I am so here for this vampire Renaissance that's happening and this one is sapphic! I really enjoyed this fantasy and I'm excited for the sequel! Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for my audio ARC!

This was a perfectly fine book. I know I wasn’t the target audience but after hearing all the incredible praise of this book I expected something a bit more world changing.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for the advanced listening copy in exchange for an honest review.
It had me at a story about queer black women in 1920s Harlem, in a world with vampires (reapers), humans and a possible cure for the reapers to become human again.
I enjoyed the plot quite a bit, and angst in the love story because of their situation was great. There were some brutal viscous vampire attack scenes.
However, I think this book was a bit too long. It took a very long time for me to really get into it and I found myself not wanting to pick it back up at the beginning, once we got to the halfway point it really started to pick up.
The audio narration was not my favorite besides the 2 main characters the voices done for some of the men sounded kind of weird and took me out of the story.

I actually ended up not finishing the audiobook and switching back over to the e-book version and here's my biggest reason:
With this being dual POV (including POV changes within the chapters), they should have had two separate narrators because, as it stands at the 20% mark, the single narrator is doing NOTHING to differentiate between the two FMCs. This is making following along a little difficult as well as making the dialogue run together.

It did take me a minute to get into it in the beginning because of the quick switching between characters but once I got a handle of who was who I thoroughly enjoyed the story being told. The characters are very well written and the story is exciting and mysterious and everything I could've wanted it to be. This is definitely a book that I would prefer to have a physical copy to read along with just because a lot happens and at times it was tough to keep up but overall, this was fantastic. I can't wait to see what's next!

This book has a lot of great ideas, just failed to hold my attention. Maybe could've benefited from a tighter plot and shorter page count? Tamika Katon-Donegal does make for great listening though.

Elise and Layla team up to solve a serious of violent murders in Jazz Age Harlem. This is a challenge because they used to be friends but became enemies when Layla turned into a reaper (similar to a vampire). They must overcome their past and confront some brutal truths before the truth is uncovered.

Thank you Netgalley and Hayley Dennings for an arc in exchange for a honest review.

I was really excited to read about a black sapphic vampire story . Especially being set in the 1920s prohibition era in NY. Now this was a true enemies to lover slow burn and I loved the romance portion. I love the historical events added throughout the story. I didn’t rate this higher as the plot became repetitive and was too long. I think 100-150 pages could’ve been taken out and the story would still flow. At the end still don’t know exactly how all of the world building worked but maybe it’ll be explained better in book 2. The narrator knocked the story out of the park, she really had me hooked !

This book is set in a world full of reapers, vampire like creatures, that were born out of a failed medical experiment.

You get the perspective from both the human and reaper side with Elise and Layla. Elise is the daughter of a prominent family, which she is the heir to take over their business (and corruption)). Layla shows us the dangers and realities of being a reaper. I liked how reapers still had a lot of human characteristics and they weren’t rabid and unhinged. Except for the rogue reapers- who had no respect for human or reaper law and killed and fed only off of humans.

Elise and Layla used the best friends, but with Elise’s family, the Saints, being a head advocate for eradicating the reapers and developing a cure to eliminate them, and Layla turning into a reaper, they are now enemies who want each other dead.

Elise has endured multiple reaper attacks, one claiming the life of her sister. And Layla wants another shot at claiming Elise’s life. She’s held back by her clan leader who is trying to prevent an all out war with the Saints and human world.

Elise starts to question the truth about her family and their goal with the reapers and she teams up with Layla to discover more about a potential cure for the reapers. But can they trust anything produced by the saints?

I loved the Harlem, jazz club, prohibition era, civil rights vibes mixed with this vampire read. The narrator was expressive and made this a fun story to listen to!

4/5 stars for me !
Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Get this title on 8/6/24!

I'll start off by saying that the narrator for this audiobook is fantastic! She had so much range and different performance for each different character that she completed added to the experience of this book for me. I will look forward to listening to more books with her as the narrator. On to the book. The premise of the book is great. Vampires (reapers) in the Jazz era of NYC, yes please! I loved the strong character dynamics with each other, the family bonds and the feelings of being true and loyal to what you need to live up to. This book is good, but I really think the book could be great with some more editing. There were phrases that were repeated several times, grammar that just needed a bit of an edit and perhaps some of the story edited it to make the pacing move a bit faster. I felt that the entire book was slow and I do think that with some editing
that could be fixed. I also thought at times that the pacing seemed to slow because the author took too much time really trying to spell out every single aspect of what was happening, rather than relying on the reader to interpret what was happening in the story. I'm hoping that in the final product, the editing and tweaks here and there will help to make this book a big hit.

Thank you author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book!!

Ok the beginning dragged a bit but DAMN! Is it immersive. There were parts where I got a little bit confused and had to go back but it wasn't too bad.

I heard lesbian vampires and that’s all I needed to know so I went in pretty blind. It was crazy! I felt like it had a little bit of everything I could want in a fantasy book!

Also Tamika Katon-Donegal is such a god tier narrater choice!

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.