Thank you for the arc, here are my thoughts while reading.

- I hate how she chose to go to France and when things are different than she thought she’s angry. She’s rude on purpose, not on character, she’s a slob on purpose, not on character. I hate her as the mc

- I also hate that every time she is about to learn something new, a person dies conveniently right before their final words. It's lazy storytelling

- Wtf is the romance between her and Lisette, no reaction to first kiss and suddenly lovers? There is absolutely no storytelling or development here.

- They journey to the Comte’s was far to short and rushed. The focus of this novel was always on the wrong thing. The pacing was absolutely horrendous. Tons of time with Morgane being rude to everyone and so little time on her journey and adventure, leaving no room for any development.

- Why did werewolves only get mentioned 65% through and why did vampires in the last 20 pages where she so miraculously learns about their existence and kills the most powerful one and gets away with no problems whatsoever. Lazy.

- There are no consequences in this book. It's boring.

Again, this is one of the laziest written stories I've ever read. Morgane is a bad character, its poorly plotted, poorly paced, a poor story just in general, the super natural element is jarring and frankly written terribly, and I'm not even going to go into how awful the prose and writing quality was. I was 100% NOT recommend. It puts shame to all the good books in the genre.

I was really excited about pirate vampires, but this book fell short for me. I feel like it didn't get interesting until about 50% in and at that point, I wasn't very invested in the characters or story,.

So, while this book had a lot of cool elements, it ultimately wasn't for me. Maybe there was too much going on, but the story didn't flow like I would have liked. I won't be continuing the series.

Morgane was raised on the high seas, and loves her life of piracy. However, when her mother, the captain, is killed, some truths come out. Morgane is actually the captain's niece, stolen at birth under mysterious circumstances, and her birth mother has been looking for her, and might be in trouble. She sets off back towards France to unravel the secrets, and finds vampires.
I liked the idea of this. Vampire pirates? It sounded awesome. However, Morgane was very annoying, in fact. I couldn't get behind her story. She was just whiny and I was not a fan. The story itself was a little bit lackluster, too. Not for me, I guess.

Thank you NetGalley for an eARC.
**SPOILERS**
The pacing was very very bad.
The first 65% of this story is the life of a girl who grew up as a pirate under the command of her "mother" whom she finds out is actually her aunt when an attack on another ship goes wrong and her mother/aunt is on her deathbed. No mention of anything supernatural. Literally just a pirate story.
At 65% we discover that werewolves exist.
At 90% we discover that vampires exist and surprise her mother is one!
All of the action happens within the last 10% of the book and it made the ending feel extremely rushed.
I'm sorry, but for a book with the title "The Vampires of Dumas", I expected a little more vampires in the book.
Also, the end of the book tied up all the loose ends with the mission complete and a HEA. I have no idea how this is a book 1 because there was zero segue to continue the story in another book.
Overall, I was very disappointed with this book.

A solid 4 star read for me, I felt as though the world building was good and the book started off at a good pace but then it began to slow down a bit for me which made the ending a bit anti climactic.

I felt as though the book was rich with description and the author did this really well. I was hoping it would have been a bit more paranormal but it is a good adventure book.

Now and again, it is nice to dip into the world of vampires, and I have to admit, when I saw this book's cover, it caught my eye. I mean a skull and crossbones with swords, cutlasses, ships and various other bits, it is distinctive.

So obviously, this is not a straight-forward swashbuckling action adventure story; it does have vampires. The main character is Morgane, who sails with, who she thought was her mother on The Vengeance. Anne Marie is the captain, and it is on her deathbed that she drops this revelation. This sets Morgane on a path that will change her life. She is not aware of vampires, like I was when it is mentioned in the title, so it also goes that she is not aware of any others' plans, plots, schemes, and shenanigans to either help or hinder her on the search for her real mother.

This is a fabulous book and just what I needed, it is a dark book that is the first in the series.. There is a good amount that is not mentioned until a lot later in the boo,k and while this may put some readers off I liked it. It meant I got to know Morgane's thoughts, expectations and how she had been brought up on as a pirate on a ship in the Caribbean. After the death of her aunt, Morgane travels across the world to France, where she is unaware of how society expects women to dress, act, or speak. She is supposedly from a moneyed family, but not having access to the education that young ladies would have had, she was brought up with drinking, cursing, climbing the rigging and wearing practical clothing.

