I really wanted to like The Vengeance by Emma Newman, but unfortunately it just wasn't for me.
The premise sounded perfect. Anything with pirates and anything with vampires are surefire hits and it seemed that combining the two should have made for an absolutely fantastic book.
However, one of my main issues with the book was that the pirates were only present for the first couple of chapters and the vampires didn't appear until the 90% mark.
In that in-between space, we got Morgane's search for her mother. And unfortunately, Morgane as a character just didn't work for me either. She was naive and uncomprehending to the point of incredulity. I just couldn't understand the concepts that she was struggling to grasp. She felt very childish and immature, and I didn't feel it was believable that she had been second-in-command aboard this legendary pirate vessel.
The pacing on this one was just all off, and the world building was slightly lacking.
I do know that this is the first in what is being pitched as a series, and I wonder perhaps if reading the first and second book together would have been a more enjoyable reading experience.

Throughout the whole book, it seemed as though this was being set up for a series. The pacing was very slow and there was lots of mystery around the “evil”. Then I reached the end and we got the big reveal as well as the complete resolution within 2 chapters and was thoroughly confused.

7/10
Hello again dear reader or listener, I am back with another Arc review, this time curtesy of the lovely folk at Solaris, aaaand it is an ambivalent one. So, with thanks to the publisher, here are some of my honest thoughts.

The best way to sum up my feelings for this book overall would be to say that I did enjoy what I read for the most part, but I was disappointed not to find what had been promised. Newman shows no lack of writing skills for sure, in fact what we do get reads really smoothly and I’ll get into all the good stuff properly in a moment. But I’m not sure I’d confidently say she hit the mark on the target she set out either. The Vengeance is being promoted as a swashbuckling pirate adventure set in a version of Alexandre Dumas’s world haunted by vampires. And yet there is a surprising lack of the paranormal and not quite as much pirating or swashbuckling as implied. Without spoiling it, I feel the need to warn you that the paranormal bits we do get are a whiff of one thing around the 70% mark and a quick vampiric presence in the last 15% ish of the story, not counting the epilogue.

Pacing was another odd one here in that the writing kept me engaged, I was following along swimmingly and eager to see what would happen next, but it felt both rushed and not at times? What I mean is, I got to the end of what narratively felt like the first of say three acts, and I looked to my progress bar to see I was 65% in? And yet it had felt as if the story was barely getting started! Which isn’t even to say that nothing happens. A lot does but it all feels as build up and scene setting? I can see how this book would work as the opening act or even the prologue of a series and yet it presents as a self-contained story leaving no actual narrative loose ends. Still somehow, we get 20 chapters worth of said build-up, only for everything to be resolved in the next two and a half, barely giving the reader the time to even register the aforementioned vampires or be really impacted by the villain in any significant way, and then an epilogue which was lovely (don’t get me wrong) but still felt like I barely had time for any of the final act to sink in. This book could’ve easily been at least a hundred pages longer, hell, it might’ve benefitted from it, allowing the author to enrich some of the more diluted or rushed moments of this story.

I don’t mean to be harsh here though, because as I said, I did enjoy what I read. The characters are interesting, some of the backgrounds provided very intriguing and definitely something I’d like to see explored more in future books. Morgane’s arc of being a fish out of water, almost quite literally hah, was entertaining as much as it was a good device to showcase all the inconsistencies or hypocrisies of polite society in France of the 1660s, and mainly of the vampiric oppression that is hinted at later in the story. The characters that act as foils against her were also well developed, especially the young governess Lisette, and I’d argue their relationship was the only thing that was truly allowed to progress and develop at a steady and more natural pace throughout the story. It made for wholesome moments of respite in between the chaos chasing Morgane from the moment she sets foot on French soil, and complemented her brash pirate personality very nicely. My only peeve with her was her obtuse naiveté to reach a certain goal when everyone she meets and their mother tell her it’s not worth it, based on first hand experience. But I don’t begrudge that actually because it makes for a more complex character trying to hold onto what she tells herself to make things make sense. It doesn’t mater that the reader knows it will not work out from the very beginning, because we get to follow along with a young woman who thinks she knows how the world works and realizes she’s still got a lot of growing to do.

