Disclaimer for NetGalley: I will not be posting this review wide, since I didn't care for this book and have no desire to lower the online ratings.

I've been trying to read this book for the better part of three months, and I am simply not enjoying myself. I felt like the very beginning drops us into the story and then delivers clunky backstory for several chapters. I kept having to reread pages to figure out where people were or whether the scene had somehow changed, or what was going on. There would be scenes that felt pointless followed by scenes that seemed important but were so rushed that I had no idea what was happening. To me, it really read like a rough draft, and when I don't care about the characters by 20% of the way through the book, I'm probably not going to.

All that to say, the book clearly wasn't for me. I've decided to fully DNF, but I'm grateful for the opportunity to read this, since a lot of the elements sound right up my alley. For me, there's a clear difference between "I really dislike this book" and "I'm not having a good time, but someone else might." This book falls into the latter category for me, which is why I'm keeping my review limited to NetGalley. Thank you to the publisher, and I wish the best to this author. I would still read her work in the future even though I'm not enthused about this series.

This Ravenous Fate was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024, but I found myself a little disappointed by it ultimately. I love the vibes SO much, and the first chapter is a work of art, but unfortunately the writing style wasn't to my taste. I think that this book will really succeed among a younger audience. I think I wanted something just a little more out of it and am struggling to identify what exactly it's lacking.

Sapphic vampires will ALWAYS be a win though, so don't forget that.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a copy in exchange for a review :)

This one was a little bit slow for me, but I was here for the vampire story and the representation within.. I also loved the Harlem renaissance vibes and I am looking forward to continuing the series. I believe this one was the building block to the rest of the series! It was a slower burn for me to build upon the mystery of the story. Hoping the next book in the series is a bit more faster paced.

Im not sure if maybe I just wasn't in the right mood for this story or what but it really fell flat for me. The whole thing was overly predictable. Outside of the mention of speak easy and illegal alcohol, it could have been written in today's time. There was not much to really tell it was the 1920s. The characters fell flat. There was minimal growth and it was all on the last 50 pages. The main character was irritatingly blind to everything. I wish they delved into the history between Layla and Elise more. Maybe some more backstory all around.

i can usually tell when something is a debut, and this is a debut. it shows promise however which is a good thing.

If you like vampire, time period, romance novels with a touch of old timer gangster feels, you are going to love this book!

For the first several chapters of this book, I was not sure that I was going to like it. I did have a hard time placing myself in the story, because I kept thinking that it should have been further along in time than it actually was. However, as the chapters progressed, the more interested I became. I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

How do you spell intriguing and entertaining. I really love the magical universe. This author created in the book. The storyline was diverse and well thought out it had amazing characters and it also just had a sense of ups and downs that you could never see coming. I really enjoyed every character in this book and not one character sit out but instead they all kind of shocked me with how much I ended up liking them all even the ones that were more on the line of the wrong side.

3.5*

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC of This Ravenous Fate!

If you are a fan of the childhood best friends turned enemies turned something like lovers, this book is for you. It has vampires, sapphics, and a 1920’s Jazz Harlem setting you can sense the music and glamour in every page. I did enjoy this book for the angst, the interesting and complicated relationship between Layla and Elise. While I thought some of the plot was somewhat predictable I did think the execution made this story worth a read.
I am excited to see where this story goes in the next book.

I have been really liking the vampire renaissance lately! Sadly, this book just didn't work out for me. The writing was really beautiful in some sections, but then the dialogue was clunky and scenes were randomly plopped in a chapter. Characterization flip flopped a lot. We investigate the murder... kinda? Elise and Layla mostly just wander to different locations and encounter an event. There aren't that many clues or hints. It ends up being pretty obvious who is behind everything to the reader, but the characters take forever to come to the same conclusion. I despised Elise's father and his wishy washy actions, especially his decisions regarding his 'heir' *eye roll* In what world is a 10 year old child ready to learn how to be an heir to a reaper hunting empire after basically spending all her time dancing? She's 10! And the mother too; she was basically a paper doll? She does nothing and has the most blase reactions to things like finding a half naked man under her daughter's bed or finding that same daughter making out with her 'enemy.' Elise herself was a bit boring and I was hoping we would get more about the whole music is her life aspect, but it doesn't really get weaved in at all. It's just random scenes. Which, actually, is a good description for much of this book. The whiplash of having an emotional scene in one POV with just a line break then a quirky little scene in a different one was really strange. I think this book just suffers from trying to release it in the hype around vampires and not doing enough edits. Some developmental edits would really have helped with the pacing issues, the chronology issues (it was hard to keep track of the timing of things and the history we are being given), and provide more seamless weaving of the different thoughts in the plot. The most successful character for me was Layla, who has a lot of depth with her warring emotions around family and sense of self, and, yet, I was still a little confused by some of her actions because they strayed from her characterization or were not built up enough before we were given the information, for example, the relationship between Layla and Mei. Actually, of the side characters, I feel like Mei had the most development and felt the most like an actual person with a full life. Sterling did at moments, but other times I was confused by his lack of response to things that happened.
I did stay up late to finish the book, mostly to see if Elise's dad got what he deserved (not really imo) but also because I was already 70% in so I might as well have just finished it. I am uncertain if I will finish out the duology because I just don't know that there will be enough explanation or a good conclusion.

