Rating: 4.5/5 stars!

Summary: Elise Saint returns to Harlem five years after her former best friend-turned-reaper Layla Quinn almost ripped her throat out. Elise’s father has built an empire on the business of reaper-killing steel-bullet production and training reaper-hunters. Elise, a pianist and musician at heart, wants none of it, but to protect her younger sister, she takes on the mantle of heir as she is thrust into an investigation into the inexplicable murders of Saint personnel. To make matters worse, she is forced to work with the very same reaper who nearly killed her- her ex-best friend, Layla Quinn. Neither are happy about it, but as they start investigating, both realize there is more to this than meets the eye; and to solve it, they’ll need to trust one another. Can they overcome their past to protect the people they love?

Review: Hayley Dennings has created such a lush and vibrant world as the backdrop for Elise and Layla’s story. Given this is only the first book, and the hints we were dropped in this first book, I am beyond excited for Dennings to expand the world we’ve been given thus far. This world never felt confusing, far-fetched, or unrealistic. The characters truly feel like a part of their world, instead of the world being a backdrop they’ve been placed into for a story. It adds to the entire experience that I should really start talking about even though I have such praise for it!

Characters! Elise holds a special place in my heart. As the daughter of a father with high expectations, much of Elise’s plight with her father in this book felt that much sharper. As the eldest daughter to a younger sister that I want to give the world to, Elise’s decisions and determination to do something she otherwise wouldn’t have felt so true. In this house we hate Tobias Saint.

Layla is such an energetic, likable, and angry character- and she has every right to be, given reapers killed her family, turned her, and she lost everything she’d ever known. She’s snarky, she’s capable, and she’s empathetic to the plight of fellow reapers, even to a fault. She’s the person who helps you find out after you f around. She refuses to take shit, and she gets shit done. Layla and Elise’s banter is so amusing, and true to their situation. The way they fall back into one another is messy and it happens in starts and stops because neither is sure if the other will catch them, but they do, time and time again.

In short, I love Layla and Elise and I’m so excited to see where their relationship heads, especially after the ending…

As for the other characters, I find Valeriya so interesting. Josephine is adorable. Sterling I was rooting for you so bad. I wish there had been more Mei! :,)

This is such a riveting introduction to a dazzling world and splendid characters. This was a genuine treat to read! Thank you again to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for the e-ARC!

In “This Ravenous Fate,” Hayley Dennings spins a captivating tale set in early 20th century Harlem, where race, identity, and the supernatural collide. Dennings blends fantasy and historical fiction against the backdrop of Harlem's lively streets and jazz clubs. What really got me was how the characters, like Layla and Elise, grapple with their identities as women of color and part of the LGBTQ+ community – it added so much depth to their narrative. Layla and Elise deal with the drama between humans and reapers, which mirrors the struggles of real-life marginalized communities. The book throws in some classic tropes like enemies-to-lovers and a touch of Romeo and Juliet. It felt a tad long, but overall, it was a solid read. Shoutout to Netgalley for the ARC! 4.5 ⭐️

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sapphic enemies to lovers set during the Harlem Renaissance with vampires and great black representation? This book should have been a slam dunk for me, but unfortunately it didn’t hit as I hoped it would. I really struggled to get through this one.

First off, the good. I really liked our two main characters as well as most of the side characters. Layla and Elise both had really clear motivations that I found believable and well written. The premise, atmosphere, and setting were also well done and very immersive. The discussions of race and the themes of medical exploitation that have often been inflicted on black bodies throughout US history was compelling as well.

The biggest issues for me with this book was with the pacing and the writing. The central conflict is surrounding a mystery that forces Layla and Elise to work together. This ended up making the plot pretty circular where we would see them meet up to try and unravel what is going on, have some banter, and then go back to their separate worlds for the fallout of whatever mischief they caused. And then it went on in that exact order for a couple hundred pages. The writing was sometimes clunky and awkward and there would occasionally be moments where certain phrases in dialogue would be overused. There were often times when a conversation did not flow very well and that made it hard to stick with.

