Thank you to NetGalley and Solaris for this ARC!

The Vegeance is a beautifully done pirate fantasy that I enjoyed reading. I felt very immersed in the pirate tendencies of the main character and enjoyed the French setting. You will enjoy this book if you enjoy pirates, historical fantasy, and strong LGBTQIA+ representation.

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

Morgane loses her mother and learns she was kidnapped as a baby all at the same time. She decides to leave the pirate ship that’s been her entire her life to try and find the mother she never knew.

The conceit of this was really great, a daughter of a pirate trying to learn where she really comes from, but that was really the only thing that worked for me. If something is advertised to me as monstrous and magical, I really need stuff to show up before the three quarter mark of the book.

And if a romance is a big part of the plot, I need to believe in it. Lisette is such a flat character, and the falling in love part happened way too quickly for me. Which is fascinating when compared with the fact that everything else about the plot was glacial to the point that I was putting down the book for days and forgetting what had happened.

Thank you NetGalley and Rebellion for this arc.

Vampires and pirates? Sign me up! While I’ve read better, this wasn’t bad. I think the cover art could be a lot better. I’d still recommend.

A Vengeance is packed with great ideas — a society built on state-sanctioned revenge, power-hungry vampire courts, and rebellious pirate crews — but it doesn’t always weave them together smoothly.

The world-building is fascinating, especially the way vampires manipulate the justice system and pirates push back against their control. I loved the political scheming and the tension between these factions, and there are some sharp, thought-provoking moments about grief and justice.

But the pacing drags in places, and while the concept is strong, some characters feel underdeveloped — especially the pirate crew, who deserved way more page time. The final conflict felt rushed, and a few predictable twists dulled the impact.

Overall: a creative, atmospheric read with vampires and pirates in a morally twisted world, but uneven execution keeps it from truly shining.

The Vengeance had all the ingredients of a gripping tale—pirates, hidden identities, dark secrets, and a dash of paranormal intrigue—but unfortunately, the execution didn’t quite live up to its potential.

The story starts strong with Morgane, a bold and brash pirate heir raised at sea, suddenly thrown into a world of mystery and royal intrigue after discovering her entire life has been a lie. Her defiance of societal norms—wearing pants, cursing, being unapologetically herself—should have made her a standout protagonist. But over time, her character began to feel one-dimensional, as she kept making the same impulsive choices without much growth.

One of the biggest disappointments was the pacing. The narrative became repetitive, with little forward momentum for large stretches. The stakes never felt urgent enough, and it was hard to stay engaged when much of the book felt like it was circling the same internal and external conflicts.

Also, for a book marketed as a paranormal fantasy, the supernatural elements showed up surprisingly late in the story. By the time the paranormal aspects finally emerged, they felt like an afterthought rather than an integral part of the world-building.

That said, the book does offer a unique setting and an intriguing concept, and readers who enjoy slow-burn political and personal mysteries might find more to appreciate. But for those expecting a fast-paced, high-stakes paranormal pirate adventure, The Vengeance might not fully deliver.

Emma Newman’s The Vengeance is the first book in the The Vampires of Dumas series and is a rollicking, genre-bending adventure that sails far beyond the typical pirate or vampire tale, whilst being both. Set in an alternate 18th-century France inspired by the novels of Alexandre Dumas, it has a mix of high-seas piracy, sapphic romance, and supernatural intrigue. It’s not the normal kind of book I read so I approached it with slight trepidation.

The story follows Morgane, a 19-year-old raised on the pirate ship Vengeance by her formidable “mother,” Captain Anna-Marie, who relentlessly targets the Four Chains Trading Company (think East India). When Anna-Marie is mortally wounded in a badly planned raid, she drops a bombshell: she’s not Morgane’s mother but her aunt, having stolen her as a baby. A hidden letter from Morgane’s real mother, hinting at danger in France, propels Morgane to abandon her pirate life for a quest across French society. What follows is a fish-out-of-water romp packed with action, political scheming, and a romance with Lisette, a governess hired to polish Morgane’s rough edges. As well as all that there’s also vampires, but they aren’t featured as much as I thought.

