💬: N/A

📖Genres: historical fiction, vampires, romance, historical

📚Page Count: 368

🎧Audiobook Length: 11:06 

👩🏾‍🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️ - 2/5

The Dangerous Ones takes place during the civil war, where vampires are working with the confederates to continue enslaving Black folks. Jerusalem is a Saint and Satins have demi god strength and power and they use it to fight vampires. She is a former slave who fought against her slave master and killed him resulting in what she believes to be her whole family being slaughtered. Jerusalem gets word that her brother might be alive so now she's searching for the vampires from her past because they might have him. Alexi is a 300 year only vampire working with Jerusalem, a group of Saints, and the union to fight against the confederates. This definitely reminded me of Ring Shout but I don't think "The Dangerous Ones" reaches it's full potential. 

There were a few problems with this story; including confusing time jumps and flashbacks, to misplaced romantic banter, little to no world building and character development, and one dimensional characters. The time jumps were continuously confusing, I don't think they were very helpful in terms of story telling, they actually seemed to detract from the main story. I know that love is supposed to be part of the plot but it really felt like it didn't fit right in the story. It felt like I was reading two different stories, one where the main characters were in an enemy to lovers romance and one where there's action and the civil war with death and vampires. The two genres didn't really mesh well.

Overall, the audiobook narration was okay but, the pacing felt off, the flashbacks were more confusing than anything, the characters were one dimensional, there was little to no character building, the romance didn't really work in this story,  little to no world building, and the author used current and modern language instead of historical language from the times (seeing as this is a historical novel). I'm giving this 2 stars out of 5.
⭐️⭐️ - 2/5 Stars

Thank you [NetGalley.com], Lauren Blackwood (the author), and Macmillan Audio (the publisher) for the arc audiobook (advanced reader's copy.)

Thank you Wednesday Books and NetGalley for this gifted review copy!

A compelling reinterpretation of traditional vampire lore set against the backdrop of the American Civil War. The narrative explores dark themes and depicts the cruel torments people can inflict upon each other. The central characters, Alexei and Jerusalem, share a deep bond forged through shared trials, providing an emotional depth to the story. The book stands as a testament to human endurance, the power of love, and the spirit that allows us to rise above our circumstances.

Oh dear. This one is definitely a diamond in the rough. I have so many thoughts that it’s going to be hard to sum up, but here we go! Main characters Jerusalem and Alexei are well realized and have great chemistry on the page. I enjoyed their banter and the evolution of their relationship, but we don’t really get to see how they meet until much later in the book and not in a way that feels particularly meaningful. There are a lot of interesting ideas in the world building that I desperately want to see fully realized, but they were never woven together and developed in a way that felt truly cohesive. If you are into history like me, I am going to warn you away from this one right now. However, if you like stories that are action driven and/or vampire romances, I think this could be one you could enjoy. 

This book switches between two perspectives. The first is Jerusalem, an escaped slave with enhanced abilities. After running from her captors, Jerusalem joins a group of other people with enhanced abilities known as “Saints” and trains hard in order to exact her revenge. The other perspective is Alexei, an old world vampire of Eastern European descent with a complicated past of his own that he finds himself running both towards and away from in equal measure. Both of these characters are strong and independent, but Blackwood does a good job allowing space for vulnerability and errors that are clearly connected to their past experiences.

The first time we see Alexei and Jerusalem together, they are sibling-like in the way they antagonize each other while also quietly respecting and trusting one another. Unfortunately, we don’t get to live through the process of them meeting and getting to this point. However, they have great chemistry and it is easy to see how this friendship could bloom into something more. There are definitely some missed opportunities with both characters, but I found myself invested in them all the same. The other “Saints” each followed an archetype without much else to make them feel extremely unique and most characters beyond that were minimally characterized. However, I think the ‘blend’ of archetypes played well with the main characters and I wasn’t too upset by it. 

I’m just going to say it: structure is a real problem with this book. There is a version of this book that could be 5 stars and all it would really have to do is pump the brakes a little bit. We start with Jerusalem’s dramatic escape (which is very well done) and then in the very next chapter, we have jumped 2 years ahead and she is already well established in this group and close with Alexei. That in and of itself could probably be its own novel and the rest of this story would be better for it. Instead, the story tries to fill in the gaps with flashback chapters that find themselves competing with the present day action that unfolds at breakneck speed. As a result, the flashbacks themselves only cover the essentials and the memories shared don’t always have a strong correlation to what is happening in the present. I imagine at least some of this is intended to create curiosity in the reader to hook them in, but it falls short in execution and just feels a little thrown together.

Action is definitely prioritized in this book and there is nothing wrong with having a fast paced book. However, the themes this book tries to explore and the characters it uses to do so need to be given more time to develop in meaningful ways. Without giving any spoilers, I will say that there are some big reveals in the early parts of the story that could have been really amazing moments if more time was spent getting me invested in the characters and/or situation. As a result, I wasn’t really affected by some of the developments in the way I knew I should be. Additionally, you can tell that there is more to the world building and characters that we never really get to see or explore in the rush from one thing to the other. 

I am not a big believer that an alternate history needs to be as close to the real historical event/time period as possible. However, I think that it is important to have a clear vision of what this version of history looks like and that it remains cohesive and consistent. I understand and appreciate the story the author was trying to tell and there is enough here that I can even see how it could work in a wonderfully weird way. That’s why it pains me to say that this, my friends, is a glorious mess. I can’t even tell how much is intentional in order to ‘reach younger readers’ and how much is simply not spending enough time researching and editing. Unfortunately, this book is largely missing its sense of time and place and loses some of its power as a result. 

This book is told from dual points of view; some chapters are from Jerusalem and others are from Alexei. Something I found a little jarring is that the chapters would start as one POV and shift to another throughout the chapter. The author does indicate when the shift is happening, but I just prefer it when POV shifts happen with chapter changes. In addition, part of this book is told through flashbacks. I thought the flashbacks were a little messy. For the most part, I thought that Jerusalem's time enslaved and Alexei's time being tortured could have been better told either as separate chapters interspersed throughout the novel or in order at the beginning of the book.

I really loved the magical realism of this book; the writing style reminded me a lot of Dread Nation by Justina Ireland. Jerusalem is a fierce main character and Alexei was just kind of okay. I felt like there was not enough between them to really warrant a love story. Almost all of their conversations are surface level, and that's just not enough for me. I think the language used in the book was also just a little too modern. I do like a good revenge story, and I enjoyed reading this book.

This was a fast read for me and had some really interesting elements, but for me, it was a little jumbled and just an okay read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

In a world where vampires exist and some humans have special powers that make them Saints, an epic confrontation takes place against the backdrop of the US Civil War. Jerusalem is a Saint and an escaped slave from a plantation run by equally horrible humans and vampires. Alexei is a vampire, but he fights on the side of the Union. They must work together to defeat the South and the vampire that they both have history with.

Vampires in the civil war is a great concept. The author instills this book with her trademark banter between love interests and antagonism that yields to something deeper. Fair warning if you are a historical purist—while the author has clearly done her research, in tone the story owes much more to urban fantasy than historical fiction. Sometimes that annoys me, but as I’ve read her other books, I expected more of that voice from the characters. I think it best to think of THE DANGEROUS ONES as a paranormal/urban fantasy set in the past rather than historical fiction with supernatural elements.

But I mean, Jerusalem fights with a spear. That’s pretty neat.

CWs for lots of language, and slavery and death and blood, and more things that have slipped my mind, but the author has a list on goodreads and her website.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this ARC. The Dangerous Ones comes out May 14, 2024.