An enjoyable pirate/hero quest story with a rough around the edges but endearing FMC and sweet romance element.

I fell in love the moment I read the blurb to apply for the ARC! Thank you NetGalley for this!!

This is my first Emma Newman book and I was NOT disappointed!! This was so much fun and kinda creepy sometimes. Morgane is sassy and tuff and I love that there are vampires!! I can’t not wait for this series!!

Emma Newman’s “The Vengeance” is a thrilling adventure that combines elements of piracy, fantasy, and historical fiction. The novel follows Morgane, a young woman raised as a pirate, who discovers a shocking secret about her true parentage. Morgane’s journey takes her from the high seas to the decadent halls of French nobility, where she uncovers a world of corruption and danger.

The story has exciting action sequences, intriguing characters, and supernatural elements that keep the reader engaged. One of the book’s strengths is its well-developed characters. Morgane is a strong and independent heroine who is both capable and compassionate. The supporting characters, including the mysterious Captain de Valois and the enigmatic vampire Isabeau, are well-rounded and contribute to the story’s richness.

While the novel’s pacing can be uneven, with some sections feeling slower than others, the overall plot is engaging and satisfying. The ending leaves plenty of room for a sequel, and I eagerly await the next instalment in the series. “The Vengeance” is a thrilling and entertaining read that will appeal to fans of fantasy, historical fiction, and adventure. It’s a captivating story that blends elements of the supernatural with a strong female protagonist and a richly imagined world.

Queer pirates plus vampires? Sounds right up my alley!
Unfortunately, this book fell flat for me. Given the premise, I was excited to read The Vengeance, but despite a promising start I quickly lost interest. Much of the plot felt predictable, in spite of the twists and turns of Morgane's various kidnappers and identity reveals. Morgane's stubborn refusal to listen to the many characters who warned her against pursuing meeting her mother was frustrating for me. And the reveal of her mother as a vampiric villain was anticlimactic.
Both Morgane and Lisette felt rather one-note to me. I was more interested in the pirates Morgane left behind or the inner workings of Morgane's mother's empire. And while I appreciate the sapphic representation, the romance felt forced and stale.
I wish the characters and plot were developed further as the bones of the story are of interest to me. I was simply hoping for more.

2.5 rounded up to 3 stars. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read The Vengeance.

DNF: 46%

Pirates, a mystery with monsters, set in France?! This promised to be intriguing and unique.

Unfortunately, it's a major letdown.

First things first: no, I didn't finish this book. I made it almost halfway through and I still hadn't heard mention of vampires. Not even a hint. It's really hard for me to accept a story whose cover says "The Vampires of Dumas" but have <b>ZERO</b> mention of them for more than half the book. Either Jacques and Anna-Marie needed to be less cagey about France and their pasts or this needed to be dual PoV. Or a large chunk of the beginning needs to be scrapped. It just takes too long.

This book suffers from pacing issues. I was able to skim a lot of it and not miss anything -- that's never a good sign. And I know from reading other reviews by people who finished the book, the end goes by too quickly.

But the final straw that made me walk away was the dialogue. I caught a glimpse of it early on. Morgane and Jacques were talking/arguing and it felt very clunky and awkward and forced. But it passed and smoothed out so I thought it was a blip. Until we met Morgane's father and his household staff. All the dialogue felt stilted and wrong for the age and class of the characters. With the other issues this story has, I couldn't justify continuing.

I hope there's another editing pass here before it's published because I still think it could be good. As it stands, it'll remain on my DNF pile forever.

<i>Many thanks to NetGalley, Solaris, and the author for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Thanks to netgalley & the publisher for the ARC. This was a great book. Pirates, and anything else you could want out of a paranormal LGTBQ+ fictional novel, I absolutely fell in love with Morgane. Lisette was such a great teacher! In all things 😅

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Emma Newman for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for The Vengeance coming out May 6, 2025. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I really love vampire stories, so I was excited to check it out. I thought the pirate part of the story was a lot stronger than the vampire part. I feel like for a book with Vampires in the title, there wasn’t a lot about them. They may show up in more books in the series, but I would’ve liked a little more in this one. The pirate parts were really good. There were a couple things I wasn’t expecting that I’m not really a fan of. The writing was good though. I would check out more books by this author.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy novels!

I cannot get into this book. I am just not in the right mood to read this. Nothing against the writing or characters, got like 10% in and cannot remember a thing and am just going to DNF this. Sorry! This book just is not for me but I can see fan of the Ever King and Daughter of the pirate king enjoying this!

✨NetGalley ARC Review ✨

The Vengeance
By Emma Newman
Pub Date: 5/6/25

Morgane grew up as a pirate with her mother being the captain of the ship. Or so she thought. After a battle, Morgane discovers her life is not what she thought.

Morgane travels to discover the truth of her family. When she finally gets the answers she needs, she finds out she was better off not knowing.

Along the way, she finds her love and they forge their way and decide to live the life that is best for them.