Also, I know I said that we don’t get nearly enough pirating and swashbuckling but what we do get is really good and well researched/rendered. Which is probably why I was disappointed not to see enough of it, when the author clearly has the ability to put it on the page vividly and atmospherically. Newman doesn’t give a sanitized version of what piracy looked like and it just gives the reader a more nuanced and vivid picture. I wanted more of the crew and definitely more of the ship life antics that can translate to life on land the way you see in Pirates of the Caribbean for example. This book works well enough as a historical fantasy but it deserved to be allowed to breathe and lean into the paranormal aspects and ambiance more.

A quick glance around other reviews showed me that overall, this seems to be a bit of the consensus around this book and I felt a little relieved cause I initially feared it was just being me being persnickety. Newman has a really solid boned story and, had it been allowed to flourish better, it could’ve been an excellent new entry in the swashbuckling subgenre but, as it is, it is one to be embarked on with tempered expectations.

Until next time,
Eleni A.E.

The Vengeance delivers a concept rich with potential, blending science fiction with psychological tension in a world shaped by secrets and manipulation. Newman’s writing remains sharp, and her worldbuilding continues to impress, but this installment feels more like a bridge than a climax. The pacing lags in key places, and some character arcs that once felt compelling lose momentum under the weight of exposition and internal monologue. While moments of brilliance still shine, especially in the darker emotional undercurrents, the overall narrative doesn't quite hit the mark with the urgency or payoff it promises. It's a decent start, but not as gripping or satisfying as earlier entries.

The Vengeance is sold as pirates with vampires. The series name is The Vampires of Dumas. But for so much mention of vampires before reading, there is surprising little vampires in this book. As a whole this book could not sell me either unfortunately.

We meet Morgane on the ship that she grew up on. They are pirates, going after any ship that is from the Four Chains Trading Company. But during the last heist something goes wrong. It is a trap and her mother is killed. Secrets are revealed and she learns that there is more for her beyond the ship than she thought.

While initially I could go along with the naivity of Morgane who has grown up most of her life on a ship and has not been out in to the society of France, it is hard to see that she doesn't seem to know anything about the world. It is hard to believe that growing up on a ship of hardened sailors (who did have a life before coming on the ship) wouldn't have told her or taught her anything about the world beyond the ship. Another problem that I have is that she does not seem to have much character growth throughout the book. She doesn't learn from the things that she doesn't know. There is no real introspection.

Reading the book was fine for the most part but I got bored. Morgane could not grab me as a character and neither could the story. It just seemed to drudge on towards Morgane finding this one person. Once she does, it just fizzes out.

The vampires, the werewolves, they felt like an afterthought. There was little worldbuilding. I suspect that this book is very much a set-up for something bigger. However this book should have sold me on that. On a bigger story and a bigger world. But it doesn't. There is nothing appealing to me here.

I love almost everything in this book, but throwing in the mystical elements took me out of the story and just was confusing. I was fully enjoying Morgane’s story and her journey to find her birth mother, then bam vampires. Now I know it says they are there in the description, but the way in which they were introduced really just was jarring. They didn’t fit into the world that was being built. Their introduction felt like an afterthought or a shock value. How can we make this story even crazier…oh vampires. Honestly, they were not necessary. It takes almost 50% of the book before you even find out there might be mystical creatures in this world with the werewolves. The overall story was great. The mystical elements just didn’t fit.
Thank you to Rebellion and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

Ahoy there mateys! This was described as the first book in a new series "set in a version of Alexandre Dumas's world haunted by vampires..."  Excellent idea but this book does not live up to its premise at all.  In fact this book was such a letdown that it walks the plank!

The first problem is that for a book "haunted" by vampires, they do not show up until around 82% of the book and barely appear even then.  There are, however, werewolves that show up at 62% for one chapter and never appear again.  The fantasy elements could have been removed and not much would have changed in the novel.  I wanted more supernatural elements as promised in a book series called "Vampires of Dumas."

The idea that the book is set in a version of Dumas' world is laughable.  The first part of the book takes place on the sea but the rest takes place in France.  The atmosphere of French culture is practically non-existent and completely surface level.  Also when I think of Dumas, I think of swashbuckling where the main character has excellent swordsmanship, guile, and chivalrousness.  There were some sword fights but mostly the fighting was boring.

