I wanted to like this book more than I actually did. The whole concept was really cool … vampires & the American Civil War. But the execution wasn’t quite there.
It tried to do some flashbacks with the timeline but I wish it was told consecutively (except for the 300+ year flashbacks). We only know Jerusalem and Alexei after they’ve become friends <spoiler>and they ARE friends despite the bickering that they aren’t. </spoiler> I would have liked to see their friendship develop linearly instead of through flashbacks. By doing in this way, I think it lost a lot of the impact and potential emotional tension.
Also Jerusalem’s narrative voice was great. I loved how it was written and think really added to her character. But Alexei fell flat to me. He seemed lovesick and that was all.
I understand the balance between world-building and plot but we are suddenly introduced to <spoiler>werewolves and Sasquatch's with very little reference. </spoiler> It felt a bit too much without even hinting at it priorly. It was hard to tell what basis the story has in the Civil Wars besides some minimal links.
I did like it but thought it could have benefited from some more edits.

There are some heavy topics discussed here but the romance out weighs it. I am a sucker for a good romance and vampires. I really liked the setup of a white vamp and a slave girl fighting together during the Civil War and BFF to boot. Would love some more adventures with them.

This one unfortunately wasn’t for me. I struggled to get into it and unfortunately had to DNF @ 20%. While it wasn’t for me, I definitely think there are many who will enjoy!

Thanks to Netgalley & SMP for the chance to read this one.

I really wanted to like this but I quickly realized that this story wasn’t for me and that’s okay. I definitely hope that others enjoy it more. The writing wasn’t terrible but I struggled to stay within the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me and e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

First let me say that this book maybe should have a trigger warning. There is a lot about torture and abuse in this story.

I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about this book. I was super intrigued by the idea of vampires during the Civil War and what part they would have played in slavery. The plot of this book was very interesting and I liked the mix of fantasy elements with actual historical situations.

At first I couldn’t put this book down, but when I got to about 65% I started to lose a little interest. I think that my main issue was the romance. Individually I really enjoyed Lex and Jerusalem. I also liked the will they/won’t they at the beginning, but once Lex admitted his feelings and Jerusalem continued to treat him fairly badly even though he hadn’t done anything that warranted that treatment, I got frustrated. I know obviously she has a lot of trauma to work through, but her treatment of him seemed excessive.

I also didn’t love all the time jumping. It was confusing because it wasn’t really delineated clearly. There would be a page break and then I wouldn't realize that the sections I was reading was happening in the past until I was a few paragraphs in. It made my reading experience feel choppy.

Overall, this was a really interesting concept for a book and there were definitely some parts that I really enjoyed.

What a fantastic concept for a story. The Civil War, the Underground Railroad, vampires, werewolves, and vampire hunters. If I were a teen this would check all my boxes including the ones I didn't know I had.

I've been contemplating how I should review this. As a woman in my 40s who has ready many many books in my lifetime, this was a story that kind of fell short of my expectations. I loved the idea of the thing. I loved the setting and the backstory. But every time it was a section where the main characters interacted, it was awful. The MMC was in love with the FMC from the beginning, and she was supposedly his friend. Frienemy? She was always putting him down, even when she was a attracted to him, while he was always trying to make her feel safe. Then when the frienemies become more, there is over-the-top pet names and cutsie fawning IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR! On top of this, it is set in a time period, but the dialogue is constantly using modern slang and terminology.

I actually kept thinking this was Twilight for historical fantasy. SO many people loved Twilight. It is exactly the story formula for a teenager to potentially fall in love with history and learn something. That definitely redeems my experience a little bit, to be honest. I'm no longer a teenager, so it's ok that this book wasn't for me. I think there is definitely a reader base who will absolutely love this story.

Content contains violence, trauma from enslavement, and nudity.

Thank you to St. Martin Press and Netgalley for sending me a complimentary ARC. All the opinions in this review are my own.

Being from Virginia, I absolutely love Civil War era books and this one was an absolute delight. An incredible blend of supernatural and history!

This book started off strong, but somewhere near the middle I felt like I had enough. I don’t like to DNF so I did finish, though it took a while to get through. First, there is the use of modern words when this takes place during the civil war. Second, the FMC does nothing but whiplash HARD back and forth between loving the MMC and trying to kill him or physically harming him for a majority of the book. The premise of vampires and other paranormals being involved in the war could have had many possibilities, none of which were used as the time period is just background noise. I’ve seen this called fun and romance and I don’t feel it’s either. It’s black pain (as the author notes) and toxic relationships.

