoyed the gothic atmosphere, the characters, and the overall premise. Being set in the 1920's in Harlem worked a lot more than I thought it would. Elise and Layla were great characters to follow and their chemistry made it even better. Highly recommend checking this out when it's published and I'm already looking forward to the second book!

Big thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with this eARC!

Okay..... I need the second asap... I just loved this book to be honest and it was really surprising, saw it was available from one of my fav booktokers and I just couldn't put it down.. Oh can't wait to see more from Elise and Layla.
Anyway, vampires, reapers, humans, some disease and enemies, ex best friends, forced to work together to find out what's happening in Harlem.. I just need more please

I've been waiting to get my hands on this book and it did not disappoint. Set in 1926 Harlem, it features reapers (vampires) and those who hunt them. Naturally the two mc's Elise and Layla are on opposite sides of this conflict but forced to work together to fight a common threat to both of their peoples.

This was an atmospheric and thrilling debut! The tension and chemistry between Elise and Layla was palpable and I really enjoyed the whimsical feel for the era its set in.

This book was absolutely stunning! The entire plot, as well as the characters sucked you in so quick and left you wanting more at the end of every chapter. The world was so lush and felt whimsical, dark and real.
I really had such a good time with this book and it was one of the quickest I've read in months!

A thrilling, fun, and electric debut! I loved reading Elise and Layla's story, and can't wait to devour whatever Dennings puts out next!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I like a book to dig it's claws into me from the very beginning, this one unfortunately fell flat and never picked up. It is the author's debut novel and they have great ambitions, I hope to see them succeed in the sequel and following endeavors. I'm hoping to revisit this story at a later date, hopefully it'll fit my mood better then. For now, I'm shelving it under dnf.

Vampires (reapers), reaper hunters, queer romance, enemies turned lovers, set in the 1920s?!? Yes, please! This was an amazing story about reapers and hunters, as well as the story of Elise (hunter) and Layla (reaper as of 5 years prior) who are enemies. However, they must work together to figure out the growing threat to reapers and humans alike. I absolutely loved this book for all the aforementioned reasons. It was quite a ride and I was here for it!

Was able to read this via NetGalley eARC- which was awesome, never done that before…

While I was reading this book all I could think was- my 15 year old self would eat this up. So I am fully recognizing that my 35 year old self is not the target audience for this book but I had to pick this one up because who doesn’t love sapphic vampires ( or in this case reapers) in 1920s Harlem?

For a debut this was definitely above average. I enjoyed most of it but I do think this could have been like 50-70 pages shorter. At some points the plot just dragged and I found myself struggling to get to the end. There wasn’t much of a mystery either as it was kind of obvious who was doing all the misdeeds and the stakes were not very high. Elise and Layla seemed to be taking their sweet time figuring out what was going on.

However, I did appreciate their strained relationship and the struggles they went through to come back together. I appreciated the exploration of a toxic family environment and the different dynamics a family can have- the Saints vs Layla and her clan. Overall I do think this is a successful debut for Hayley and the youths will eat it up for their vampire fix. I wish I could’ve read it in my teenage years cuz it would have been a 5 star hands down. I will definitely be picking up the second book.

This Ravenous Fate first captured my attention from the very second I heard about it. I was extremely excited to FINALLY get a vampire book in my hands with a whole new twist on the approach. I really enjoyed the theme the author set, I felt like I was right there in the club with the dancers. I loved the original take on the pairing of the vampire and the human, why and how they got to where they are. I only found myself a little thrown out of the book in certain moments that broke my focus because they were so reminiscent of Twilight. Such as the human MC composing a song on piano for her vampire love (Edward), and the vampire going to a clearing in the trees of Central Park that held significance for her (Bella). Otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed the trail of the mystery up until the very end when it felt like every plot twist possible was packed in 30 pages. It was so sudden I felt myself read and rereading pages to try to sort out what was happening, but once I made sense of it in my mind I did enjoy the whole work. This Ravenous Fate is most definitely a book I would recommend to vampire story lovers. Thank you NetGalley for the early version in exchange for my honest review! 3.5 stars.