The strength, and occasionally weakness, of The Vengeance is its refusal to be just one thing. It’s not pirate novel, it’s not a vampire story, and its not a standard period romance, so sometimes it feels a little like you’re not sure what its trying to do.  Newman focuses on Morgane’s outsider perspective, which works well and her disdain for noble excess and feudal oppression, informed by her pirate upbringing, feels refreshingly modern yet true to her character and time period. Her occasional naivety allowed us an in to this strange similar but different world.

Morgane herself is a flawed, impulsive, and fiercely independent character and as such she’s not always likable, but her growth from a pirate to someone grappling with generational trauma and identity is compelling. Her romance with Lisette shows another side to her character, evolving from prickly animosity to tender intimacy. Newman’s prose, sharp and evocative does do a good job of bringing 18th-century France to life, from grimy inns to opulent chateaus, making every setting feel lived-in.

The pirate-heavy opening is a thrill, but the middle is slower, and this is maybe where the different genre’s feel like they don’t quite meld as Morgane adjusts to land life, the vampire plotline at times feels a little rushed when it emerges. That being said the resolution ties up major threads neatly but it did leave me intrigued as to where the next book in the trilogy might go, and made me wonder if it had initially been written as a stand alone.

The Vengeance is a swashbuckling tale that, at times, sets itself apart with its bold protagonist, queer romance, and a world where pirates and vampires collide against a richly drawn historical backdrop. Despite it not being my kind of thing I found lots to like, and it felt like a full story – sometimes the beginning of trilogies suffer from feeling just like that but Newman avoids that.

If you like this kind of book then definitely give it a shot, it might be the start of your next favourite trilogy!

Who doesn't love vampires and want to be a vampire? Just me!

Anyway this book has vampires and romance and action and adventure. A little spice too! We get vampires and werewolves and some paranormal bits towards the end.

The books does feel like it has been split in two parts which don't seem to make much sense but hopefully book 2 helps to bring it together.

I had really high expectations for this one but unfortunately it fell flat for me. The beginning was very promising and had me invested in the story but the more I read the more it got frustrating to read. And I wish we would have met the paranormal characters earlier than like in the last part of the book. Also I couldn’t connect with the characters which sadly is a deal breaker for me

⭐️ 2.75

To be honest, I believe the marketing for this book was a little misleading.

Rather than a paranormal fantasy set in Alexandre Dumas-era France with an Aristocratic high society run by vampires, this story is much more a coming of age tale for a Pirate Captain's daughter.

The story felt much more naive and juvenile than I was expecting, with the FMC embodying these traits even in circumstances where she should have known what to do/think.

So much of the story time was dedicated to expressing every little setting detail in between repetitive inner monologues that the plot often felt rushed when it was back in focus for short bursts.

The entire plot was very predictable and often only then level of gore described had any emotional impact. The villains were also rather 2D and lacked intimidation as a result.

One of the biggest disappointments was the sapphic relationship. It's beginning felt like it had little built up - on one page, they were acquaintances and on the next, they were lovers, with no explanation or detail as to how this change occurred. Also, there was honestly so little chemistry between the 2 young women, especially once they were described as lovers (as if the author didnt have to put any effort into their interactions anymore). It felt entirely unauthentic as a result.

Overall, this book needs a lot more developmental edits and attention paid to the pacing to improve.

While The Vengeance has some really good elements, I found that the parts I didn't love negated the good just enough to make this an average read. I really enjoyed the premise of the book, the conversations about class hierarchy were good, and I liked the sapphic love story. However, I didn't love the main character's "not like other girls attitude," she was very gullible at times, and I found the pacing pretty poor. The majority of the book is spent following the main character as she looks for different relatives and has the same revelation over and over again. We didn't even meet the main villian until the 80% mark, and this book is a standalone! So even though there was some good, this was an overall very average read. Nothing too bad about it, but it doesn't stand out either.

Morgane’s path in life has always been to follow her mother into piracy. But when a run-in with a merchant vessel proves to be a trap, her mother’s dying words reveal that she was born into a very different life. Lost at sea as she has never been before, Morgane journeys to France to find her birth mother, and save her from the abusive husband keeping her prisoner.

An out-of-your-depth coming of age story, ‘The Vengeance’ has swashbuckling adventure and a wonderfully sympathetic pair of main characters, (with a great love story). This is a fast-paced adventure story, and often sacrifices world-building to maintain momentum. It’s a fun read, but when everything’s full steam ahead, it’s hard to enjoy the story beats as they come.

