“Vengeance” is exciting and intense, incorporating magical historical fantasy and monster horror with themes of family, loyalty and friendship.  Meticulous worldbuilding is fundamental to this story of brothers fighting monsters lurking in the dark.  This book is for readers who enjoy distinctive magic systems and well-described, often gory fight scenes.  A highlight is the strong familial love between the brothers reminiscent of the Winchester brothers from the television show “Supernatural,” with Corran as the older, protective brother, and Rigan as the gifted, sensitive younger brother.  At 544 fast-moving pages, “Vengeance” is definitely worth the investment.

The Valmonde brothers lost their livelihood as undertakers, their family and their freedom in a battle against an evil ruler and his bloodwitch, who used monsters to consolidate their power in the first book, “Scourge: A Darkhurst Novel.”  Now outlaw monster hunters, they realize the enormity of the practice of calling creatures from another dimension for weapons against the economies of rivaling rulers. A practice that hurts the people more than the rulers. A formidable presence from beyond awaits being called through to their world if the sacrifices continue.  The brothers Valmonde and comrades face the fight of their lives against supernatural and natural foes.

I was a bit worried when I realized that this was the second book of a series, but I think it still works pretty well as a standalone novel, it's not difficult make out the backstory from the text.

If you're into tabletop RPGs and contemporary fantasy this is a pretty entertaining book, with plenty of monster hunting, magic and intrigue.. It reminded me a bit of the A Song of Ice and Fire series and The Wheel of Time in that there's an existential threat but some people are still focused on greed and politics despite the stakes.

I'll find the previous book and give it a read as well.

Stephen King once said that if you don't know what your characters' characteristics are, put them in a random, dangerous situation. Well I think Gail Z. Martin really listened to that kind of advice because my reading belly is satisfied.

What a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I found this gem under the horror section of NetGalley, but I feel that it's a genre all on its own. Vengeance is a psychological thriller that dabbles in
urban and epic fantasy, but at its heart it is a horror. Why? This book falls under an aegis of horrific events which tear people apart and bring them together. Despite the wonderfully woven fantasy elements which fall sobelievably into place, the horror of it all is what makes this novel so enticing.

Oh! And revenge. I love a well-executed revenge story. Executed? geddit. hehe

"Not half a year ago, we had our old lives, and never dreamed anything would change. And now,
Look at us. Walking wounded, torn up inside and out like the old men who came home
from the wars and were never right again...And maybe someday we can rest.

The Plot: Under Taker Monster Hunters, Monsters and Real Monsters humans
PS: With a lot of wonderfully drawn out commentary on mental health.

The Real MonstersBounty hunters...they were just another kind of monster, I suppose.

The Monster Huntersthe real crux of the story:

The Charactersbad ass mother lovers:

Every so often, the "higher-ups" as Polly calls them have a chapter dedicated to their discussions
and motives for their nefarious deeds of conjuring up monsters to kill civilians or "villeins".
The higher ups are motivated by greed and power, but don't seem to be fully fleshed out. Sometimes I can enjoy a wholly evil villain. It's a break from the morally grey character trope.

The initial structuring of the book is like a short story, much like in the Sword of Destiny (The Witcher, #0.75) by Andrzej Sapkowski where Gerard fights blights and tainted monsters, but you can feel in your bones that a huge menace is on its way. And just as I suspected, there was something more to the monsters senselessly slaughtering villagers and their livestock - there were rifts opened by blood witches, beady-eyed, rat-like little bastards that work for the big baddies, which will be discussed right now.

The Villains

Jorgensen "asshat" enter surname:See to it." Jorgensen snapped. "The night's waiting." Jorgensen angled himself so he could watch Spider and Roach prepare their working. [If I'm lucky, this will draw out the Valmondes and be done with it.] - he's kinda like Scar/Jeremy Irons and I love it. But I hate what he does, so I hate him. Good villain, 8/10/

Kadar "killer of towns because they reaped too many grapes" enter surname There's not much to say, except that he's the brains behind the entire operation and he's a real #$*%&$$*mother@(*$Y&$*ass%&$(*$(#fuck@*$$

Colduraan "the Elder God" enter surnameColduraan grows stronger in chaos. Colduraan taught us humans the way of blood magic, and he thrives on bloodshed. The more blood magic is practiced, the stronger he becomes.
Colduraan is the huge baddie who wishes to come through the rift created by the blood mages. And boy, is there a great final fight scene waiting for all you readers out there.

He Who Watches "big baddie" enter surname
He Who Watches didn't want him as a sacrifice, or an offering. He wanted the power that eluded him in the Rift, and the soul that battled for control...if so, there would be no champions left to fight against the darkness

The Monsters:
He caught a glimpse of something blacker than a starless sky, felt its regard for just an instant, and recoiled from the touch of something utterly terrifying and alien. it knows we're here.

