I really enjoyed this book! It was fast paced and fun, and the characters were believable. The relationship between Elise and Layla was fun to follow with their back and forth that continued all the way through the end. I'm giving it four stars because some of the decisions at the end felt like they didn't match the character development or were purely being used to push the plot along. Otherwise, I highly suggest! I would love to see where this story goes, especially with where we ended with Elise at the very end!

Thank you so much for the ARC!
The writing was amazing and I loved the relationship between the two protagonist. I’m not usually into historical fiction, but the setting was very interesting to me.

Thanks, Sourcebooks Fire, for the arc!

I’ve decided I’m a big fan of vampire books in the 1920s. Maybe it started with my love of The Originals and all the flashbacks to that era on the TV show? THIS RAVENOUS FATE by Hayley Dennings is a fantasy set in Jazz Age Harlem, and it’s the humans vs. the vampires, aka reapers. I always love when an author finds a new name for fangtastic beasts. Elise Saint, the heir to one of the strongest human organizations, is forced to work with Layla Quinn, a reaper with a vendetta against the Saints and a past with Elise.

It took me a bit to get into the story. It wasn’t until Layla and Elise were forced to work together that I really started to enjoy it. There were a couple of unnecessary characters unless they will play an essential role in the next book. Otherwise, their interactions with Elise and/or Layla were just filler to me. Then there were the people I wish we had more time with, and it was just like sprinkles of time, so I hope they appear more in the next book.

Would I reread this? Yes. I want to try it on audio because I think it would be an awesome listen. Am I excited for the final book in the duology? Yes! At first, I thought this was going to be a standalone and cleaned up all nicely, which I wasn’t really feeling. Then, the last few chapters changed things up and left me with an excellent cliffhanger that excited me for book two!

Content warnings: (per the author in the book) This book includes scenarios involving emotional abuse, obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety, suicidal ideation, violence, murder, and mentions of racism and a race massacre.

Queer black vampires in Harlem. And it’s everything I could have ever wanted. The saint family is very anti reaper and has built an entire legacy on that fact. Elsie saint must team up with her old best friend turned reaper to stop nefarious deeds. The writing style elegantly addresses racism and weaves a beautiful mystery.

I NEED BOOK TWO ASAP! The characters were amazing, the plot was fantastic, and the era the book is written in, EATS!!! I LOVE the Harlem renaissance, so this was right up my alley! Once again, an amazing author who is goals for me!

I really enjoyed this book. Sapphic black enemies to lovers. I need more black lesbian love! I can’t wait for book 2

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing me with an arc of this book, in exchange for an honest review. This book was one of my most anticipated books of the year, so many individuals on book twitter have been buzzing about it for a while. As a queer woc, I was so excited to dive into this world! This book had the potential to be amazing but the pacing didn't work for me. The themes were fantastic, and the characters were interesting, but I wanted more going on between our two protagonists. The book is marketed as a sapphic vampire romance but there was barely any romance. I adore friends-to enemies-to lovers, but I just didn't think that there was enough context to believe that they wanted to become lovers. I didn't hate the story, I just think that it could have been executed more neatly. I won't give up on this series or Dennings, I think that This Ravenous Fate was a noble start.

3,5 I was intrigued by this immersive tale of sapphic Black vampires set in 1920s Harlem. The author explores themes of racism, class and wealth, offering a unique perspective.

*Key Strengths*

- Unique blend of historical fiction, fantasy and LGBTQ+ representation
- Thought-provoking commentary on social issues

*Areas for Improvement*

- Editing refinement for smoother pacing and authorial voice
- Potential for further character development

*Overall*

A compelling read with immense potential! With refinement, this book can soar.

Loved these violet girls so much. The writing and story is super exciting, atmospheric, well thought out, and left me excited to continue into book two!!

This is one of my favorite reads of the year! It automatically kept me engaged and on the edge of my seat from the very beginning. Who doesn't love a book about vampires and humans with some romance!

Thank you for this arc!

I absolutely loved this one. The overall setting was so cool because we got so into the history aspect of the 1920s in the United States and we went into race which mixed with the vampire/reaper aspect was done so well. The sapphic romance was also to die for (pun intended).

This was really really good !!

I loved the vampire lore, how it is mixed with Black History, and i am so excited for the sequel of this duology, as we will surely get more 👀

Elise and Layla's emotions really pierced through to me. Especially Elise with her familial issues and anxiety. I actually had to put down the book for a while because of it.

The dynamic between the two is compared by the author to couples like Vi and Caitlin (Arcane), or Catra and Adora (Shera). I definitely saw the latter, as I'm more familiar with them, in Elise and Layla. It was so entertaining, and I will always love an Catadora type couple for sure 🙂‍↕️

For the few negative issues, there was just some syntax that didn't make sense to me sometimes, some moments that were too strechout. Towards the 60-70% mark there was a slow down moment, there was a sort of tangle of plot and emotions that confused me a bit. (Full disclosure tho for the negatives : english is my second language.)


Overall a very poignant and entertaining read, that got me excited for the sequel 🥰

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC, I'm so glad i could read one of my most anticipated read of the year early !

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.