Vengeance was a fantasy epic that took me a while to get through but not for lack of trying! It's quite dense and filled to the brim with adventure and fantasy - I really enjoyed it and believe it is wonderfully written and plotted.
The narrative flows well and the world building is intricate enough to be well thought out but not overwhelming. The characters - there were quite a few I'm afraid, could sometimes do with some fleshing out but overall they were engaging and interesting with natural flowing dialogue and a plot with actions that make sense.

*Received for free from netgalley for honest review* Loved reading this, looked into finding the other book and can't wait to read that one and reread this one!

“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.

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.