It's 1926, and the tense balance between reapers (vampires) and humans in New York is thrown into upheaval following a series of mysterious, brutal murders.

I had really high hopes for this book, which was my mistake. The concept is just so cool. I was expecting something along the lines of These Violent Delights, with rivalries and monsters and murders in the bustling 1920s. And while this book definitely tried to be that, the execution just fell short. The writing was clunky, the plot was convoluted, and the characters just felt flat to me. Don't get me wrong, there were some really good aspects to it! One of the plot twists at the end was really well done, and the plot as a whole was pretty interesting. It just felt a little all-over-the-place and I would have loved to see it cleaned up a bit more. Most disappointing, though, is that the things I was most interested in--the reapers and the backstory between the characters--was never fully explained! Like there was reaper lore, it was just so broken up that I couldn't piece it altogether and I couldn't understand what was happening to them and differentiate between their various blood crazes. Or understand the agreement they had with the Saints, because both the reapers and the humans seemed to kill the others quite a bit?? I just wanted a full explanation! Similarly, I would've loved to see a full flashback or something to Elise and Layla's past instead of just hinting at it over and over again.

This isn't a bad book, it's just a ameuture YA debut that wasn't my cup of tea. If you like YA and vampire stories, you might enjoy this one.