The Vengeance is a swashbuckler with a paranormal bent, though you’d be forgiven from thinking it was just historical fiction for the first half of the novel.

My favorite element of the story was our protagonist. Morgane is charming, in the way boisterous teen girls more confident in their physical skill than their minds are. Love a himbo, and I love a queer one even more (we only learn about her queerness quite late in the game, but the energy of a brash sapphic disaster is unmissable and would be even if she ended the book not having looked at a single woman romantically). Her relationshipwith her governess turned friend turned partner, Lisette, could’ve been quite sweet if it was given the room to grow into something that felt real.

And therein lie the roots of my problems with The Vengeance: an issue of pacing and an issue of focus. We spent so long getting Morgane to France, where ostensibly the court intrigue and drama and monstrosity was supposed to start, per the blurb… but then when she gets there, we rush through everything else, both the physical and emotional plot, the characterization of others, the introduction to the fantastical. We just barely get a reveal of supernatural creatures before we’re skipping through emotional growth and character relationship development, and then oops, back to the supernatural because that’s what the plot is! It was a frustrating experience because the world-building and character-building we got in the first half of the book, some of which was quite good (I wanted to hear more about the way Morgane’s life as a pirate and the relationships she built with her crew affected her even in that crew’s absence), ended up wasted as Morgane left those people behind. From a craft standpoint, you have to spend your page count wisely, and part of that means directing your focus wisely, off the backstory and onto the story you’re trying to tell.

As it stands, with the story being timed as it is, it was jarring to go from Rescue Mission/Pirate-themed Heist to Oops! Mom’s an Evil Vampire. I would’ve liked to have there be hints of the supernatural earlier, even if the rest of the balance of the book was the same (ie, so heavily weighted toward Morgane’s backstory as a pirate). There’s so much room for stories and lore on a pirate ship in the Caribbean! Zombies, mermaids, ghosts on the ship… some hint as to the fantasy would also explain how quickly Morgane got used to that new reality. Lacking that added to the rushed feeling, which made it so the climax didn’t feel built up to. There was no increase in urgency to signpost its coming and I was startled when I finished the scene and realized how few pages there were remaining to read. I didn’t feel like it resolved the emotional stakes, because throughout it wasn’t clear if they were “Morgane struggles to figure out where she belongs” or “Morgane struggles with feelings of foolishness/inadequacy/feeling unskilled.” Nor do I feel like there were dire stakes outside of the threat of death we faced the whole time anyway, so victory didn’t feel imperative.

I wanted more from the novel overall, because Newman is a skilled writer. She can do character work, she can create a heck of a setting. I just wish she’d been edited by someone who could’ve focused those talents in a little more, and helped her, on a developmental level, pick which story she wanted to write (swashbuckling historical fiction with court intrigue would be my preference, but it could’ve been a great paranormal revenge heist too!). And another editor to clean up some of the copy; there were missing and misused words and clunky sentences often enough to snag and distract from the story, and a good copy editing sweep could’ve caught them.

I recommend The Vengeance for folks looking for a quick light fantasy story that ties all its loose ends up tight, and prefers their fmcs to be Strong Female Characters. I’ll be revisiting Newman, because I think with some more publications under her belt, she could really be fantastic.

A book that left me feeling quite conflicted. I absolutely adore Morgane as a main character. She's strong-willed, so utterly genuine and therefore also flawed. She's relatable and very well-developed. I know who she is, what her values and motivations are. Unfortunately, I can say this only about her. All of the other characters really felt like just side characters. I can't tell you why certain characters helped her while others harmed her. We get told this information but there is not really much proof of any of this.

I did not care much for the romance as I didn't feel connected to the love interest. Technically speaking there were enough scenes to build a connection between the two characters as well the readers and the relationship but the latter got neglected in depth. I don't know much about the love interest and wish we could've dug deeper into the development of that character and the relationship.