This book was soooo good! its a bit slow paced at the start but once its going it just keeps on going. I loved the tension between the two main characters. The banter was sooo fun had me cracking up. I do wish we saw more of them actually trying to k!ll each other because they are supposed to be enemies. The way they talk about being human and the longing to be human once again after being turned was very interesting. The ending…i need book 2 STAT!

A mesmerizing blend of Gothic atmosphere and sapphic romance, this novel is a perfect fit for those that are craving more nuanced relationships in the genre.

I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. I liked the premise of This Ravenous Fate and was excited to read a sapphic, dark vampire tale. In some ways the book did deliver exactly what I was looking for however, the pacing as slow at times and I found myself losing interest often. I was left the world building was lacking in some areas leaving me with a lot of unanswered questions ultimately distracting me from the story. Overall, I do recommend even though some areas have some room for improvement. Ultimately it did give me what I was looking for which was a dark sapphic vampire tale.

I loved the characters and the story in this very much, but I do wish that the pacing had been just a little faster. I do think it was also missing quite a bit of worldbuilding. All in all, I like Dennings' style of writing,but the worldbuilding and pacing, I feel need more work.

The synopsis for this really appealed and I started this one with high hopes of having my love of sapphic vampire stories temporarily sated.

However as I started reading I had a difficult time getting into the flow of the story - I was bored and unfortunately I found this … clunky - the murder mystery wasn’t, the dialogue was stilted, and the plot limped for me. And please don’t get me started regarding my disappointment about the romance aspect of this - I didn’t see the chemistry at all.

While this will certainly find its audience, I’m sorry that it wasn’t for me.



Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for the DRC

2 ☆
I fully expected This Ravenous Fate to be a new favorite of mine, or at the very least, an enjoyable read. As a vampire lover, the premise of this book intrigued me. The combination of feminine rage and sapphic angst convinced me the book would be a hit. However, I found This Ravenous Fate to be quite disappointing.

I have been following Hayley Dennings' marketing for a while, which fueled my anticipation of the book. She constantly talked about "true enemies to lovers", among other topics of that nature. As a result, I had high expectations for the characters and their relationships. To my surprise, however, they were nothing like I assumed. While there is an enemies-to-lovers plotline and the characters are morally gray, I found them to be superficial at best. Elise and Layla's relationship, which Dennings described as angsty, appealed to me, but I felt very little from them. Their dialogue felt inauthentic, and the banter felt forced. It also felt like we were thrown into the book suddenly, with the expectation that we already knew these characters. Their toxic backstory and reason for being enemies weren't fully explored, and I wish there were flashback scenes to help us get to know them and their history better.

When a string of murders is brought to light, Elise and Layla are forced to work together to find out how they died. The murder mystery aspect of the book seemed suspenseful, but there was a lack of urgency. Despite people being murdered, the plot moved at a snail's pace, with not much happening. The book is 480 pages long but could have been shortened, given the amount of overwritten and unnecessary scenes. The villain's reveal wasn't surprising at all, especially because of the small cast of characters.

Overall, This Ravenous Fate did not live up to my expectations. I was very excited to read about Black sapphic vampires and I had hoped it would be a refreshing read due to the unique premise, but the approach was generic and like plenty of other books in the fantasy genre. Unfortunately, this book was not for me at all, however, it reminded me a lot of Chloe Gong's These Violent Delights, so if you enjoyed that book, you may like this one.

Oo hoo hoo! I really enjoyed this book and I can’t wait for another.

Elise Saint has al lot going on in her life. Music made everything made sense but she’ll do anything and everything to protect her little sister Josi. She’s been blamed for her older sister, Charlotte’s, death and was sent to Paris to study music after her best friend, Layla, was turned into a reaper. Layla lives with a clan of other reapers who have promised they won’t kill any humans, but how often does that ever truly work? Layla and Elise team up to find out what is causing reapers to somehow turn into humans right before dying. They hate each other and have vowed to kill each other once all of this is over. Elise promised her father, who over sees and manipulates the entire Saint empire to eradicate reapers, and Layla promised not only herself but Valeriya, one of the original reapers and head of her clan.

Will they keep to their promises or will other issues arise?

I honestly had some thoughts very early on about Sterling that ended up coming true. I’m not surprised but I can’t wait to see what’s in store for everyone, including Jaime, or should I call him Vex?