Also, for an enemies to lovers book, there was so little tension built. I believed that they hated each other, even though it wasn’t explained why until MUCH later into the book, but there wasn’t much done with that aside from repetitive bickering, so the romance fell short for me.

Overall I was impressed by the concept of this book but the execution was a bit lacking. I would definitely see what Dennings does in the future, because I’m sure her writing will only get better with time.

The description of this book was highly appealing to me, but I gave up on it about a 1/4 of the way through. I wasn't interested in the characters and was distracted by grammar stuff. It was too slow. I hope other readers' mileage varies!

Lots of fun and entertaining character dynamics, leaves you with lots of things to think about. Would’ve liked to see more of the time period, but it was great!

3.75- rounded up; I loved the premise of this book and the plot. It was right up my alley and I felt like it was easy to get sucked in and enjoy it. Where it started to lose me a bit was towards the end and how things were finished just because it didn’t exactly feel like it was complete. Would still recommend it to anyone who wants to read about black sapphics and be in the fantasy/murder mystery realm and I definitely plan on getting my own copy when it releases. I also can’t wait until the second book because I’m pretty sure it’s a duology and will tie in any lose ends from the first book.

I was so excited to read this book that’s set during The Harlem Renaissance with Black, sapphic vampires! It really sounds like the perfect book for me. However I could not get into it. I have to DNF at 18%.

From the beginning I felt a disconnect from the book, I just couldn’t put my finger on why. But, my problem with this book is that there are so many long, superfluous scenes. Most of the scenes are too drawn out and don’t add anything to the story. After putting this book down, I started a new one, and I noticed that within two chapters of that book I know more about the story in that book than I’ve learned about the story of This Ravenous Fate in seven chapters (almost 100 pages). So, I won’t be continuing.

I’m very disappointed because I love the thought of this book and I’m so interested to know where the story will go, but it seems as if the story isn’t going anywhere.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

I was very excited for this novel. Black lesbian vampires… it’s a seductive premise despite being YA. However, the chemistry between the leads wasn’t really there. I am excited for whatever else the author may write though.

What can I say? I did not know I needed vampire's fantasy, romance and historical fiction in on book. What I read was not what I expected at all? The author writing style was so good that it kept me engaged and wanting more. What I did not like about the book was the pacing was slow but I do believe that maybe due to the fact this is fantasy. I would will forsure read this author work again.

8 WORDS BECAUSE THIS BOOK ATE DOWN: “BLACK LESBIAN VAMPIRES IN THE 1920’s HARLEM RENAISSANCE.”

The plot was a little slow for my tastes, but the concepts drove me crazy and the vibes made up for it. Be forewarned, the world-building left me with questions through the book that I thought would be unraveled but mostly went unanswered. BUT the premise was too fabulous not to see through. (And to be fair, I was mostly just here for my girls Elise and Layla.)

Thank you Sourcebooks and Netgalley for this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I'm so incredibly disappointed. This had everything to make me give it a 5 stars:
- Vampires
- Slow burn romance that isn't the main plot
- Childhood friends to enemies to lovers
- Mystery in 1920s, Harlem

Unfortunately, all of it fell completely flat.

Although with a solid engaging prologue, the first chunk of the book didn't convince me. I was immediately bored and unmotivated to pick it up again. However, I was hoping that once the mystery started to unfold, it'd be able to pique my interest. I was wrong.

Since the book makes it so obvious who the villains are, the mystery loses its fun immediately. I think the biggest problem was the cast of characters being too small to build a mystery with... If a book wants to make an obvious villain, then the problem shouldn't be how to guess who it is, but how the characters are gonna to take them down. Since the second approach didn't happen, the story ended up getting dragged out with the characters being clueless about what was very obviously happening.

Well, ok... When that happens, and you guess the mystery right away, you then hope the characters and the writing style will keep you from getting bored. Sadly, the book failed to do that, too.

I did like Layla, she was definitely my favorite. I enjoyed how the author confronted Layla's struggles of facing prejudice for being a black woman as well as being a reaper. Elise was also good, although I had to warm up for her at first. The biggest issue was the rest of the cast that, besides being pretty small, are unbelievably forgettable. As I was reading, I couldn't help but get the feeling that they were only there to support or go against the main characters. They didn't feel real, and I didn't believe they had an actual life going on when they weren't interacting with either Elise or Layla. The dialogues felt robotic, and there was a lot exposition of information through them about the "world" that ended up being poorly fleshed out.

