Flock

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 11

Chapters 12-21

Chapters 22-32

Chapters 33-42

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Background

Authorial Context: Kate Stewart

Kate Stewart is an American author who specializes in contemporary romance. Her novels also straddle the subgenres of dark romance, erotic suspense, and romantic comedy. Stewart grew up in Texas and currently lives in North Carolina, where her Ravenhood novels are also set. She is therefore familiar with the Blue Ridge Mountains, a setting which features heavily in the trilogy. Stewart began her career by self-publishing her novels and rose to popularity on BookTok—the name for TikTok users who post about books—where she has an expansive social media following and fanbase. She is a USA Today bestselling author and in her author biography she describes her work as “sexy, messy, [and] angst-filled” (“About.” Kate Stewart).

Stewart has published over 25 novels, including both series and standalone novels. The Ravenhood trilogy includes the titles Flock, Exodus (2020), and The Finish Line (2022). Her Bittersweet Symphony series includes the titles Drive (2017), Reverse (2022), and Bittersweet Melody (2024). Her other titles include novels like Loving the White Liar (2015), Heartbreak Warfare (2018), and The Plight Before Christmas (2021). Her Ravenhood Legacy series is forthcoming in 2025 and will include the titles Birds of a Feather and Severed Heart.

Stewart’s expansive catalog is in conversation with other dark romance and erotic suspense publications, including Still Beating (2020) by Jennifer Hartmann, Credence (2020) by Penelope Douglas, Find Me (2021) by Ashley M. Rostek, The Princess of Chaos (2020) by Candace M. Wright, the Into Darkness series (2024) by Navessa Allen, and Butcher and Blackbird (2023) and Leather and Lark (2024) by Brynne Weaver. Like Stewart’s novels, the works of these contemporaries combine elements of suspense, mystery, romance, and erotica to capture the intensity of forbidden and unconventional relationships.

Series Context: The Ravenhood Trilogy

Flock is the first installment in Stewart’s Ravenhood trilogy. The novel builds the narrative world of Triple Falls and establishes the stakes for the overarching series. In Flock, Stewart introduces the primary characters in this world, including Cecelia Horner, Sean Roberts, Dominic King, and Roman Horner. The conflicts they face throughout Flock build narrative suspense and establish central mysteries that the characters continue to investigate in the subsequent two novels. The novel ends on a cliffhanger that anticipates the subsequent novels.

Flock is followed by Exodus (2020) and The Finish Line (2022). In Exodus, the protagonist of the series, Cecelia, meets the leader of the Ravenhood, Ezekiel Tobias. Her involvement with Tobias teaches her new things about the Ravenhood society. She and Tobias end up moving into her dad’s home and starting a romantic and sexual relationship. Their affair ultimately complicates Cecelia’s relationships with Sean and Dominic from Flock and plunges her into a darker and even more mysterious journey. The trilogy’s final installment, The Finish Line, traces Cecelia and Tobias’s fraught dynamic when Tobias joins a French mafia group. The novel also delves into Tobias’s complex backstory and elusive character.

All three books in the series contain elements of dark romance and erotic suspense. In her Author’s Note, Stewart states that the “idea for the Ravenhood [Trilogy] started out small” and was inspired by her desire to write “about modern-day heroes, who are selflessly hell bent on saving us from ourselves” (i). The trilogy also combines “mystery, love in every degree, [and] jaw-dropping revelations” as Stewart traces her hero’s “once-in-a-lifetime adventure,” navigating a perilous underworld and seeking self-discovery and personal growth (ii).