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.

The concept of this book caught my attention and started off with me being interested but unfortunately it did start to lose me. The characters were fun but I would’ve liked to see more development and stronger character building throughout. Morgane was what I like in my FMCs so I think there is potential there. There just needs a little more refinement in the tension, building on the story and faster pacing.

The pacing was a little slow for my preference and I’d like to see more world building.

Alright, so here's the deal: I dived into this book bracing for high-seas piracy and sword fights and then bam - vampires. Honestly, if I had glanced at the genre tag on Goodreads, I would have seen that one coming. That's on me. Still, it's a bit jarring when the supernatural part comes with almost no warning until the endgame.

The opening is extremely gripping. Morgane is a fierce, capable pirate and a very entertaining character. I was ready for a full-throttle-girl-pirate adventure until the ship faded into the background and Morgane's quest to uncover her family secrets took center stage. After that the pacing stumbled a bit. The novel dragged in the middle and then sprinted in the final chapters. I also expected a bit more bite of that ending - pun fully intended.

Still, Morgane is an interesting character and the pirate aesthetic is fun while it lasts.

The Vengeance is definitely a book where the buildup and plot momentum was a tad bit ruined by the climax. I loved the start of it, following Morgane on her journey to finding her mother and seeking revenge, but when the paranormal aspect was introduced it seemed abrupt and out of place especially since I was 70% into the book already. This was only made worse by the ending which seemed far too rushed, clean and convenient for my expectations and the general feel of the book.

However it did not derail my enjoyment of the book. I loved the Morgane, I loved the side characters and how Morgane saw them and I loved Morgane's relationship with Lisette, they were adorable.

<i><b>Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review</i></b>

This was such a fun read! I wasn't sure what to expect, but the book immediately had me with words like vampire or pirate. I would definitely recommend it!

I loved the FMC and I enjoyed her journey but sometimes the story could've used some more depth. I actually would've liked the story to be a bit more longer - just to flesh our the plot and characters a bit more. So much potential!

Thank you, NetGalley, and the publisher for the ARC. This is my honest review.

Oh boy.

I dont want to completely rip this book apart because I definitely think it has some good concepts. But the execution is extremely lacking. I'm a huge fan of The Count of Monti Crisco. Although this book isn't supposed to be a retelling, rather "in the world of", I really struggled to see any connections other than there are some pirates, a shipping company, and awful rich people.

Morgane, though is young, is insufferable. I know that she has serious trauma, lack of any affection from her mother/aunt, but she seriously hates everyone she runs into. She doesn't trust anyone, but then manages to "trust" them enough for terrible things to happen. I read as far as I did (about 80%, then skimmed the rest) because I kept hoping that something to happen that would redeem all the boring self-loathing, trauma dumping, internal monologuing.

The "love story".... I don't mind when it's not a huge part of the story - honestly it can be refreshing when you read a book where the love takes a back seat - but this is weird. I didn't feel real? The spark was missing, the connection was missing, and it felt like such an after thought.

I could see this doing okay with additional books, but I felt like this one fell flat for me. Even the end was just.... meh.

This is a hard review, because really there's both nothing wrong with this book and so much wrong with it.

The marketing isn't right. There are vampires but they don't show until 80%, and maybe revealed as such at 90%. The romance is cute, but it's rushed. So rushed.

This book needs to decide the story it's trying to tell and tell it. Instead it kinda feels like someone speeding up and slowing down constantly. The pacing is all over the place.

A heavy editor should have gone at this. The author needed to decide the story she was telling and tell it. Scenes should move the plot along.

2.5* rounded down.

Emma Newman is always good for a surprise. I first read two books in her faerie/urban fantasy series, then two books in her sci-fi series (which I loved and need to finally continue reading). Those series were already at very different ends of the SFF spectrum. Now the author returns with a pirate/vampire swashbuckler, which is quite the departure again. Thank you to the publisher for providing an e-ARC of this book.
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The book opens with some very strong chapters that introduce us readers to both our protagonist, Morgane, and her life at sea aboard the Vengeance. Her pirate mother Anna-Marie is its captain and, for reasons she hasn’t specified, only attacks ships from the Four Chains Trading Company. Morgane knows this has something to do with vengeance, but it doesn’t become clear what exactly is going on until one of their attacks goes terribly wrong.

It’s not a spoiler to say (because it’s in the book blurb) that Anna-Marie confesses to Morgane on her deathbed that she is not, in fact, her mother, but her aunt, and has stolen Morgane as a baby from her very own sister. The reasons? Foggy. But Morgane has never really received much love from her “mother” and so she sets out on a journey to discover her real parents and, maybe, find a home that welcomes her.

This trip leads her to France where – as you might have guessed – a young woman traipsing around in breeches and armed to the teeth is not expected. Nor tolerated. But Morgane doesn’t even get much time to commit any social blunders because as soon as she steps foot on land, she is hunted by several mysteroius parties who all seem to want to kidnap her.
Her journey does lead her to at least one friend (and lover), but the secrets and lies and mysteries just keep piling on until the very end.