I'm not normally excited for the romance in books, but when it's one of my favorite tropes, and the rest of the book was boring the hell out of me, I found myself quickly seeking out for it. And once again, I was left disappointed. And yes, I do feel like Tobias Saint saying this so many times...

The way we know Elise and Layla were childhood friends are by glimpses of memories that they have while in parallels with the present, which is something I usually love to read in books. Yet, this was all the book really offered us of them. It used this repetitive narrative technique over and over, some of the scenes seeming to be randomly thrown at times.

Now, this is where I got frustrated. They were best friends, and then that happened..! I needed more emotion, more suffering! I wanted to feel bad and yet root for them still! Childhood friends to enemies is probably one of the most devastating tropes to read about, and yet... this one left me completely intact. This book lacked in the emotional department because it failed to show them as childhood friends. It was too few scenes. We needed a flashback or the narrative to have this past time-line. It needed way more of them before everything went down, so when they are enemies, the readers are left with a sense of emptiness and sorrow.

Chemistry, where? We have forced proximity, and, once again, I wasn't feeling the emotional connection that was pulling them both to each other. There were also some scenes, especially at the beginning/middle, where the dialogue between Elise and Layla felt forced since there wasn't enough tension build up for them to be saying things like that to each other. I wished it flowed more naturally. The time when I most enjoyed reading about Elise and Layla was in the ending (that was arguebly pretty messy), but at least had some very sweet scenes of them!

Lastly, I wished the book offered us different perspectives. Am I supposed to believe that all reapers wanted a cure? Wouldn't there be humans interested in turning so they could have reapers' advantages? Wouldn't there be any clans planning on or tying to take control over the city and humans? It would be soooo much more interesting if questions like these were explored alongside the humans wanting to use reapers for their own benefits.

It hurts giving this very expected book from a person that I've been keeping up for years now, 1.5 stars. But when a book about vampires, my favorite type of creature, makes them to be so dull (and forget that I'm reading about them?!), gets pitched as a slow burn romance that ultimately didn't convince me, and with a mystery that I guessed right away, then... I had to. I do think the author has great ideas and much to say, so I'm hoping to see more from her in the future.

1.5🌟

Thank you NetGalley for the e-arc in the exchange of an honest review.

I’m still processing how I felt about this story. There was a lot going on with lots of moving pieces and characters. These poor girls are 17-18 going through all this trauma and awful family dynamics. Layla and Elise are beautiful misunderstood forces of nature with some upsetting history.

Daddy Saint is an abusive jerk who I was so upset that he didn’t get what was coming to him.

And Sterling - I have no words. Just pure anger

Pros -
- diversity
- sapphic
- jazz/speakeasy
- unexpected twists


Mehs -
- I had a hard time with the reaper terminology for what is essentially vampires.
- reaper venom needed clarity on its uses and how it was collected/distributed
- I felt like a needed a red yarn map to keep up with who was doing what and working with who to trick all the people.

Thank you for the opportunity to read The Ravenous Fate e-arc. The authors tiktok made me really excited for this new release and it absolutely read up to the hype. One of my favourite reads this year.

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a STELLAR debut from Hayley Dennings!!!

More coherent thoughts and a full review to come, closer to the release date!

I highly recommend checking this out once it is released!!

An immaculately gory tale.
This entire book was honestly incredible. From the beginning to end, the concept of the reapers was intriguing and nothing like I’ve ever seen before as a vampire trope. The relationship between Elise and Layla is the one of the most perfect friends to enemies to lovers I’ve ever read and this combined with the fast-paced action scenes that are equally balanced out with the deep conversational ones made me unable to stop reading. The characters each had their own flaws and insecurities but grew throughout this book, which was the perfect way to show their humanity, even through all the blood and death this book holds. Dennings’ writing also portrays the darkness within this macabre world flawlessly.

