I love me a vampire read but bonus when they are black vampires in the 1920s!

It was written so well and I absolutely loved the vibes in this story. Layla and Elise were it for me! I loved their love and them working together to figure out what was going on with the vampires in their city.

This is an opposites attract that you can't help but be on their side.

I wanted to love this book, as I love a great vampire story. But, it just fell a bit short and I really had to push through to finish it.

This Ravenous Fate by Haley Dennings was a fascinating and atmospheric read that pulled me in with its Jazz Age Harlem setting and unique twist on vampires. The worldbuilding is rich, with the gritty, glamorous nightlife of 1926 Harlem mixing with the terrifying rise of reapers—vampires created through haunting, brutal histories. I loved the tension between Elise and Layla, former friends turned enemies forced to work together. Their dynamic was compelling, full of tension and unresolved feelings, which added an emotional depth to the story.

The pacing was a bit uneven for me—I kept getting distracted by other books along the way—but whenever I returned to it, I found myself immersed again. The blend of historical fantasy, reaper mythology, and the looming threat of danger kept the stakes high, and I’m really intrigued by the mystery surrounding the reaper cure. I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds in the next book.

Overall, if you’re into dark, atmospheric fantasy with complex characters and a richly detailed world, This Ravenous Fate is worth the read!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced review copy!

When I saw 1920s Harlem and vampires, I knew I had to pick up This Ravenous Fate. In this alternate New York vampirism is a disease infecting humans and turning them into reapers. Our story follows Elise Saint—the daughter of a powerful business owner whose company hunts reapers—and Layla Quinn—Elise’s once-best friend, now turned a reaper. When a series of violent attacks involve reapers that somehow turned human again before death, Elise and Layla have to work together to find out what—or who—is behind them.

❤️ What I loved: A fun 1920s setting, vampires, a plot with lots of drama, and a sapphic friends-to-rivials-to-lovers romantic side-plot.
💔 What I didn’t love: Many of the characters felt somewhat one-dimensional or static–I wanted more development from the characters along with the plot. Changes in choices they made seemed random then instead of being tied to their growth.

I am a little sad, because this book really should have been a slam dunk for me, but it didn’t draw me in how I hoped. I could definitely see this book having an audience among some of my YA readers who want more paranormal stories, so this one is a likely buy for my school library. It definitely seems like this will have a sequel, and there’s enough here to make me intrigued to pick that up in the future.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5 (3-3.5)

Acknowledgments & Disclaimers ✨ Thank you to NetGalley, Hayley Dennings, and Sourcebooks Fire, for providing an ARC and the opportunity to share an honest review of this book. ✨ All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own. ✨ My reviews and ratings strive to evaluate books within their own age-demographic and genre.

I had a hard time with "This Ravenous Fate." The plot was super slow, and I had to force myself to finish the book. I really wanted to complete it so I could review it, but it was hard going. The writing is beautiful, but the plot wasn't my cup of tea, and I didn't connect with the characters. I think the book might have been better if I had listened to it on audiobook, but I still would recommend it to teens or anyone who frequently enjoys YA.

A special thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for gifting me an arc in exchange for an honest review.


I will be honest, this book sounded so up my alley. Especially because the author on Twitter framed it as a catradora type of friends to lovers to enemies to lovers story. I just was bored out of my mind while reading this. The characters didn’t speak to me, they fell flat and I was just not interested in the plot whatsoever. I think the concept of a murder mystery is just not for me. While I did enjoy the angst between the two main characters, it was just few and far between that it was not enough to keep me going. I tried, I really did. It just did not live up to the expectations I had.

4.5-4.75
I absolutely loved this book! It had everything I could’ve asked for : a historical setting, a tension-filled enemies to lovers romance, a fantasy plot, and beautiful writing. I loved the character development that went on for both mcs but I’ll admit I was a bit disappointed when the romance happened, it felt a bit rushed and resolved too quickly. I also didn’t really understand the ending, I found it a bit underwhelming- I think the book would’ve been perfect if there’d been a powerful twist at the end, but it didn’t really feel that way. I would absolutely recommend this book, especially for fans of Chloe Gong’s books, and will definitely be reading the second book when it comes out!