The pacing was a little awkward. The first part on the ship was really nice and I would've loved to spend more time there as I was promised pirates. The only pirate we get throughout the rest of the story is Morgane. The rest is all just tangible build-up to the ending which gets resolved SO FAST. The build-up didn't feel senseless but there was also not much to be gained from it. As we travel with Morgane we meet her father who is swiftly killed off. At the end we meet her mother who gets no more than two scenes with our MC before she's also killed off. Introducing and killing off important characters within a few chapters feels really jarring. And it was done thrice in the book! I think it worked well with Anna-Marie but the other two (three even if you count the Comte) felt too forced and too fast.


I was also promised vampires and got none until 90% into the book?? This felt much more like a prequel than a first installment of a series. Everything feels sort of wrapped up plot-wise so I am merely curious as to how Morgane's life continues but there's no hook or cliffhanger plot-wise.

(I did really enjoy the Rapunzel allegories. Very fun twist to the original story!)

The Vengeance is a swashbuckling fantasy adventure that follows Morgane, daughter of the pirate captain Anna-Marie. Her ship is the Vengeance and they are known to attack and destroy ships from the Four Chains Trading Company at any opportunity. When Morgane’s mother is fatally wounded during one such attack, she reveals the truth to Morgane – she is not her mother but her aunt. This sets Morgane on a quest to France, to find her real family and what happened to them. What Morgane finds will be darker and more dangerous than she ever thought possible.

This was such a fun read. This is my first book from Emma Newman and I thought it was a really entertaining story. The plot is intriguing, though I do think the pacing was a little uneven at times. The story felt well written and Newman did an excellent job of bringing the sights and sounds of historical France to life. I really enjoyed the parts of the book that were set on the ship as they were detailed and well researched.

Our main character Morgane is a strong female pirate and she’s not afraid to stand up for what she believes in (or punch someone in the face). I thought she was a terrific protagonist and I loved the way she ruffled feathers, questioned the ruling classes and completely disregarded etiquette. The romance in the story is also well developed and I liked the way the relationship progressed without taking over the main story arc. I am very much looking forward to seeing where Newman takes Morgane and her pirate gang in book two. Overall I thought The Vengeance was a compelling fantasy tale so if you’re looking for a story that features a strong female character, that’s full of mystery and has a hint of vampires and werewolves, this is one you don’t want to miss.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Emma Newman threw everything but the kitchen sink into this novel: werewolves, pirates, and vampires all have their roles to play. Unfortunately, I frequently found myself wishing this novel had chosen just one of those things to stick with instead of incorporating all three.

I enjoyed the base pirate storyline the most. Morgane is an irritating protagonist with a penchant for running headlong into literally every danger she could have easily avoided, but I liked her spunk when compared to Lisette's quiet charm. Their sweet sapphic romance did feel underdeveloped as there was very little buildup to it, but once the ball got rolling, I thought they were cute. I was reminded of the TV series Our Flag Means Death a little when they taught each other the ins and outs of their very different lives. I would have loved to see more of that, honestly.

With all the various people chasing after Morgane, the middle of the novel felt quite convoluted. I lacked enough clarity on who was who and why they wanted Morgane in the first place. And as others have also said, for the first entry in a series titled "The Vampires of Dumas," to have the first vampire reveal itself at the 90% mark is a little ridiculous.

I honestly would have preferred if this one stuck to a historical fiction world as it had for 75% of the novel OR if it had introduced the fantastical elements much earlier. As it currently is, the sudden genre switch-up was jarring and irritating. I will probably continue to read the series as I sense many of the issues in this first installment would be cleared up in the second.

This was a solid read, offering an intriguing premise and a unique world from Emma Newman. "The Vengeance" has a distinctive voice, and Newman's exploration of the central themes is thought-provoking. I appreciated the clever ideas presented and the way the narrative unfolded. However, I found some of the character motivations a little hard to connect with at times, and the pacing occasionally felt a bit slow, particularly in the middle section. While it had its moments of brilliance, it didn't fully pull me in to the extent I'd hoped.