I really enjoyed the use of Jazz Age Harlem with the fantasy element in this world. Hayley Dennings does a great job in writing this and leaving use wanting to know what was going on. It was a strong start to this series and thought the vampire element worked well. I thought the characters were really developed and thought the idea of becoming human again worked. It left me excited to read more in this series and from Hayley Dennings.

The book is split into two narrators
1. Elise Saint, 18 y old, attacked by her former bff turned reaper and recently exiled to France to keep her safe, but is now back in NYC.
2. Layla Quinn, 18 y old, turned five years ago into a reaper, and now lives with Valeriya and her clan who have tentative agreements with the Saints.
Set in 1920’s Harlem, during prohibition, it is a really refreshing take with a mostly black cast.
What I found most impressive is the historical fiction, of weaving segregation and other racial difficulties in the book.
That said, I would have loved more worldbuilding, and details on Harlem in that time.
The book is at times very repetitive, with something happening and then both hearing the inner monologue of Elise and Layla. I feel it hampers the flow of the story a bit.
Also so so many death threats. We get it. A reaper wants to reap.
Her parents fall really flat as characters, I wish those would have been more rounded out.
I loved the queer elements in this book.
I gather this is part of a duology, I will not be reading a second part, but would read other books written by her.

While I loved the initial premise of this book (who doesn’t love sapphic vampires), the story itself fell flat for me. The whodunnit plot and the MCs working together could’ve been more interesting had we got more insight as to what happened between them that caused the desecration of their relationship.
It felt to me like there was supposed to be much more tension between Layla and Elise that was left untapped.
There is a lot of potential in this world that I think the author can capitalize on in the second instalment of the series so I’ll definitely be looking out for that.
I would of course recommend this book to people who I know would love it.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

I am absolutely devastated to be giving this book two stars. I genuinely thought I'd love it more. Vampires and lesbians are literally the perfect combination and the prospect of a murder mystery involving Elise (a vampire hunter) and Layla (a vampire, called a reaper in-universe) drew me in like a moth to a flame. And in all fairness to this book, the atmosphere really delivered. It felt exactly like a gritty crime thriller, set in 1920s New York and featuring gangs, speakeasies, and jazz music. It had everything I loved about black-and-white noir movies, not to mention served as an excellent exploration of class and race.

But as a murder mystery and a tale of star-crossed lovers, This Ravenous Fate misses the mark. Elise and Layla investigate the murder of human turned reaper turned human again, and navigate all sorts of high stakes and paradigm shifts because of how such a murder mystery could upend human-reaper relations. However, the investigation seemed almost like a background event, with very little of it happening on page. Not to mention neither Elise nor Layla seemed to show the sense of urgency that such a situation warranted. And finally, the reveal was a bit of a letdown. It was an excellent way to wrap up the book, don't get me wrong—but it was just way too predictable, and almost made me wish for some red herrings here and there. A murder mystery is only as good as its twist, and this twist was supremely lacking.

Elise and Layla as friends-to-enemies-to-lovers didn't work out for me either. Friends-to-enemies-to-lovers is literally my favorite romance trope ever (it's much better for me than plain old enemies-to-lovers, I will not be taking any questions), but I struggled so much with believing how their romance was playing out because of a sheer lack of chemistry. The dynamics of their initial friendship wasn't ever really explored, which left me unable to invest my emotions into their current relationship status. Forced proximity is a great way to build chemistry, but unfortunately I think that trope was severely under-utilized. At best, I can believe that Elise and Layla are definitely physically attracted to one another. But I felt zero emotional connection.

On the technical aspect, I also struggled a lot with the writing. While there were moments where certain phrases and paragraphs were really turned out well, quite a lot of the book felt very clunky, clumsy, and repetitive. Also, I wish there had been more contractions used in the dialogue—the lack of it made me feel like a level of formality was being forced so that I, the reader, would attribute a sense of elegance to certain characters or situations, even when it was unwarranted. It made the reading experience that much harder.

This book had an excellent plot and an important message. In my opinion, it fell a bit short of being truly excellent. I think it just could have undergone a bit more editing or experience. Either way, there's an audience out there for this book as it is and I hope it finds its way into their hands.