DNFed at 30%— the hook was compelling on paper, but the execution didn’t hold up and the author’s writing style was oddly grating.

This was my first introduction to Emma Newman as an author and while I enjoyed the journey, there were some things about the book that I wish were a little different. The overall pacing of the book felt very odd to me. I felt like the beginning 60% of the book went very slow and then the last 40% of the book went very fast. There were relationships, dynamics, and events that I think could have been dragged out longer and given more substance. I felt as if I did not get to see the relationships between the main character and other important characters be formed in depth and that made me feel like I did not have a solid connection to many of the characters within the book.

A swashbuckling adventure across open waters and through France, The Vengeance introduces firecracker Morgane. Raised amongst pirates, Morgane is foulmouthed, uncouth, and brave. When the woman she thought was her mother is killed in combat, she finds out her birth mother has been looking for her this whole time and she sets off for France where dark truths await her.

This was an excellent read and I look forward to more set in this world - pirates, vampires, and werewolves all come together in brilliantly new ways. That being said, I think I would have preferred if the supernatural had entered the narrative earlier than the last third. While I thoroughly enjoyed the pacing in the first half of the novel, it felt somewhat rushed through in the last half and I found myself wanting to linger more in certain scenes or in certain plot points.

Action-packed and with an enticing love story, this is certainly a book to remember and Morgane will capture your heart. I will eagerly await further installments in the Vampires of Dumas series.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Rebellion team for this ARC!

The Vengeance by Emma Newman is an action-packed and gripping book that transports readers into a world of piracy, family secrets, and betrayal. Morgane, raised as the daughter of a fierce pirate captain aboard the Vengeance, has always lived a life of adventure on the high seas. But when her mother, Anna-Marie, is fatally wounded in battle, a shocking revelation is made—Anna-Marie is not her biological mother.

In the wake of this revelation, Morgane embarks on a journey to uncover the truth about her origins, leaving the Vengeance and everything she has known behind. As she delves deeper into a world of political intrigue and dark secrets, Morgane uncovers the truth about her real mother’s death and the hidden forces vying for power.

Fast-paced and filled with action, The Vengeance weaves together elements of family, betrayal, love, and adventure. Newman expertly builds a world full of danger, intrigue, and high stakes, keeping readers hooked from start to finish. With its twists and turns, this book is a must-read for fans of pirate adventures and tales of personal discovery.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

This begins aboard a ship and had some interesting character relationships; however, I found it a little slow moving and difficult to relate to, so unfortunately this was a DNF for me.

The plot of this book was excellent, and all of the characters had so much personality. An overall super enjoyable adventure story with a hint of supernatural

Interesting premise, but not well paced. I skimmed a third of this. The characters are very young and while Morgane’s temperament fits well with the way she grew up, it because tedious to listen to her justify her behaviour instead of changing it as needed to fit her chosen path forward — she acted more like a spoiled brat when we was anything but. I get that she was angry and young and grieving, but it certainly didn’t endear her to me; I found her incredibly annoying and wanted to get to the end as quickly as possible. I did like Lisette, and the relationship between them was well done. The introduction of the Garou and the vampires felt rushed and somewhat illogical, as they were introduced seemingly randomly once 60% into the story rather than having been a feature throughout — and realistically there should have been signs earlier, not only to make them more believable but because surely there would have been some form of seagoing creatures, too. If werewolves and vampires, why not sirens too?

Overall I enjoyed the premise of this story, even the second half of the book where FMC goes in search of her family. I liked the idea of exploring LGBTQIA+ relationships in this era. Exploring neurodiversity and challenges what it means to be intelligent. Exploring the dynamics of Vampires and Warewolves. But the pacing of the book prevented much exploration of any of these themes, and I felt myself confused by the factions at play, and left unsure if I’d missed something or if it wasn’t there to begin with. I also felt disappointed that Morgane and Lissette went from being kinda sorta friends to lovers in such a short timeframe. I also felt disappointed that the Vampire element too so long to show up, and the battle was over so quickly.

DNF at 27%

I tried to push through this since it's an ARC copy, but I just can't. The first few chapters were great. Seeing the pirates take over the ship and Morgane's mother's death was so high action that was immediately slowed down. I'm not even 30% in and nothing's really happened except travels from the pirate ship back to France, and I stopped before they even docked at France.

