This Ravenous Fate by Hayley Dennings is an exciting romantic fantasy set in Jazz Age Harlem. The story follows Elise Saint, reluctant heir to a reaper-hunting empire, and Layla Quinn, a young reaper seeking redemption. This book offers a unique and thrilling read for fans of historical fantasy and romance.
Queer, BIPOC, Vampires
Great audiobook narration

This was an atmospheric portrayal of the 20s with vampires living among humans. A cure is being looked into so that the "reapers" won't kill humans. I enjoyed the slow burn of the two FMCs who are constantly hating each other or having feelings for each other. I did feel at times that it was a bit too slow, but overall a good read.

The renaissance of vampires, with the addition of sapphic vampires, makes my little queer heart so happy.

This book was so good? The Queer black vampires just kept you intrigued and held throughout the story. The relationship between Elise and Layla was just so cute. I also loved the underpinnings of female rage.

I need a physical copy for my vampire sapphic shelf like right now.

I read this book again because I was in a slump and it cured me.

4.5 ⭐️

OH MY GOSH IM OBSESSED. Sapphic roaring 20s vampires? YES PLEASE. I have been wanting vampires to make a comeback for a while and I'm so happy it has come in this package. This book excelled in atmosphere, action, suspense, laying out lore, and characterization. I loved these characters so much. They were tangible. Even some villians, their reasoning is so understandable that it truly is a morally grey zone. The relationships in this are so messy and complicated which keeps you constantly on your toes. I was glued to this audiobook as soon as it hit my inbox. I feel like this story also has a bit of nostalgic undertones to it. We've got dual POV in this while I LOVE. I am so excited that this will be a continued series.
I went with 4.5 because there is a slight pacing issue where the middle bit drags and sometimes the conversations would come across very modern for being in the 20s but alot of books do this so I'm not hounding on it too much.

Middle school me would be obsessed with this book. Current me wishes that there had been more on the lore of the vampires. And that the ending hadn't felt so rushed. I very much enjoyed the story and the romance was cute.

DNF at 25%

I really wanted to like this book - BIPOC Sapphic Vampires during the roaring 20s? Yes, please! But alas, I did not.

My issue with this primarily is the very obvious minimal editing. The writing was so clunky. Conversations seemed to happen only for the purpose of feeding the reading information? It was long winded, misplaced, and it sounded like the cartoon villain type monologues that where they tell you what their evil plans were. The sentences were a little weird too, weird enough for me to playback the audio to make sure I heard it correctly. I think this needed a little more time and a lot more editing before it was sent out. The execution fell short of my expectations.

I didn't love the audiobook's performance, this is likely tied back to the poor editing of the text - it felt very lacklustre.

Unfortunately, this one was not for me.

Thank you RBMedia for providing the ARC through NetGalley.

Lesbians. Vampires. The Roaring 20s. Need I say more?

This Ravenous Fate by Hayley Dennings was a fun read! I don’t think it will leave much of an impression on me, but I had a good time. I think this would be a good filler read, especially as it is a quick one.

Story wise, I feel like this book didn’t do anything very unique. It reminded me a lot of “Our Violent Ends” by Chloe Gong. It was also a little slow. I took about a month break in the middle of this book because I didn’t necessarily find myself compelled to pick it up. However, getting the audio ARC helped me a lot. It was easy to pick up after the break, and after some progress I found myself looking forward to reading it again. The narrator of the audiobook did a really good job!

Throughout the book I was eagerly anticipating seeing what would happen with the main couple. I also was intrigued to see where the plot would go.

If you love lesbians and vampires you should totally give this a shot! (and why wouldn’t you!)

Will update with social media links when the book publishes.

4.5

in jazz age harlem, reapers, once-human vampires, are on the rise. luckily for the saint family, this helps their reaper-hunting business, giving them even more power. elise saint is returning home after five years in paris as the business’s reluctant heir. layla quinn is a young reaper haunted by her past. the night she was turned five years ago is also the night she lost her parents and the saints’ protection. when layla is framed for a reaper attack, she works with elise to investigate the murders and how they might be linked to a reaper cure.

i have been waiting to read this book for soooo long, and it was well worth the wait! i always love the “monster x monster hunter” trope, and i thought it played out well in this book. there was the perfect amount of angst and tension between these two! the plot was also interesting, and i like how hayley dennings put her own spin on vampires.

narration: the narrator, tamika katon-donegal, did a wonderful job of bringing this story to life through her narration! i highly recommend the audiobook.

I ended up DNF’’ing the book at 25%. While the story is there I wasn’t a fan of the narrator doing the different voices.

I love the Harlem Renaissance and I love vampires, but the two together and you just can’t lose!

Ok ok, I wasn’t blown away by this novel but it was a good read! The plot and story details were great, I think the execution could have been better. I’m looking forward to book 2.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the audiobook version of "This Ravenous Fate," beautifully narrated by Tamika Katon-Donegal. Set against the atmospheric backdrop of Harlem in the 1920s, Dennings weaves a captivating tale where the world of reapers—vampires with their own set of complex rules and loyalties—comes alive in an enticing way.

