This Ravenous Fate

The debut books just get better and better every year!    And this year we have BLACK LESBIAN VAMPIRES & VAMPIRE HUNTERS!!     My eyes were peeled back taking in this story! Where do I even begin?? The way that this Vampiric/Human world was created and easily intertwined itself with black Harlem renaissance history was ✨immaculate✨    Reading Elise and Layla running around Harlem investigating these killings, while trying to tolerate each other, was very entertaining to read!    I absolutely cannot wait for the sequel!!    Thank you Colored Pages Book Tour for choosing me for this tour, and Sourcefire Books for the finished copy!

Loved this book! A book with queer rep, POC main character, a murder mystery, alternate history combined with vampires? I was already so on board just from the description. There were parts that made me laugh, hit me right in the heart, and some that made me roll my eyes. All in all I loved it and eagerly wait for the next book!

The narrator did a good job and I only cringed at one voice for being stereotypical (and even then the character had like two lines). People from the southern US may have more to say about the choice of accents but once I got used to them they didn't grate on me. CW for detailed descriptions of death, emotional abuse on page, AH father, racism (casual mention), grief, death of family members, unresolved trauma.

It's the first of a duology but doesn't end on a cliffhanger. It does rival Return of the King (2003) for how many endings it has though

I will admit, I had extremely high hopes for this one. Not that I didn't like it, but I was expecting much different things and unfortunately it didn't give me everything I wanted. The first half of the book took so long to get through and the second half I flew through. Not too happy when I do that although it can't really be helped. I've read and enjoyed another book that the audio narrator's done so I think for the next book (duology, ending next year), I'll reread this book in audio and keep with audio for the second book.

Elise and Layla were two compelling characters and I liked seeing their journeys. As for whom I liked more, that changed every now and then. Elise would do something I didn't like so Layla became my favourite. But then Layla betrayed me so back to Elise. The side characters were interesting but at times they seemed to fall a bit flat.

The plot was confusing at times and it didn't flow as easily as I'd like. Perhaps that's because this is Dennings' debut and maybe she'll improve as time goes by (I hope so). I'll piece together a plot happily but I like having some jigsaw pieces just fall into place without me putting them in there – if that makes sense. I could definitely see Dennings' passion for writing and for the genre and that was great to see. I always love reading vampire books because they're new every time! New meaning the lore, history, rules tend to change and I like that. I liked the history of the setting and felt she wrote well in that – it never seemed like we weren't in Jazz Age Harlem.