This is a thoroughly engrossing read. Morgane is a feisty heroine and for once, a young woman with significant sword and knife skills makes complete sense, given she’s been brought up on a pirate ship. I loved Newman’s depiction of the pirate community – especially as there were a sprinkling of female pirates and indeed, captains. There were the Articles that Newman mentions, though it’s also fair to say that some captains paid more attention to these rules than others. But captains who routinely displeased their crews were at risk of being overthrown and if the majority agreed that the captain wasn’t providing enough spoils to be shared amongst the crew, he (or she) would be forced to step down. I also liked the fact that Newman doesn’t try to sugarcoat or glorify the life of a pirate – it’s depicted as the final option for people who were often in terrible situations. A fair number of pirates were escaped slaves, for example. They were hard drinking, violent people who were only too glad to get a chance to spread the misery around to the crews of the ships they plundered.

I very much liked how Newman handles Morgane’s experiences in France, when she’s trying to pass for a noble-born young woman. Having studied History and read a slew of books set in the period, I realised that I knew more about how a high-born lady is supposed to behave than Morgane. That could have quickly become tedious – when readers know more than the protagonist about their circumstances, the pacing can stutter as we wait for the heroine to catch up. Not in this case – so much occurs so unexpectedly to Morgane from the moment she sets foot on dry land at Nantes, we aren’t given any time to get impatient at Morgane’s bewilderment and growing alarm.

Again, we’re aware that the family reunion Morgane is expecting is highly unlikely – far too many people have warned her, for starters. But the speed at which events go belly-up didn’t give me space to feel anything other than concern for her welfare. Her relationship with her governess is nicely handled, as is her grief for the woman she’d thought of as her mother. All in all, this is a cracking read that fully delivered plenty of excitement with a satisfying story. I finished it feeling a bit sad that the current adventure was over – and very much looking forward to the next instalment. Highly recommended for fans of swashbuckling swords and sorcery tales featuring a sympathetic protagonist. While I obtained an arc of The Vengeance from the author via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
9/10

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book.*

"The Vengeance" is about Morgan, a pirate captain's daughter whose true heritage catches up with her when her 'mother' is killed in battle. She's taken to France to meet her real family but not everything is as it seems. Morgan is sadly a very unlikeable protagonist who clings to unrealistic ideas until the very end. No reader should be surprised by Morgan's encounter with her own mother. While there is a lot of enjoyable swashbuckling and queerness, the story per se is quite weak, the fantasy and historical fiction elements included.

I enjoyed the book nevertheless. It was absurd and funny. Queer love ftw!

Morgane is the daughter of a fairly successful pirate captain of the ship Vengeance. Morgane has lived all her life on board the Vengeance, and is bold, skilled, resourceful and smart, and at the same time, naïve about the anything not ship-related.

When her mother Anna-Marie is wounded and dies after an attack on the Maître, a Four Chains company ship, Morgane not only loses her mother, but also all her assumptions about Anna-Marie and her aunt.

The captain of the Maître offers Morgane a new life, telling her that Morgane's aunt had commissioned him to find her and bring her back home to France. And, more shocking, Morgane discovers that Anna-Marie was her aunt, and the other woman her mother.

Angry, but also curious, Morgane decides she'll travel to France and reunite with her mother, and so begins a series of discoveries, once she arrives in port. There are men after her, she meets her father, who gives her information about her family that is greatly contradicts all the stories Morgane has built in her head, and there are supernatural beings.

When things naturally fall apart with her new relationship with her father, Morgane decides to travel to her mother's home, in the company of Lisette, a governess (hired by her father for Morgane). Morgane begins to learn just how many lies and half-truths her life has been built on. Does this stop her? Nope, Morgane keeps barrelling ahead, until she is faced with the reality of her family.

I totally enjoyed this book. I found the pacing worked for me, and I loved the sense of adventure, action and discovery that permeated the book. Morgane is frequently brash and willing to take great risks, but this is balanced with a keen mind and many useful skills she learned on ship.

As this is part of a series titled "The Vampires of Dumas", there were vampires, and they were terrible people, who make their appearance fairly late in the book. And there were also good people who helped Morgane and Lisette as they travelled together. I liked the fact that this story is built on the world of Dumas, and incidentally also is populated by vampires, who are, appropriately the nobility of the land, imbuing the already callous and terrible actions of the gentry with an extra layer of awfulness.

I loved Morgane, and Lisette, who proves to be incredibly resourceful, resilient and kind, and a perfect match for Morgane's impulsiveness. I am eager to find out what happens next to these two women.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Rebellion for this ARC in exchange for my review.