I expect a book about pirates and vampires to be exciting and fun, but it was just boring with nothing to keep me engaged before getting into the thick of it.

This is an ARC from NetGalley. This book has so much promise. I enjoyed the aspects of adventure on the high seas and a badass female character. Too bad all that ended in the first 50 pages. The plot of this book just did not exist; girl finds out her true family is not who she thought, get chased around the countryside, out of the blue romance , random Werewolves for 5 pages that got no backstory or development, found family, Vampires, again that got no backstory or development for 20 pages, family is evil, girl defeats family, the end. It felt like this would have been the introduction to a much longer story. Everyone needed much more character development and the story needed more space to breathe and engage the reader. #netgalley # thevengeance #vampires #werewolves #pirates

The premise of this book is definitely what drew me to it the most! And I feel that the premise was definitely true to the book.

I loved Morgane, and I loved following her story. The world building and imagery were also done beautifully!

Unfortunately the book felt a bit slow at the beginning, and then everything happened towards the end of the book. I felt that it definitely could’ve flowed a bit better. I will say that once it picked up, I couldn’t stop reading but I did struggle with the start of the book.

This book is a solid 3-star read for me. There were things I really enjoyed about it, and things I felt could have been explored a little better.

Let’s start with my likes! This book is like if Pirates of the Caribbean had a baby with Underworld, and it was set in a cozy fantasy world. It’s decidedly not cozy fantasy, but there are some elements of it. The pirates and vampires are self-explanatory, if you are aware of the plot of this book.

Overall, the story is interesting, and despite any issues I may have had with this book, I wanted to keep reading to find out how everything ended. It was worth the read, and I would recommend this book to my pirate-and-vampire-loving friends. I don’t think I’ve read anything similar to this book, at least, not in regards to the pirate involvement. I definitely have seen the dichotomy between vampires and other supernatural creatures, but adding piracy into the mix was a nice change of pace.

A few things to note - 1.) The pirate talk/language is a little over the top and hard to move beyond, especially in the beginning. I know why the author does it - to immerse you in their world - but it’s a lot, right off the bat, and in some areas feels forced. However, it’s easy to move beyond it, so I don’t let it hold you back from reading. Some things were funny, some things leant to the ambiance, other things were a little “cringe,” but just keep reading beyond that. 2.) This is, ostensibly, a book about vampires, but they aren’t introduced until almost the end of the book. There’s a lot of buildup to that point, and you kind of suspect, but I knew that there were supposed to be vampires, and was waiting to get to them the whole time. I felt as though there could have/should have been more of them, sprinkled through out. While they aren’t specifically discussed as such, the werewolves were introduced, prior to the vampires. 3.) The ending was super intense, and with all the build up, almost felt rushed. The vampires are only in the last 10% of the book, but I wanted more time with them, prior to the book ending. 4.) There was A LOT OF BUILD UP, and traveling, and developing of relationships and the world. However, the most intensely anticipated part of the book happens and is over in the blink of an eye. I’d like to see more balance between the parts of the story.

It does look like, from my review, that I had more issues with this book than things I liked, however, the majority of many of my points of feedback are due to me wanting MORE. I wanted more details, more vampires, more of certain aspects, so it comes from a positive place.

I’m sure this will be caught in the editing stage, but some of the names changed. Particularly, Lavois, who started as Valois. It didn’t change anything for me, and was actually really neat to see it in the uncorrected ebook. I felt like it was a peek behind the curtain!

This book was fine! I genuinely believed it needed a good alpha reader or something to go through and say "she needs to confirm with someone that that's really her dad" or just hold the main character's hand a little because she made a lot of questionable decisions that kind of burned the plot for me.

Before I get into the review, a quick thank you to both NetGalley and the publishers over at Solaris for allowing me access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Vengeance was sold to me as The Vampires of Dumas. As someone who was surprised by how much they liked The Count of Monte Cristo, I was all in immediately. In this one, we follow Morgane who grew up on the sea as the daughter of a pirate captain. But her world is turned upside down when her mother is shot and gives Morgane a deathbed confession: she's not really Morgane's mother, she's the aunt who stole her when she was a baby. Morgane is given the choice to either stay on the ship with a new captain or set out to find her real mother. Once on the road in France, Morgane comes to realize that something's just not right. The Vengeance comes out on May 6th and is available for preorder now.