There were many things I loved about this book, and a few I wasn’t too keen on. Morgane, as a complete outsider to both life as a noblewoman and life on land in general, brings in a lovely fresh perspective to how things work in 18th century France. Like people paying a lord for the use of his land (to, you know, live on it) but said lord doing nothing to earn his pay, such as making their lives better or resolving conflicts between them satisfactorily. Morgane is baffled by the French simply accepting such shoddy leadership – she wouldn’t have it if this lord or that were captain of her ship!
I equally loved how civilized the crew of the Vengeance was, in terms of electing a new captain and sharing the spoils of their attacks. Sure, they’re pirates and they kill people, which I obviously don’t condone, but the unit of their crew is fair to the core. Sadly, we leave this found/chosen family behind early on in the book and Morgane is mostly alone in the world from that point on.

The plot meanders a bit once she arrives in France and I was not a fan of the many repetitions that followed. There’s only so many times I want to read about Morgane’s shocking behaviour and attire before it gets old. It did make for some funny scenes, but again, there was just a little too much of it for my taste.

When things finally do progress and we’re close to getting some answers, everything moves almost too quickly. The final three-ish chapters conveniently info-dump all that we need to know and wraps everyting up prettily. With a bow. As satsifying as the ending was for Morgane’s story, as strange does it feel that this is the first novel in a trilogy (or even series?). I wonder whether the next instalments will be about other characters and simply revolve around the basic premise of vampires and werewolves existing in France – and maybe elsewhere – or whether we’ll return to Morgane.

Overall, I’d say this book was fun and I’d recommend it to people who like a foul-mouthed pirate protagonist with a good heart. But there’s not a lot of depth to be found in terms of world building, or even the vampire aspect. That part is only very little and didn’t really bring anything new to the table. If that sounds too negative, don’t let it deter you. The story may not be a great vampire book, but it is a fun romp with a teenage pirate. Plus, I quite liked the tender love story.

MY RATING: 6.5/10 – Qiute good

Lying on her deathbed after a ship raid goes wrong, the woman Morgane believes to be her mother - Anna-Marie, "The Scourge of the Sea" and captain of The Vengeance - confesses to being her aunt instead. She tells Morgane that she was taken away from her real mother when Morgane was just a baby, with the vague and mysterious excuse that her birth mother is a monster. Anna-Marie urges Morgane to not seek her out. However, armed with only her "ship smarts" (to include a couple trusty pistols and blades), but severely lacking in etiquette, cultural/societal understanding, as well as the ability to read or write, Morgane travels to France determined to avenge her aunt's death and discover the truth about her heritage.

I was sure a pirate-vampire mash-up was going to be packed with action from beginning to end, but boy was I let down there. While there are consistent elements of action spread throughout, it's nothing at the level I expected based upon the synopsis. The majority of the novel is Morgane getting into one sticky situation after another because she's completely naive (her ship smarts only help her AFTER she's been duped) and then regretting her decision to ever leave the comfortable familiarity of The Vengeance, followed by multiple sentences of her inwardly berating her own stupidity. While this is probably a logical progression of thoughts/emotions, the formula is used to death.

Nothing remotely supernatural occurs until well after the 50% mark, and the REAL reason I showed up to this vampirate party (I'm guessing most others' too) doesn't happen until - get this - the end.

Morgane's personality was also lacking. Newman plays up her ignorance and learned brutishness to the point that it just seems to come across as cutesy comic relief that tries too way hard. This isn't a YA book, but this stylistic choice made it feel that way. Finally, Morgane's and Lisette's fate after all is said and done struck me as a little bizarre and ridiculous. It was like Newman was trying to squeeze too much in between the fairytale element and the edgy, dark fantasy vibes.

The Vengeance wasn't for me, but I feel part of that could be chalked up to misleading marketing. As I understand this the first part in a developing trilogy so here's hoping books two and three deliver...although admittedly I will wait for other reviewers to let me know before giving them a shot.

Thanks to Emma Newman, Solaris, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. The Vengeance will be published and available on May 6th.

DNF at 50%

I'm rating this 3 stars only because I can see some readers enjoying it despite all the problems I had with it. But personally it's really more a 2 star

It seems I don't have any luck when it comes to count of Monte Cristo re-imaginings. The MC was obnoxious and felt more like an edgy wannabe self-insert than a fully fleshed out character. at about 20% in i started getting annoyed with her outbursts that seemed less coherently motivated and more because the author thought that's what she should be like. The writing in general, while alright in parts had a very stilted and wooden quality to it. and at 50% basically nothing had happened yet...

The Vengeance by Emma Newman is a gripping and intense fantasy that explores themes of power, revenge, and morality. The story follows complex characters who are caught in a web of personal vendettas and political intrigue. Newman’s writing is sharp and immersive, with a strong narrative that keeps readers hooked. It’s a must-read for fans of dark fantasy and character-driven stories.

The plot.. great, the pacing ... Not so great.

Also the vampires didn't appear til near the very end which was disappointing, I would have thought they'd be in the book more

The Vengeance delivers an intriguing premise with Newman’s signature atmospheric writing, but it doesn’t quite reach its full potential. While the world-building is engaging and the emotional depth is strong, the pacing feels uneven, and some character arcs lack resolution.

Fans of Newman’s work may still find it enjoyable, but it doesn’t stand out as one of her best. A solid read, but not a must-read.