Her arrival in France is not straightforward. It is fraught with danger, and no sooner does her foot touch land than she is in trouble. She gains a friend, however, when she is rescued, but who her rescuer is and his role are something she is not fully aware of.

A good amount of this book deals with Morgane, giving the details of her life. I really enjoyed this as it meant the culture shock was more prominent and gave a sort of credibility to the way she behaves. Luckily, she gains an ally, and between them, they can travel, learn more about Morgane's family, but also hear some strange mutterings about things lurking in the dark. This adds to the suspense of the story and the danger that seems to follow Morgane, although the full reasoning behind this is not revealed until much later.

This is the first book in the series, and it ended well; it gave closure to one part of the story while leaving it open for the next in the series. This is an action-packed adventure story, a thriller and a fast-paced plot. It has a lot going on and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is one I look forward to continuing with and one I would definitely recommend.

I was expecting far more vampires in this book, but I'm really not mad that there weren't that many. Rather than being a "vampire book" it was an interesting, action-packed and entertaining story about a young woman trying to piece together who she actually was while also dealing with a lot of people who were trying to do her harm.

There was far more mystery than vampires, which helped to build up the tension for the final 25%. Morgane was raised on a pirate ship by who she believed to be her mother. When her "mother" is fatally wounded, she's given some of the real story and this starts her off on the oath of trying to find her real mother.

While there were some moments where the pacing was a bit weird (the final 30-40% of the book seemed to cover a lot of time with little detail compared to the long journey described towards the start of the book), Morgane's character and the way she sees the world kept me interested. I wanted to see more of her and Lisette, as well as more of her with her mother as these interactions felt a lot more rushed, but I still enjoyed the book.

I was expecting it to be a series so I was pleasantly surprised that it was written to a close. I wouldn't have been mad if it had been given a further 50-100 pages though, just so the end didn't feel so fast.

The prose is a bit choppy and the story drags. Nothing unexpected happens at the beginning and there is a lot of info dumping. It feels like a standard pirate story with not much new to offer.

The Vengeance by Emma Newman

I was so interested in this book when I read the premise! I loved the idea of pirates and vampires combined together in the same story, and I haven’t read many pirate books so I was really intrigued. Although I did enjoy this book, I found it a bit hard to read at times and felt there was room for improvement throughout.

The beginning of the book was fantastic. I appreciated very much that we started right in the middle of the action, with Anna-Marie’s death and her vendetta against the Four Chains Trading Company being introduced. This hooked me as a reader immediately, and Anna-Marie’s vendetta, mixed with the uncovered letters from France started the mystery and suspense right from the get go. Seeing Morgane’s adventures on the ship, hearing all the stories from the crew and learning about their life at sea was my favourite part of the entire book, so I hoped this would go on longer than it did. I did feel that the parts based at sea on The Vengeance were just more enjoyable and I do hope if there is a second book that we can see more of Morgane’s pirate life. I loved that each of the crew (like Bull, Dill, Plague Arse and even King Charles the goose) felt like real pirates; and that speaks to the author’s brilliant work at creating well constructed characters that all differ from one another and are brought to life by the interactions they share.

Morgane as a character was endearing, interesting and down-right hilarious at times. The lack of etiquette she shows due to her upbringing on the ship was really enjoyable to see, and had me giggling at many points. For example, when the captain of the ship had to explain to her why the pants had a hole in the centre and she delighted in embarrassing him had me laughing out loud for several pages. I must say, when Morgane is at the docks and says she hates the way men smile at her, I found that totally relatable and a nice addition to show a young woman becoming familiar with the lust of men for the first time. Although, I must say I did become totally frustrated with her at multiple points. For someone who believes herself to be very smart due to her upbringing on the ship, she was incredibly naive and kept walking herself into sticky situations that would have been so easily avoided by just employing a bit of critical thinking. Her internal monologue was confusing and long-winded at times, because we see her saying “Oh I’m so smart, I know just what to do”, then her harshly berating her own stupidity after things go wrong, just to return to thinking she knows best literally moments later. It felt a bit like if whiplash was a character. I felt there would have been a better way to explore Morgane’s character through exposition in dialogue or through her reactions to situations rather than having these long, drawn-out internal monologues that were really overused here. The way the writing style was, how it included these monologues and Morgane’s almost childish character traits did make the book feel more suitable for YA readers, but I know it’s not marketed that way and so this confuses me.