Dual POV, Sapphic Vampires, Jazz Era Setting, Childhood friends to enemies, Female Rage, Vampire x Vampire Hunter

This Ravenous Fate sinks it's teeth into readers from the very first chapter. Elise Saint and Layla Quinn start as childhood friends but their relationship becomes strained as Elise leans into her family's legacy of vampire hunting. Plenty of plot twists, witty banter, a touch of murder mystery, and mutual pining makes this book a thrilling read. The romance between Elise and Layla is written so tenderly the reader can't help but fall in love with them. Looking forward to the next book in the duology.

I was given this book by the publisher in return for an honest review.

Here we have a sapphic vampiric vicinity friends to enemies to kind of friends/lovers?

We have two ex-friends one human another, well not. They band together to solve a "murder" only to find the people they thought they could trust are infact the exact people they shouldn't be. Grudges are held. Punishments are given to those who shouldn't. And a lot of people are easily swayed.

We have the heiress with a crappy family and even crappier best friend. And a vampire with a fill in mother who can't be trusted.

We essentially have a spoiled rich girl who idolizes her father take an entire book to stand up for herself and say "no".

I didn't love it. It has potential but I feel like the first book was just an entire layup for the second.

3⭐

DNF @ 40%

I never thought sapphic vampires could get boring, but here we are. DNFing an arc feels like sacrilege but I can't do this anymore. This book was just so damn boring. The characters were one dimensional and annoying...I could not root for them. The premise promised decadence but there was none. I was expecting top notch vibes from this. Nothing happened for the first 40%, at least. You know you should DNF a book if you find yourself putting it down after every couple of pages.

Deliriously good. Rich, deep, full of atmosphere. Didn’t want it to end. Can I give it ten stars, please?

5⭐!!

Thank you Sourcebooks and Netgalley for this eARC!!

This book was delicious. The setting, the tropes, the slow burn ANGST. I really think this might be one of my favorite vampire books I've ever read. I cannot wait for book 2!!

I quit. I'm SO DISAPPOINTED!!!! This was one of my most anticipated release of the year, I've been following Hayley on YouTube for so long and I've heard her talk about it at length, so yes, I was highly anticipating and just super excited for it. WELL. I just don't want to force myself to read a novel I'm clearly not enjoying, for several reasons: 1) my biggest issue with this was the LACK OF ANY FRICKING DESCRIPTIONS!!! Ma'am, you're allowed to describe buildings, places and their atmosphere, it's not because one single moron on TikTok says she skips anything that's not dialogue that you can't write descriptions for us readers who actually read and enjoy them! I mean it's 1920s NYC, prohibition era, gangs, vampires, this has a specific atmosphere in my mind, the speakeasies, the dark alleyways, meetings in the backrooms of dingy bars for crying out loud. We sometimes were told about the music or the seats, which was nice, but clearly insufficient and that meant I wasn't exactly immersed in the book, I felt I wasn't let in that very secretive world and eventually just didn't care. 2) It doesn't help that I stopped halfway through the book but I found the characters rather shallow, especially Elise, I just didn't seem to be able to fully get a grasp on her as I would a character that actually felt like a real person. 3) I don't know if it's because it's meant to be secretive or what, and the fact that, again, I didn't get to the end but so far, I had questions on reaperhood that seemed pretty basic and should've been answered early on, my main one being: does reaperhood only affect Black people? Or are only Black people affected in this book because of the segregation? And I think I would've liked to have more explanations and a deeper understanding of how much does being Black and reaper coexist in this world, the social implications of it. We are told but I suppose I wanted more on the intersectionality of those identities in this world and just how a society would work with the reapers. 4) I think, at its core, I wanted this book to be adult. It started out conversations on racism and intersectionality that I think were amazing but maybe too shallow for my liking. The themes would've been more fleshed out for my liking and Dennings would've truly been able to lean into that very horrific/ sorry vibe she had going on, plus some more spindles of homoeroticism because I could tell she wanted it to be there but couldn't because of the genre. It seemed like the world building was an afterthought, that ended up still being pretty decent or even good in some aspects, but between the lack of atmosphere and a world that still seemed pretty opaque to me despite our 2 main characters being raised and parts of said world, the immersion factor was absolutely NOT there for me. 5) The writing just wasn't good. When you have a secondary character, who grew up aware of the working of this world, asking questions for the sole benefit of the reader in the following format "reapers feed from humans, is that right?", and yes, it's the clumsiness that comes with your first novel, BUT WHERE WAS THE GODDAMN EDITOR?!? The writing was also telling and not showing me quite often, so that didn't help.
I know a lot of those complaints also come from me not finishing the book but I don't want to force myself when I'm not exactly having an amazing time and feel very disappointed because of how excited I was for this book.
Moral of the story, don't be excited for books.