Morgane is supposed to be the fierce daughter of one of the fiercest female pirates in the Caribbean.  Instead she is extremely naïve, gullible, uneducated, and just plain silly.  She can fight at times but spends an awful lot of time running, panicking, or trusting the wrong people.  Plus she is written as though she is primitive in social graces.  Aye, she grew up onboard ship but the Caribbean was not a complete backwater.  She acts like France is an alien planet and makes no real effort to learn to adjust to life ashore.  Where be her pirate wiles?

And lastly, there were too many modern sensibilities in Morgane's opinions.  I can see that she might find slavery distasteful.  However, wanting to fight the economic and social class systems felt out of place for the historical time period.  Also being a pirate did not mean there was complete social freedom.  Morgane's lesbian relationship was a bit carefree and felt too modern.  Also Morgane let her romantic partner do all of the travel arrangements and communicate with innfolk, etc.  That felt so unrealistic even with Morgane dressed as a boy.

Basically, I feel that every area of this book was problematic including the parts set at sea.  With the bad pacing, lackluster characterization, and unfulfilled premise, I will not be reading the sequel.  Arrrr!

This book had a lot of really interesting potential, from the premise of the book, to our initially incredibly fun main character. However, as the book progressed, the main characters stubborn naiveté deeply grated on my nerves, and made the book nearly intolerable. Similarly, while the book advertises itself as being set in a vampire-ridden world, said vampires don’t appear until nearly the end of this book. Ultimately, from the unrealistically ignorant main character, to the false promise of vampires, to the all-too sudden romance, The Vengeance really just could’ve used a few more drafts.

Morgane has been raised on the pirate ship that her mother, Anna-Marie, captains. An infamous pirate with a particular appetite for attacking the ships of the Four Chains Trading Company, Anna-Marie is fatally wounded during an ambush and Morgane finally learns the truth: Anna-Marie kidnapped her as a baby and is actually her aunt, and she's been targeting the Four Chains ships because they all contain letters and chests of gifts from Morgane's real mother, hoping she'll see them one day. Morgane decides to return to France with one of the ships to seek revenge on whoever ordered her aunt's death and to rescue her mother, who she believes to be trapped in a terrible life.
What follows is a fast-paced romp across France, with various groups trying to kidnap Morgane, a random bunch of werewolves and finally, vampires.

I wanted to like this more than I did. Morgane is the kind of main character that I really struggle with. There's a fine line between headstrong, kick-ass heroine and bolshy idiot, and sadly Morgane plunges over that line multiple times. For someone who has been raised as a pirate, and is capable of fighting and killing to protect herself, she just sort of bumbles along.

The supernatural elements could also have done with being more developed, I know it's the start of a series, but having werewolves randomly pop up for a chapter then disappear and then the vampires for which the series is named (The Vampires of Dumas) only appear at the 90% mark, felt on odd choice. I think maybe if there'd been a bit more foreshadowing or more rumours and speculation about supernatural creatures, it would have felt less like they'd been randomly dumped into an otherwise purely historical adventure.

A fast-paced swashbuckling adventure with an undercurrent of the supernatural.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

2.5 stars.

This wasn’t a terrible read. I thought the writing was well done! It was easy to read. I just thought the plot and the pacing had a little bit of fixing up to do.

I loved the beginning, it was so fast paced and the pirate life was done so well! She didn’t hate being a pirate which I enjoyed.

Once she left it started to slow down. It dragged for most of the middle of the book. Even though there was action once she got to France, with her learning everything that she wasn’t used to, it really slowed things down.

The end goal tied together, but it also seemed like a bunch of different plots put into one. It wasn’t cohesive. She went on lots of different journeys. The main goal was to find her mother, but along the way too much was happening for it to all come together.

Morgane was a great main character! She was so spunky and headstrong and could take care of herself. I loved seeing that. I especially love how much crap she gave to men.

I hate to say it though, she was kind of dumb. Spoiler warning in this paragraph: but with every single person she came in contact with telling her to not find her mother because she is a dangerous woman, you would have thought she would have listened to them! It’s one thing when one person says it but every single person? Even I could put two in two together that her mother most likely wanted revenge on her sister for stealing her baby, despite what the letters said.

