From NetGalley:
The first book in a decadent fantasy duology set in Jazz Age Harlem, where at night the dance halls come to life—and death waits in the dark.
It's 1926 and reapers, the once-human vampires with a terrifying affliction, are on the rise in New York. But the Saint family's thriving reaper-hunting enterprise holds reign over the city, giving them more power than even the organized criminals who run the nightclubs. Eighteen year-old Elise Saint, home after five years in Paris, is the reluctant heir to the empire. Only one thing weighs heavier on Elise's mind than her family obligations: the knowledge that the Harlem reapers want her dead.
Layla Quinn is a young reaper haunted by her past. Though reapers have existed in America for three centuries, created by New World atrocities and cruel experiments, Layla became one just five years ago. The night she was turned, she lost her parents, the protection of the Saints, and her humanity, and she'll never forget how Elise Saint betrayed her.
But some reapers are inexplicably turning part human again, leaving a wake of mysterious and brutal killings. When Layla is framed for one of these attacks, the Saint patriarch offers her a deal she can't refuse: to work with Elise to investigate how these murders might be linked to shocking rumors of a reaper cure. Once close friends, now bitter enemies, Elise and Layla explore the city's underworld, confronting their intense feelings for one another and uncovering the sinister truths about a growing threat to reapers and humans alike.
This Ravenous Fate takes the glitz and glamour, and the secretive edge, of the New York Jazz Age and adds the bloody violence of vampirism.
This summer has really been for the girls, the gays, and the theys, and this book is bringing that energy into autumn. It gives you all the tantalizing and dark features we know and love from traditional vampires, and throws them into the seedy underbelly of a gang-ruled New York. I loved every second of it.
Starting with Elise, the daughter of a powerful family of “reaper” killers, and a talented pianist, who returns from Paris in the midst of reaper controversy. Her family’s position gets her into the most exclusive locations in NYC. In the same establishments where less privileged black folks aren’t as welcome.
Through her eyes, we see what it means to be a Saint: pressure, expectations, rigid control. The main source of light in her life is her baby sister Josephine, whom she’s fiercely protective of. All of this amounts to her present, but there is a dark mark on her past that makes her life more complicated.
Layla is that dark mark. The death of her family and her turn as a reaper stalks Elise the moment she steps foot off of the docks of New York. Elise’s childhood best friend, Layla is a member of a notorious reaper clan with dark allies all over the city. It’s her perspective that leads us into the decaying and depraved shadows of gang life in the 20s. Bootlegging, territory negotiating, and hunting for prey are just the tip of the dark iceberg. Layla has built a new life in her afterlife, though her past life still echoes in her mind, along with the desire for vengeance. Vengeance against Elise, who she blames for her family’s demise.
When even more sinister workings begin to play out and bodies start to fall, reaper and human, the two ex-friends are forced to work together to find out who is behind the recent deaths. The secrets, lies, and manipulations that hold up the corrupt foundation of NYC begin to crumble when they look too close. Their quest takes every truth they thought they knew and turns it upside down.
Nothing gets turned around more than the churning emotions of our main characters and that’s the most fun to witness. No matter how you think this story will end, these pages may surprise you, as they did me.
The writing is lovely. The action is heart-pounding. The romance is exciting. And, the commentary on historic racial issues is poignant, but not overwhelming. Dennings finds balance in treating the darker moments of history she mentions like a miasma, reeking a bitter stench of truth.
In a beautifully built world that weaves fantasy and history, This Ravenous Fate is a vicious delight. Dennings writes tension you’ll want to sink your teeth into. This book is a gory masterpiece wrapped in the decadence of fringe and sequins.
If you love the Interview With A Vampire series, The Great Gatsby, The Harem Renaissance, and all things Jazz Age, sapphic romance, enemies to lovers, or stabby girls with knife-sharp minds, you’re gonna love it!!!
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