Lisette and Morgane’s unlikely friendship at the hunting lodge really warmed my heart, and I found myself really enjoying the moments they spent together in the beginning. The contrast between Lisette’s overly-proper way of carrying herself and Morgane’s inappropriateness was so well done and really funny to watch happen on the page. Throughout the book, I enjoyed how Lisette and Morgane caused each other to grow as characters; Lisette encouraged Morgane to be more pensive and cautious, whilst Morgane encouraged her to be braver, more spontaneous and think of herself first. I appreciated that these character developments seemed to come naturally and although there was a clear difference, it didn’t feel like either character changed themselves entirely, just improved each other by being together, which was lovely to see.

I did, however, find their jump from friends to lovers a bit sudden and I had to reread a few pages to see if I had actually missed something; it felt like we went from normal friendly banter to snogging rather quickly. I do wish this sapphic relationship between the two would have been explored more deeply, but I appreciate that this was more of a sub-plot and the action took the main focus. Because we got very little exploration of their relationship, when we then see how Lisette somewhat saves Morgane at the end, it feels a bit forced or even unrealistic, especially when you also take into consideration that Lisette then leaves her family and her whole life behind to go and become a pirate with a girl she’s known for very little time. I’m just not a fan of an insta-love type romance, so perhaps this is what is causing my dissatisfaction here, as I just find it to be wholly unrealistic.

My main issue with this book was the pacing. The plot was so good, and I found some scenes truly gripping and intense (like the scenes showing Morgane’s experiences being hunted around France upon their arrival, or the scene with the wolves), yet it was let down by the constant shift in pacing. It felt like the author was trying to stick within a certain wordcount, and some scenes which should have been dedicated more time on the page came across as if they were being rushed and the readers were left feeling unresolved (like why were there wolves involved, where did they come from, what purpose did they have??). There was an almost constant up and down in suspense and tension throughout, which left me feeling a bit disappointed. It also felt odd to me that this book was marketed as being a paranormal/fantasy book and yet there was absolutely no hint of that until about 75% of the way through, and even then it felt like an afterthought and no real investigation was done into the werewolf aspect. Then we go another 10% of the way through without any further mention of any fantasy elements until we suddenly find out about the vampires at about 90% of the way through! It was just an odd way to put the plot together in my opinion. If you market something as a vampire book, I expect it to include vampires as a main element, not just as an afterthought at the very end. I hope, if there is a follow-up book in this series, we will actually get more vampires written in, otherwise it just feels like something the author threw in at the last minute so they could market it as a vampire book!

Overall, I rated this book 3 out of 5 stars. If there ends up being a series following these characters, I will certainly give it a good go, as there were definitely enjoyable moments throughout, it just unfortunately was let down due to the unavoidable issues you encounter when reading it. Thank you to Netgalley and Emma Newman for the ARC.

This was difficult to get through. Started strong and I loved the pirate adventures, but once we hit land, it was a mess.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for access to this eARC.

I sort of went into this blind, I anticipated a swashbuckling pirate story, not paying attention to the fact that this apparent series is called "Vampires of Dumas", so I admit this is on me not realising it was supernatural.
Morgane has lived her entire life at sea, until she is drawn back to France in search of her mother, there is treachery, monsters, and a sweet love story on the way.
The plot was good, but the pacing felt a bit off for me, it felt almost rushed at times. And I'm not sure that the climax really paid off in my mind.
But it was a fun read.