Character time!
Rigan: "I don't know how the gods reckon things. I wonder sometimes whether the stain on my soul is too much to let me pass to the Golden Shores, because of what I've done."
Corran's brother and a vengeful man who seeks to protect everyone he loves, even if it
leads to his demise. He is powerful witch and has so many detailed facets to his personality.

Corrin: I'm sorry. It's just that usually, the monster is a problem and the village
wants us to take care of it. That's what we do.
The softer and gentler of the two brothers, Corrin has some magical ability but he has his wits about him and protects his vengeful brother with his life.

Polly: Thought I might help Polly with dinner...when she isn't threatening to wallop me with that spoon of hers. She may be the resident cook, but she has a glib mouth and sharp wits.
She's hilarious without being a comic relief. That girls no more than a - "that "girl" knows
what she's doing," Polly said, her voice dropping to a deadly growl.."Don't make her mad if you
value your balls."

"You know, I sometimes think Polly's the most dangerous of all of us."

Apologies for the copious quotes from or about Polly, but to me, she's what holds the character development together in this book. She's absolutely a delight to read about. I'd love a novella just about her.

Elinor: She returned the kiss with a playful nip, but her eyes suggested exhaustion might preempt the promise of anything more. Elinor and Rigan's relationship is realistic and fun. Elinor isn't just an extension of Rigan, but a great character on her own.

Ross: gave up on any kind of reputation long ago. At least, any good kind... and a vestir killed my cousin....I couldn't bring him back, but I could kill the things that killed him, and
keep it from happening to someone else." Ross focuses more on helping others than being vengeful, and I really like him!

Aiden the Worried Father Figure:I sent Elinor to get some sleep, he said, stretching and rubbing his eyes..."You didn't have to stay up all night, Aiden." he yawned. "New information makes my mind churn. I wouldn't have slept even if I'd tried.

Calfon the CleverIt's illegal to hunt monsters - in Ravenwood and in Sarolinia. "Yet here you are," Calfon challenged. "Seems to me you came to the same party ready to dance."

And lastly, some wise ghostsThat's not good. Not good at all...I thought people had learned their lesson back in my day about monsters and Rifts and blood magic, but I guess not." Corran: as a general rule, people don't learn well from experience." Tophen (ghost) gave a nervous chuckle. They don't, do they? I guess some things never change.

The Monsters: an essay to assay you to read this, especially if you love The Last Wish

The creatures and monsters that the gang face are a fresh take on monster hunting - not your
typical vampires. There are vestirs and all sorts of "vampire" types, lagoon monsters that beckon you to jump to your death and so many others, shrouded in darkness.

Cthulhu like creatures: Each time he sensed it more clearly, though whether that meant it was closer, he could not tell. I fixed him with the glare of its many eyes, and he felt its appraisal. The presence regard him curiously as if deciding whether he might be friend or foe, food or ally. Its utter alienness made Rigan's flesh crawl. Instinct overrode conscious though, and he ran.
I love existential monsters - are they, or not? Friend or foe? Menace or bunny?

The atmosphere: Dark but uplifting

This is so akin to Treasure Planet the best and most underrated Disney movie, thank you and I love it! It is dark but the camaraderie is heartwarming and I love the dark asylum they must seek - under and over abandoned monasteries.

Tidbits that make the book great

...Corran tries the grave magic to open the Rift." Aiden looked chagrined. "She's right. There isn't time for "careful" although I'd rather not run right past into "reckless". I'm in.

The Banter:Corran will skin me if I come back home without you." "With luck, it won't come to that," Rigan said with a thin smile which didn't reach his eyes. "And if it does, I'll haunt his ass if he gives you grief.

Overall this is a great read - the only problem I have with it is that it could be condensed by quite a bit. However, the extra hundred or so pages dealing with mental health like PTSD, anxiety and depression made it well worth it

Thanks to NetGalley and Gail Z. Martin for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of this book. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will read more to come.

DNF at 25%

I don't like reviewing books that I didn't finish, so rather than commenting on the whole work (which wouldn't be fair of me), I'll make a few notes of why I stopped reading.

- The characters were not interesting. They seemed cliche and flat.

- The conflict was weak. When the characters were out hunting monsters, there would be a few lines of action, and then the action is cut off with several scenes of the aftermath. This caused pacing problems. It read like this: quickly resolved action scene, filler, filler, filler, filler, background, quickly resolved fight scene, filler, filler, filler, etc.

- Lack of interesting characters and conflict made me bored. I wasn't invested, and I dreaded picking up the book and reading.

- Certain plot points were repeated several times. Within the first 25% of the book, the reader is reminded not once, not twice, but at least three times about the pact the brothers made with an elder god to have vengeance.

This book could be good, but it needs some serious editing. The premise is interesting, but it failed to live up to full potential.