I loved the crew and I loved Jacques. I wish we could have spent more time with them! I would have much preferred a novel with her being on the ship the whole time. I really enjoyed Lavois as well while we were with him. He was a sweet man, despite assuming she’d want to get married despite her saying no.

I really liked Lisette and Morgane together, I just wish we saw them build up their relationship. There was almost a montage of their time together that told us they spent a lot of time together and Morgane learned to trust her and in turn started to fall for her, but I wish we could have gotten more content of that. It almost felt a little like instalove even though in a technical sense it wasn’t.

It is very interesting that this book was very much a set up to the rest of the series. Which isn’t the best idea because if people get bored with it they won’t finish it. Unless the rest of them are just companion novels because this one ended pretty definitively.

The ending was very rushed. We barely had any time to be scared of her mother because she was taken care of pretty quickly.

If the pacing of this book was touched up a bit, I think this could have been very good! The characters were solid, so the bones of the story was there.

I’d be curious to see how the next book is! If it will follow the same characters or be a totally different plot. If it continues with Morgane’s story, I could see myself liking it a lot more from where they ended up! I do think this reads as a stand alone novel though.

This wasn't my cup of tea, so I struggled to read it and I wasn't able to finish it in time for posting a review.
It felt like a great idea, but written in a confused way, the pacing was a bit off, and it felt like two stories were merged together to create a book, that could have been two. I was expecting more of a pirate dark story, but instead the author lead the narration more on a supernatural level, which was nice anyway, but not was I was expecting, nor what the book seemed to offer.
Overall the writing is good, I just wished the stories were interwined better or divided into two books.
Thanks for the arc.

Thank you to NetGalley and Rebellion, Solaris for the eARC. In return, I leave my honest review.

I can see the vision and ideas the author had planned for this book, but the execution is subpar at best. The beginning of the book had me hooked. I enjoyed the world building on the pirate side of it all and would have loved for the rest of the book to have continued in that direction.

The book is slow paced to the point where I couldn’t remember what had happened in previous chapters. I’m such a stickler when it comes to the pacing of a book, and I tried to be graceful especially with this being the first book of the series. Obviously, the world building will pull focus in the first books, but not to this slow dragging pace. The beginning chapter are amazing and I was excited for this type of environment throughout, but it just never came until the last chapters.

The characters fell flat for me as well. I had no connection to the fmc, Morgane. She is very childish and it was frustrating how she totally disregarded anyone else’s opinion. There are also side character that have no business being there in the first place. They don’t push the story forward and don’t give the main character any type of support. And the ones who do offer support are not taken seriously by the fmc. And the love interest felt unnecessary. I’m always up for a Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan pirate romance, but this was more of a “who are you?” “I’m your love interest!” “Oh ok!” “Yay!” Which as you can imagine, should not have been a factor at all.

I don’t even want to mention the vampires, or lack thereof.

With that being said, I’m not sure I’m going to pick up book two. I mulled it over in my mind on whether or not I wanted to continue, but I think the first book is enough for me. However, if the author were to right a book solely about The Vengeance in its peak, I would definitely pick that up.

This is the story of Morgaine, who is forced to leave her young life as a pirate in search of her mother and a quest for vengeance. This was an adventuresome story, but unfortunately for me the main character really brought down my enjoyment of this book. I believe she is a teenager, which perhaps explains why she was reckless, thoughtless, always jumped to conclusions, and was naïve to boot (while thinking she wasn't). To her credit, she was honest and said what she meant, but she also had no tact and seemed to always make her circumstance worse than it had to be, because she decided to either believe or not believe what people were telling her based on her whims. To some extent, this could be in keeping with her background and how she was raised, but it was a challenge to witness. I was very intrigued by the series being title "Vampires of Dumas" and though this is a feature of the story, it's not enough to want to continue.

I really wanted to love this book because who wouldn’t love a swashbuckling pirate adventure with vampires? Sadly, it just didn’t hit the way I think it was supposed to. For a book that’s supposed to be part one in the ‘Vampires of Dumas’ series, I think leaving the revelation of vampires existing until the end and making it the big plot twist was a mistake and made the ending fall very flat.

