Wow. Y'all I cannot stress enough how good this book was. If this is not on the top of your tbr, put it there immediately. I feel like vampires never really stopped being popular, but they're definitely going through sort of a renaissance right now and Hayley Dennings has just written the next great vampire book! It has everything you could possibly want in a paranormal romance. It felt very Romeo & Juliet with the divisions between our main characters, Layla and Elise. Their families are on opposite sides of a long standing feud between vampires and humans trying to protect the city *from* vampires.

One of my favorite aspects of this book was the tension. A lot of times, the dynamics between enemies don't quite hit right, but this one definitely did. Layla and Elise had so much history fueling the tension between them, it was palpable from their first interaction well into their last. Their chemistry was undeniable and I loved them. The two were amazing and I absolutely adored reading this book as much as I did partially because of them. And then of course there was the story itself, with a plot that really kept propelling the story forward and sucking me in the further I read. The setting of this book is 1920s Harlem, and that setting made this all the more fun to read. The world we're drawn into felt lively and electric. There were a lot of side characters, but the ones who stood out were great additions to the story.

Really, the only reason I didn't give this a firm 5 stars was just because the middle was a little slow in some spots and some scenes went on a little longer than I thought it needed. Also, sometimes the main antagonists slipped into Disney-villain mode and it took me out for a bit. But honestly these are minor gripes as this story was so fun and I am eagerly awaiting the sequel!

Thanks so much to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!