The story revolves around Elise, a young black woman striving to honor the Saint family's legacy while grappling with the haunting memories of her past and her once-close friendship with Layla, who has now become a fearsome reaper. Their dynamic is rich and layered, filled with the tension of their divergent paths. The friendship-turned-complex relationship between Elise and Layla serves as the emotional core of the narrative. The journey they embark on is one fraught with danger and moral dilemmas, as they uncover secrets that not only threaten the fragile balance between humans and reapers but also test the boundaries of their relationship.

"This Ravenous Fate" is a gripping tale that perfectly melds adventure, romance, and supernatural intrigue. It's a must-read for fans of dark fantasy and lovers of strong character-driven narratives. If you're looking for a book that will keep you on the edge of your seat while tugging at your heartstrings, look no further—download it now!

This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Hayley Dennings, RBmedia/Recorded Books, and NetGalley.

This is set during one of my favorite time periods (selectively, of course, because lynching was terrorism) in Black US history for cultural contributions to the arts🥰. I love what little film exists with Black folks from this time period up to the 2nd world war. I devour novels written during this period. Just an era in Black US history I adore. Now you add vampires with an interesting origin story PLUS LGBTQA+ and I'm soldt!

I really enjoyed the magic system. Reapers are a type of vampires that come into existence from medical experimentation on enslaved Black folks in what becomes the USA. This is set in New York in the roaring 20's and even features The Cotton Club! The story is action packed and paced perfectly. It held me in a chokehold and not a single thing was accomplished today until I finished this story.

I loved everything about this. I had this book on my releases to read list prior to Netgalley offering this title. Now that I've read it, I've ordered this myself as well as recommended this to my husband and book friends. I eagerly await the next book in this series. I plan to pre-order book 2 as soon as its available. I'm gonna have to find this author on social media to find when this next book is out. 'Cause look, I need to what happens next.

The narrator of this audiobook is Tamika Katon-Donegal. I rather enjoyed her narration style. This had rotating POV characters but this narrator mostly just fades into the background. Almost like a soundtrack for a movie or TV. I usually prefer multiple narrators for rotating POV characters but in this case I prefer how this was handled. I'll have to seek out other audiobooks narrated by Tamika. This was a treat.

Thank you to Hayley Dennings, RBmedia/Recorded Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.

Thank you so much for this arc of This Ravenous Fate by Hayley Dennings. Once I saw that I got an arc for this audiobook I cried happy tears. This is my most anticipated realease of 2024. I love this book so much! 5 stars for sure! This boook is everything and i cannot wait until the next book in the series.

This was a fine story. It took awhile for me to figure out the timeframe because some things seemed out of place what the time period I thought it was set in. There is a larger cast of characters but we focus on primarily 2 FMCs. I’m not sure I was convinced of them not liking each other nor of their love. It felt more like we were just told and not shown. I’m undecided if I will continue when the next book comes out.

Thank you netgalley and rb media for the free ALC. My opinions are being left voluntarily. What a great debut. Very visual book easily adapted to tv or movies. My only tiny thing was it felt long for a Ya book. A few tweaks and easily could have been adult. This book is neccessary for kids of colour to have a vampire story as too many are white vampires.

Excited to see what the auth2ir writes next.

4.5/5☆

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with the ARC for this story.
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

I enjoyed this story but what's not to love about a sapphic vampire love story. I'm not sure if Layla or Elise were bisexual or lesbian but either way they were awesome. I did feel like their relationship wasn't built up enough though to go from enemies to lovers. For half the story I almost thought that I was wrong and that Layla and Elise weren't endgame (there's a few vampire stories coming out around the same time so I thought I mixed up my stories). Neither of them seemed to have any feelings for each other besides animosity. Neither of them in their POV's even alluded to the fact that they felt anything other than friendship for one another. I think the only sign I saw was that Layla was jealous of Sterling being close to Elise but that could have been interpreted as her being jealous as a friend. It felt like all of their feelings for each other only came out AFTER Layla bit Elise and that made me feel like Elise was only enthralled by Layla's venom from her bite.

I was also very upset when the only asian character in the book was killed off not only by her best friend (Layla) but in the most gruesome way possible. I was so excited for her when she was turned into a human because I wanted her to be able to go find her family. Then she was literally torn to shreds and I can't forgive that.

The only other part that I didn't like was how quickly Sterling turned on Elise. They're supposed to be best friends. They seemed to have this really strong bond and yet... Sterling threw all of that away? He was so worried for Elise the whole story and when he flipped suddenly to her dad's side it just felt wrong. I didn't care for that part.

I'm not sure if I'm going to read the second novel when it comes out (because it does end on a bit of a cliffhanger) but we'll see.

A note on this audiobook: I loved the narrator and was glad when I was approved for this audiobook because I was having a hard time reading the PDF. Listening to Tamika read it though breathed some life into this story that I needed. I truly enjoyed hearing her voice.