I liked the central sapphic love story and the pirate lore seemed well researched, but none of the plot points were filled out enough to incite the required emotion for what was happening. I just think this needed more development unfortunately.

I wanted to love this one, the idea was soo good, but I just couldn't. The pacing was weird, and some of the plot lines weren't even fully developed. It just wasn't for me. I struggled through to the end, but I won't be reading the next one.

For a book one in a series entitled ‘The Vampires of Dumas’ there was a severe lack of vampires, or any supernatural/fantasy element at all. When such an element came around it felt very strange and off-pace with the rest of the book, which was already quite convoluted with a sea of plots and characters that didn’t get wrapped up.
Characters were introduced sporadically and given small margins of screen time before either being killed off or sent away and new ones introduced. It made sense for how the main character was navigating a large swath of the ocean and then France, but it made for disjointed reading and not being able to gain attachment to any characters. Our main girl is quite often ridiculous, and when people are constantly telling her of the danger she is planning to go towards she does nothing but ignore every warning coming her way. It was very frustrating to read, and it made me start skimming from about 60% onwards.
The beginning of this was my favourite part, the piratical themes and how the ship was described I found really intriguing and well-researched. Unfortunately my enjoyment didn’t stay for the rest of the book.
My funniest gripe is that our MC seems to be the only girl in France with blonde hair??? It is the one descriptor that everyone trying to acquire her uses, and it did make me laugh that it was such a factor.

This was a great story, but the portrayal of it appeared a bit choppy and couple used more depth in certain parts. I would say this is more of a pirate novel then a vampire novel as well

1.5 stars
The idea behind this book is good!
I wanted to love this book, but I was so frustrated!

But the pacing was all wrong!

One of the main plot points was only developed past the 80% mark. Another was barely explained.

The premise for this one is so interesting: vampires and pirates in a Dumas inspired world? Sign me up! Unfortunately, this book did not live up to the potential I saw in the synopsis.

Morgane is the daughter of the notorious pirate captain Anna-Marie; or so she believes. Growing up on the ship Vengeance, Morgane is content with her life of piracy and the small family unit she has with her mother, the captain of the ship. However, when a raid goes wrong and her mother is terribly injured, she reveals to Morgane that she is not her mother, but her aunt. Anna-Marie stole Morgane away to keep her safe from her real parents; the same parents it turns out may have had a hand in Anna-Marie's death. Morgane sails to France to uncover the truth of her heritage and seek vengeance for the woman she's called mother her entire life.

The book series is called Vampires of Dumas, the synopsis hints at vampires, and the marketing for this book has revolved around the vampire fantasy elements. It's strange that this is featured so heavily when the book does not introduce vampires until the 85% mark, and the word "vampire" is not used until the 90% mark. This wouldn't be a problem on its own, but the vampires are treated like a shocking plot twist when the reader is expecting them in the book. The book's synopsis says "Her quest reveals a world of decadence and darkness, in which monsters vie for control of royal courts and destinies of nations" - and yet this book reads like a historical fiction for most of its runtime. The synopsis also spoils aspects of her mother's identity, that again, we don't find out as the reader until the 90% mark of the book.

Taken as a coming of age, fish out of water story, this book shines. Morgane has the manners of a pirate, and her exasperated companion tries to teach her the ins and outs of high French society (or even just the basics like how to use silverware). This was the bulk of the book, and even though Morgane is 20, I think this book should be marketed as YA to receive a better reception. The protagonist was plucky and a "shoot first ask questions later" level of fearlessness that is popular among YA heroines, and the coming of age elements took up most of the page time. Morgane is on a journey of self-discovery, and that wasn't uninteresting to read, but wasn't the vampire pirate story I was hoping for. The romance is a little on the insta-love side, which also hindered my enjoyment and made this book read younger than its intended demographic.

Personal enjoyment of this book is about a 2 star, however, my expectations were wildly different and that seems unfair to the book, so I'm giving it a 3. The book is decently paced, and the elements that did have piracy and vampires were interesting; they just weren't the focus of the book.

It felt like two different stories mashed together. I wish it was more the pirate story and less the supernatural stuff that felt thrown in.