As someone who read and enjoyed The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh, I'm not going to complain about the vampires not being present for the majority of the novel. I know that this author is setting up a series and that there are bound to be more vampires. What I will say, however, is that this book felt so aimless. Or maybe it's just that it bounced from action scene to action scene with little in the way of character development. From the second that Morgane steps off the dock in France, there is nothing but a constant struggle to stay out of someone else's clutches. People lie to her over and over and she just seems to fall for it every time. She's supposed to be someone who was raised around pirates but falls for anything and everything other people put in front of her. She gets kidnapped like three times. It's so dumb. I wish we had taken the time to have fewer action sequences and more time developing the characters and their desires. When the romance hit I was kind of shocked. Not because I didn't like the couple together. It just felt like it came out of nowhere. Where were these feelings in the first half of the novel? I feel like I don't know these characters or their motivations at all.

When we did get to the vampire stuff, I enjoyed it. I wish there had been more of it, but I liked the way the vampire lore worked and I'd love to see even more of that in the future. Maybe with Morgane and her girlfriend hunting vampires? I think this author can do better with longer stories so I think the foundation is there for this as a series. This feels like it could be a good place for people who enjoy historical novels to dip their toes into fantasy. I think that's really going to be the target audience for this one.

It says a lot about an author's talent when you pick up a book you just can't stop reading; when you really care about all the characters; and when you feel like the book added to the way you see the world after you finished reading it.
This is a very well rounded standalone, but as usual, when it comes to Emma Newman, you always hope for more books with the same lovely and interesting characters and well constructed story world.

OK, so I did enjoy the book - but also feel a little mislead by the marketing.

The characters are wonderful, and often corny (almost starting to verge into cosy fantasy). Which I am here for. But the supernatural element was lacking - for a series called the Vampires of Dumas (which kind of spoilt any kind of twist the ending may have been), the vampires only feature at the end.. And it's after 60% through that any kind of supernatural thing happens (fleetingly).

It's also marketed as Adult, but I think it may lean more towards YA in how it reads. The pacing is FAST. Which again I am here for lately, but we have very little time to process things before galavanting off past that plot point. Some things do circle back which I liked, but I do wish we had seen more of certain characters and interactions. Morgane also just sailed through fights which diminished the action and tension any conflict had.

I'm interested how this series progresses, especially as this ties up nicely as a standalone.

<i><B>Thank you to Netgalley and Solaris for the arc, in exchange for an honest review.</b></i>

The premise of the book is great, pirates yes please.
I think the book is more aimed at Pre teen and for that reason I struggled.

Thanks to Netgalley and Rebellion for this eArc in exchange for a review.

I have really mixed thoughts on this one. Loved the premise, though the execution fell short. Actually really liked Morgane as a character, although I couldn't tell at times how old she was meant to be. She came across as about 10 at times.

As a book sold as a sapphic pirate book with vampires, there was no hint of fantasy until 64% with a pretty random werewolf appearance. The romance again, came from nowhere at 73% and 90% found the vampires.

Wish I could say I liked it more than I did, but I can't. Sorry.

The Vengeance is a book that has excellent plot but suffers a bit with pacing. Morgane is a pirate, kidnapped by a family member at birth who thrives in her life at sea until a mystery draws her back to France. I loved the side characters in this book and wish there had been more time spent on them-I think this is a book that actually would have done well being longer with more lore than shorter. Overall it’s still a satisfying read, more for those looking for an adventurous book than a fantasy/paranormal book. Thanks to the author and Solaris Books for this ARC!

The Vengeance was awesome in the beginning but I didn’t enjoy the entirety of it.

Absolutely loved all the pirate ship stuff. It made me wish it were more of a pirate tale I guess.

The vampire coming in late in the book just didn’t make sense to me either. Besides the beginning and the end of the book. It was the middle of it that just felt boring.

I will say Morgan, although she is dumb and too trusting I’m glad to see this author have a flawed character in the book. You do not see these kind of characters that much anymore.

Thank you for this arc. I think this has a lot of potential and the writing is great don’t get me wrong. It just felt dragged on to keep the story longer.