A Flawed Debut with Potential
This Ravenous Fate presents an intriguing premise: a love story set against the backdrop of Jazz Age Harlem, with a supernatural twist. The historical setting is well-researched and atmospheric, and the concept of reapers adds a unique element to the narrative.
However, the execution falls short in several areas. The pacing is uneven, with some sections feeling rushed while others drag. The characters, though interesting in concept, lack depth and nuance. Elise and Layla, the central protagonists, are often one-dimensional and their motivations are unclear at times.
While the world-building is promising, the plot is predictable and lacks the necessary twists and turns to keep the reader engaged. The dialogue, though occasionally witty, often feels stilted and unnatural.
Despite its shortcomings, This Ravenous Fate shows potential. With stronger character development, a more compelling plot, and tighter pacing, Dennings could craft a truly captivating story.

I tried to read this one but I couldn't follow what was going on and never made it through more than the first chapter.

I struggled through this one so I DNF about 50% through.
It was very repetitive and I kept waiting for the story to develop but it didn’t. I wanted more of sticking to the plot versus all the side roads it took to even get a few pages. I felt it was giving too much story/back story to the characters and I had already read all that. It wasn’t progressing the way I imagined and that caused a rough spot for me.
It just wasn’t for me unfortunately.

I’m not saying I didn’t love it — I’m just saying this needed a bit more time and less pages than it currently has. More is not always better.

The characters, however, were very well fleshed out to me and really pulled me through this adventure. I love a good historical fantasy, especially with vampires, and I’m SO excited to see where this goes!

Deliciously dark and full of feminine rage. The atmosphere was so beautifully woven into the story, and 1920s Harlem was such a lush and vibrant backdrop to have against Elise and Layla's story. Also...these two. I love them. I love their anger and their passion and the way they (love) to hate one another.

This was a highly anticipated read of mine. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Love a good slow burn romance. The era was so eccentric with wlw and vampires!

I really wanted to like this. I love vampires. Anything with vampires is an auto read. I did enjoy parts of it, but it needed more polish. It also didn't help that Elise's character seem to be that of the sheltered-annoying-privileged-make-stupid-decisions-that-don't-make-sense kind of personality. I tend to struggle with those, especially in how she treated her supposed second best friend, Sterling. Then again, I have no idea what the heck happened with HIS character. He 180* so fast I got whiplash.

Layla was cool though. I vibe with her.

Anyways, characters aside, the atmosphere of story was great. A little dark and gritty. The ideas and themes about racism, classism, etc were fairly well done. Just overall execution was just lacking. I'm not sure if I'll pick up the sequel.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Now this, this is what I mean when I say enemies to lovers is one of my faves. The pure unadulterated loathing these two have for each other in the beginning of the book? Top tier. Throw in that this technically friends to almost kinda lovers to enemies to allies to lovers… I’m sold.

I love the found family aspect, the 1920s prohibition era vibes (with vampires), and really just everything about this read. I listened to it via audiobook from the PRHAudio Influencer program and thought it was narrated really well. Overall one of my top 10 reads of the year.

Thank you to PRHAudio for the gifted audiobook.

I will admit, I had extremely high hopes for this one. Not that I didn’t like it, but I was expecting much different things and unfortunately it didn’t give me everything I wanted. The first half of the book took so long to get through and the second half I flew through. Not too happy when I do that although it can’t really be helped. I’ve read and enjoyed another book that the audio narrator’s done so I think for the next book (duology, ending next year), I’ll reread this book in audio and keep with audio for the second book.

Elise and Layla were two compelling characters and I liked seeing their journeys. As for whom I liked more, that changed every now and then. Elise would do something I didn’t like so Layla became my favourite. But then Layla betrayed me so back to Elise. The side characters were interesting but at times they seemed to fall a bit flat.

The plot was confusing at times and it didn’t flow as easily as I’d like. Perhaps that’s because this is Dennings’ debut and maybe she’ll improve as time goes by (I hope so). I’ll piece together a plot happily but I like having some jigsaw pieces just fall into place without me putting them in there – if that makes sense. I could definitely see Dennings’ passion for writing and for the genre and that was great to see. I always love reading vampire books because they’re new every time! New meaning the lore, history, rules tend to change and I like that. I liked the history of the setting and felt she wrote well in that – it never seemed like we weren’t in Jazz Age Harlem.

I felt like this was a let down for me. The writing wasn’t bad but the storytelling wasn’t there. I had high expectations from the way this was marketed.