Every year, C2E2 has a little book club where whatever publisher sponsors it sends out ARCs of their selected book to a handful of people, then that group meets up at the convention. It’s a pretty fun little activity for the book nerds. Sourcebooks picked This Ravenous Fate by debut author Hayley Dennings for 2024.

This Ravenous Fate [Buy Bookshop Amazon LibroFM] is a dual POV story following Elise Saint and Layla Quinn. It’s 1926 Harlem and Elise’s family is well-known for protecting the city from reapers (aka vampires). She grew up with Layla, but when Layla is turned, their friendship falls apart in a major way.

But that was five years ago. Now, reapers are turning half-human again and waking up near brutal murders. Layla gets framed for one of those attacks, and is forced to work together with Elise to figure out what’s going on…. and avoid killing each other along the way.

This Ravenous Fate was a fun ride. If you’re a fan of These Violent Delights, then you’ll probably love this one. It’s the same time period, but set in Harlem instead of China. Instead of drug wars, it’s prohibition. It’s got the slow burn, enemies to lovers vibes, but it’s sapphic. And instead of a mystery surrounding monsters, you’ve got vampires.

Overall, this is a solid debut and I’m interested to see where the next book goes. Book one started great, but the pace slowed in the second half. I’d like to see the second book pick the pace up again and hold it through to the end.

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