For some reason I’ve been struggling with fantasy books this month. It’s not even the books, I just can’t really get into them for some reason.

I’m going to come back and give this book another chance in the future because I just couldn’t really get into it. I think the second time around will be better for me.

I still think others should read it and give it a shot, however. The premise alone sounds great, but for now I’ll have to settle for a 3 star.

The Dangerous Ones

Ahhhhh. The premise is so amazing. Overall the story is an enjoyable read but there are a few things that kept pulling me out of the story. The language was pretty modern and normally that wouldn’t bother me but they used a lot of modern slang and it just didn’t work for me. And then there was the romance. Alexi’s devotion was incredible, and not necessarily for the best, because he was being abused throughout the whole story. I just can’t get behind that. Especially in a young adult novel.

Content: war, slavery, gore, death, physical & verbal abuse, hate crimes, racial discrimination, gun violence, references to sexual abuse

I loved the vast cast of supernatural characters! It wasn’t explained and it was just there. I’m sure some that will bother some people, but I was just along for the ride.
Alexei and Jerusalem grew on me. At first I wasn’t sure if I liked them, as individuals or as couples, but by the end, I enjoyed their complexity and flaws. Sometimes the balance between romance and action was off, but each part was interesting to me.
I love alternate history and mostly I think this was well done. I think it would have enhanced the story if the world was broadened a little and we saw more plantations and more of the South. But that could have also introduced a lot of characters that didn’t go anywhere. So I can’t really fault the author for keeping a right focus on Jerusalem and Alexei’s mission.
Overall I enjoyed it, but it might not be for everyone. If you like stories that drop you in a world and just go, then you will like this one. If you liked Dread Nation by Justina Ireland, you will enjoy this one because the alternate history and strong woman vibes are similar in this one.

The premise of this story is so good - what would the Civil War have been like if vampires, werewolves, and humans with supernatural abilities were involved? I'm always excited to see historical fantasy and a romantic subplot doesn't hurt. I was pumped to dive in.

Our main characters fight with the Union Army. Jerusalem is a Saint, a human with supernatural abilities. She escaped slavery in Virginia one year ago and was trained to fight by Alexi. Alexi is a 3000 year old vampire (yes, another old guy paired with a young woman), one of the few fighting for the Union. Most vampires, including the one that originally "turned" him and her companion, fight for the Confederacy. No spoilers here, but suffice it to say our main characters have shared adversaries.

Unfortunately, the language used here, especially by main character Jerusalem, is so modern that it's very difficult to stay in the 1863 setting. "Dumbass" was used so often that I did a search of the word and found it 17 times. We also have "stank-ass," "cute-ass," "fancypants," "hella," and mention of thread count with sheets. At one point Jerusalem talks about having a concussion. I'm guessing it was a deliberate choice to have modern words used, but it did not serve the book. It pulled me out of the story over and over again.

Another major issue is the constant physical and verbal attacks from Jerusalem towards Alexi, who is her companion throughout the story. Alexi loves Jerusalem from the start. We get scene after scene of her calling him names and literally attacking him. He takes it every single time. Had I known I was in for an abusive relationship, I don't think I would have read this book.

In The Dangerous Ones, you can expect:
Vampires x Demigods
US Civil War Battlegrounds
1863 Historical Paranormal Fantasy
Revenge
Training & Banter
Forced Proximity
He Falls First
Star-Crossed Love
18yo Stabby FMC
Dual, 1stP POV
Upper YA

I'm always up for enemies to star-crossed lovers, and liked that we had a dual POV from both of our main characters. Both were broken for different reasons, and the Black FMC called out the White MMC on privilege and being an evil vampire, but they were able to see the true person beneath all the protective fronts they put on.

I liked the vampire lore, it reminded me of the Vampire Diaries world. They stay the same age mentally as when they were turned, so the MMC still feels and acts 18 even though he's over 300 years old. They can shapeshift, and our MMC chooses the form of a crow or wolf most often. Most of the American Vampires have taken up with the plantation owners, and keep the sky so full of smoke that they can go out in the daytime. These Vampires are working with the Confederate army. There are also other paranormal creatures, and it is interesting how they work into the Underground Railroad.