The Vengeance has such a neat premise and cool plot, but I felt like it struggled a bit with the pacing. Morgane was kidnapped from her family in France at birth and has lived her life as a pirate until a mystery draws her back home. She is out for revenge while she hunts for her mother. This is a great pirate adventure with touch of fantasy and supernatural creatures that at times feels rather creepy. I'm really curious to see what happens in the rest of the series.

Note, while the series is The Vampires of Dumas, the vampire/supernatural elements come in a bit later in the story than I assumed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Solaris for this eARC!

This book was a mess in my opinion. I wish I would've dnf'd to be honest.
It started out great, but went downhill fast. The pacing was terrible! I felt like the romance was rushed as well.
I was expecting a vampire story, but they didn't show up until near the end.

Three and a half
I really enjoyed the idea of this story and indeed I found the first half very interesting with its pirate lore strongly in play. Our heroine has never had an easy life but it's made her resilient and I liked that about her.
There's a smidge of romance here which many might enjoy but as its subtitle was The Vampires of Dumas I'm somewhat stymied by well just how little about vampires is actually in this book. Perhaps it's a pacing issue of perhaps my expectations are at fault. I can say I had fun reading this and truly that's what books are all about !
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested and my thoughts are honest and I believe fair

THE VENGEANCE - EMMA NEWMAN

When I started The Vengeance, I was fully immersed in the world of the opening chapters. The Vengeance refers to the name of a pirate ship, on which the protagonist, Morgane, is a part of the crew.

I loved the pirate vibes, and if I could have stayed within that setting for the entire book, I would have been content. This is a book that takes you on adventures over sea and land, however, as Morgane sets off on a journey of self-discovery and a mission to find her real mother.

I found the pacing inconsistent once Morgane steps off The Vengeance and onto dry land, with a lot of the narrative being dedicated to Morgane's inner dialogue, and her transition from her life as a pirate to an individual that would be accepted by French society. When the action does come, the pace does pick up considerably.

This is the first book of the Vampires of Dumas, but vampires and other paranormal beings only feature towards the end of the book.

That said, I really did enjoy the story, and was surprised by the twists and turns. The Vengeance is one of those fantasy books that's much more about self-discovery and the journey itself, as opposed to non-stop action sequences. If this works for you, then The Vengeance will be an enjoyable read.

Release date: 6 May 2025

Review score: 3.5/5

TWs: d*ath, violence, injury detail, abduction

The concept of The Vengeance was intriguing enough for me to request a copy, but this was not for me.

Morgane was a “no” character in a story that demands a “yes” character. So much of this book is dedicated to Morgane either spinning her wheels or simply outright rejecting the situations that her own uninformed choice(s) led her to. Half the time she won’t even sit through an explanation out of pure obstinacy.

Also I was promised pirates, vampires, and sapphics, and the only one of these we saw before the HALFWAY point in the book is a tiny bit of piracy in the first chapter and then it’s just this girl complaining and lashing out at everyone. It got exhausting to the point where I wasn’t even curious enough to continue. Maybe on audiobook (I know Emma Newman is a fantastic narrator, so I assume she’ll narrate her own book) but I simply don’t have the patience for a single-POV story with a MC like Morgane

Thank you Rebellion and Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC. All thoughts are my own.

This was such a fun read! I really loved getting to know Morgane. She was a brilliant main character, fiery and kind and smart but also naive.

This book really is a whirlwind, from pirates to kidnapping to life with nobility to vampires. All of it was thrilling and engaging.

The romance between Morgane and Lisette was so sweet. I anticipated it, hoped for it, and was so glad when it happened. They were so wonderful together and I loved the way their story ended.

I was very curious about this and one, so I’m so happy that I enjoyed it! I found the world building rich and evocative and the plot delivers the right amount of emotional depth, but maybe I just wanted some more resolution for some minor characters (?). Also the pacing felt a bit off around halfway, but it was compensated with the end!

I went into this one thinking it was more pirates and high seas politics and then the vampires showed up. Went back and absolutely saw the tags and it was definitely my bad. It was a good, quick read, but I don't know if I will continue the series. This wasn't really for me but that doesn't mean it wasn't for someone.

A very special thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for a honest review.