Thanks so much to the publisher and netgalley for the ARC! I have been anticipating this book for a million years and it did not disappoint!!! The themes were deftly explored, the romance super well executed, and the tension was INSANE. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time and I cannot WAIT for book 2. A brilliant achievement of a debut!

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

When I heard the blurb for this book I was super excited to read it! But it kinda fell short of my expectations. I’ll start off with what I really liked. I liked the premise of the book, enemies to lovers but make it vampire x vampire killer. Immediately intrigued. I also really liked the setting of the 1920’s it really added to the overall ambiance and feel of the story. I thought the way the author interwove the concepts of race, class with the storyline was really interesting.

The bones were there but there were just one too many things I didn’t really enjoy. The story just progressed really slowly but also really fast at the same time? For the first 70% of the story I felt like nothing was really happening and then the last 30% everything suddenly happened and it was out of nowhere? I didn’t really feel like we got the setup to the conclusion throughout the book if that makes sense?

Overall I think a younger audience would enjoy this more than me. But I will definitely be looking out for more of this authors work!

Absolutely loved this book!

This was exactly what I wanted from this book. It’s got vampires, it’s queer and it’s unapologetically black. I loved the world building, the story and the characters. However, the plot and the ending was a little lacking in my opinion. It was good, don’t get me wrong, but there was just a little “umph” that I was missing.

I’m really excited to read more from this author and more books in this series!

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for this e-arc. All thoughts are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the gifted copy.

It took me a while to get through this book. I had to keep setting it down and picking it back up . I thought the premise of this book sounded wonderful and I believe the author created some uniqueness it just fell a little flat for me. I think it just needed a little more development.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I absolutely adored the concept of this book. If it has queer vampires, I'm automatically on board. Add 1920s Harlem and I'm even MORE on board. This book was such a fun read despite not feeling quite fleshed out as much as it could be.

I think what disappointed me the most was the pacing. Some parts were very slow and dragged on, and other parts were very quick, so much so that I felt like I missed important information. Avoiding spoilers, the end was VERY sudden and felt so rushed. I felt like it jumped from scene to scene drastically in the last 10% of the book, and I was left confused enough to re-read portions to understand what had happened.

All this being said, I am quite enchanted with the love/hate relationship between Elise and Layla. I found them to be wonderful characters with a lot of depth, especially as they grapple with mental health issues, familial issues, racism, sexism, classism, and loss. I look forward to seeing where the sequel takes them and their relationship.

Publication date: 6 August 2024

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC.

The premise of this book is amazing, and I absolutely love the Jazz-Age New York setting.
The prologue also had me hooked, so I'm quite sad that I ended up DNFing.

The writing style was the biggest downfall of the book, it felt clunky and the dialogue didn't feel natural. I had a hard time immersing myself in the setting.

I was also confused by the character dynamics, and wish there had been more explanation of the backstory between the two FMCs.
Maybe it follows later in the book, but given that it is already a very big plot point early in the book, I personally felt like it would have been necessary to have a better understanding of their connection.

I'm sure this book will find its audience and I would definitely give the author another try in the future.

I didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. The potential was definitely there, just feel like it lacked in places.