Rating 3.5 stars, rounding up to 4. This was a hard book to rate. I enjoyed the story and do think that these types of slave redemption stories to need to be told, but a lot of the writing was cringy or confusing. The FMC Jerusalem spoke as a southerner would at that time, but also used many modern phrases, so it felt out of place one way or the other.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing an eARC for my honest review

I really, really wanted to enjoy this, and felt it had SO much potential at the beginning. Unfortunately, it’s very quickly fallen flat.

Let’s start with what I enjoyed: Jerusalem as a character; her unbridled rage, her determination, her wit, her singular focus on revenge for her family. I love the spin on history, with exploration of America’s deathly and unjust system of slavery, but also make it rife with magic and vampires. The set up for this is just SO good.

Unfortunately, after the first scene (which was KILLER, I might add) we jump far enough into the future that we’ve already met our ancient vampire love interest, but he is also *already* in love with Jerusalem. As the reader, I felt completely robbed of the experience of getting to follow these characters as this attachment grows. After that, everything just felt flat and rushed. I felt like I’d been a little bit pulled back in by the side characters, but then there are plot developments that inevitably leave those characters behind.

Ultimately this just wasn’t for me. Maybe some won’t be so bothered by the pacing of the romance and the time that’s been skipped, but it overall hindered my enjoyment of the story. I’ll try this author again in the future, though, as it may have just been one artistic choice that seriously didn’t work for me as opposed to the overall writing style and talent not being up my alley. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this eArc!

Jerusalem is a Saint determined to kill vampires, especially after her family had been enslaved and murdered by one. She's forced to work with Ancient Vampire Alexei against the Confederate Army and the vampires who benefitted from slavery. Alexei fights for the Union’s side and hates vampires as well. Jerusalem is determined to help Black people and change the course of the war, destroy the vampire that killed her family, and kill the god that ruined everything.

Saints are humans with extra abilities like speed or strength, and this allows them to use silvered weapons to kill vampires. There are Ancients as well as New Bloods, and the South became home to New Blood vampires using slaves for their blood. Jerusalem is the only survivor of her slave family and escapes north, using her strength to kill Southern vampires. Alexei had once been tortured by an Ancient Vampire when he was turned, so he hates the beings that most are. We see the horrors of slavery as well as his torture by vampires who see humans as little more than animals. It's a bloody and stressful situation, and the mission to kill the vampires responsible for their family’s deaths is a tense and dangerous one, triggering even more problems to overcome.

This is a vampire story as well as a romance novel, with lots of tropes for each novel type contained in it. As much as there's Black pain due to memories of slavery and the torture that it inflicted, there's also the joys of Jerusalem in freedom and getting the chance to discover what that means for her. She and Alexei are confronted with the misery of the past and strive to keep going forward. That's a great message nestled within an action romance story.

A historical fantasy with vampires, werewolves, and even a Sasquatch. Set during the Civil War, the reader watches the romance develop between an escaped slave with supernatural strength and speed and a vampire. As they fight both the Confederate army and an Ancient vampire, the pair also discover their love for each other. A fun and exciting historical romantasy!

Jerusalem is a Saint who is out for vengeance against those that enslaved her and she is a BEAST. 👏 She’s got these awesome powers that she puts to use in ☠️ slavers and vampires! Alexei is the golden retriever vampire MMC to her grumpy FMC. I love him. They deserve the world together!
I REALLY enjoyed this fantasy historical look on the Civil War. There was adventure, vengeance, romance, and some fun lore like Van Helsing being the first Saint- people who are gifted with superhuman abilities! This was so interesting and a fun read for sure!

Here is my ONE thing that I didn't like, Jerusalem is pretty mean. Like, immature mean to Alexei. So this is DEFINITELY YA.

This story just didn’t work for me. I was expecting a historical romance which didn’t deliver. There is modern slang throughout it which takes away from the historical period. The romance was completely one sided. I will pass next time on this author.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. 3.5, rounded up to 4 stars. I was extremely excited for this book, the premise of being in the civil war but let's include vampires drew me in. I both requested the audiobook and eARC and I did enjoy the audiobook more (I rated a 3.75). I think the writing is done very well, the characters (who I enjoyed) and story just fell a little flat for me overall. That being said, I would still fully recommend this book and author to others!

The Dangerous Ones is a historical fantasy set in the civil war times. It’s about a girl with demigod like abilities and her journey with those times and dealing with vampires.

I really liked this book. The story development was nice and it went well. I liked seeing the growth in the main characters as the story went on.

I recommend this book if you like historical fantasies, vampires, and stories about civil war times.