I liked this story but felt there was a lot of time dedicated to traveling and barely any time with her true family. I wanted more about the mother but overall a good read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely loved this. A swashbuckler meets Van Helsing adventure is not what I was expecting but it was a fantastic read. Thank you for allowing me to read this on early release, I’ll be buying a physical copy when it comes out.

I was excited for this book because I was a big fan of the author’s previous work, Planetfall. But it seems like The Vengeance was written for a much younger and more commercial audience. The plot, while surprising and entertaining, was just too simplistic, and the characters were lacking in dimension. Not a bad book by any means, but not my cup of tea.

Nice vibrant writing, an interesting premise and the introduction really pulls you in, but for me it was just downhill from there. I think if I had read this as a teen it would have been right up my alley, definitely geared more toward a younger audience with its simplistic style and storytelling.
A little theatrical and a younger seeming narrator. It’s a little shallow and plain and the story linear and predictable, not to mention very slow for what should be an action packed book. I feel like it did garner more intrigue for me when Lisette showed up and I liked her character much more, but that was a little too late for me.
The pacing is odd and the dialogue either stiff or too inflected and irritating, I found it difficult to connect with the characters or story and did not end up finishing it.

i had a fun time reading this! was it life changing? no. but i enjoyed the storyline, characters, and plot twists. the pacing felt slow at times but that might have just been me. thank you for the arc netgalley!!

This book had me very interested in what was to come next. I couldn't have guessed where it was headed and was pretty happy with it. I feel like the whole book was leading to the climax and it was over quite quickly and some things were a little bit too conveniently laid out for the main character, but overall it was enjoyable. I also liked the romantic development in this book, and was rooting for them to get together before it happened so that was lovely

While I loved the first half of this swashbuckling adventure, I really didn't like the second half and found it to have a very different vibe. The introduction of vampires so late in the story just felt a bit superfluous and undeveloped compared to the first half which felt so atmospheric and well researched. And while I liked the characters, especially Morgan, I found the deeper connections between characters somewhat lacking.

Wonderful start, but the vampire elements let it down for me.

I enjoyed this book and following morgane’s journey from sea to land and back again. I felt the relationship between morgane and Lisette was very sweet and familiar. I have never thought there’d be a book with pirates, vampires, and werewolves in it all at once. It felt a little distracting to have all three but in a way that made sense and flowed well with the plot.

*I received a free ARC from Netgalley*

Vampires.
Pirates.
Lesbians.
France.
Sounds like the perfect combination. And it is.
But not in this book.

Plot Summary:

Morgane is a pirate on The Vengeance working under her mother, Captain Anna-Marie, a.k.a. The Scourge of the Sea. When Anna-Marie dies after a bloody sea battle, Morgane is left with her confession: That Anna-Marie is actually her aunt and her real mother is landlocked in far-off France, possibly in danger. Concerned for her mother and yearning for a new life, Morgane leaves behind the sea and her crew in favor of finding her mother and exacting revenge against the person who killed Anne-Marie.
But the shadows of France are darker than Morgane could have ever known and a dangerous creature stalks the nobility. Will Morgane discover the truth? Or will she meet the same fate as Anne-Marie?

Plot Review:

I’m honestly so disappointed.
This book had the makings of something great, with the beginning introducing us to the life Morgane has led thus far. I loved the introduction and battle at sea. It was so climatic and instantly drew me in.
But.
This plot petered off so fast.
So much was happening, yet it was all so repetitive. As soon as we left The Vengeance, Morgane is kidnapped, like, three times, by DIFFERENT people. Whom all, presumingly, either want her dead or want to get her “to safety.”
And everyone is lying to her. Constantly.
Yet, even as we are flying through kidnapping after kidnapping, I was bored out of my mind.
A fast plot does not mean it will be interesting. In fact, there was nothing truly gripping about this book.
Not even the promise of vampires, which appear at least 80% of the way into the book, could keep me interested.
For a book shelved as paranormal and a part of a series LITERALLY called “The Vampires of Dumas,” this book suspiciously lacked vampires.
Disappointing, to say the least.

Characters:

Starting with our main character, I had a mild like of her. She was witty, sharp, and didn’t trust people so easily. I loved that about her, but there was a certain point in the book where I got sick of her narrative and wanting to “save her mother” who people were constantly warning her about.
For someone who was so mistrustful of her father, she sure trusted her mother, someone she had never met, rather quickly. It just wasn’t consistent with her character and what we had learned about her so far.
And Lisette was so PAINFULLY vanilla.
Her character is extremely rigid and robotic. There is no flavor to her actions or her life.
And don’t even get me started on Morgane and Lisette’s “romance.” Where was the spice? The lesbian longing? The angst that keeps me hooked on the story?
I would have forgiven the boring plot if the romance had been more intense, but Lisette and Morgane have zero chemistry. If I can’t feel it, how am I supposed to believe that they do?
The villain of this story was also painfully obvious and stereotypical. We all saw it coming. The fact that our characters didn’t is concerning.

Overall Thoughts:

I’m going to need a real palate cleanser after this.

I highly enjoyed this book where Morgane learns that the woman she thought was her mother, isn't really her mother. I really liked Margane as a character. She is charismatic and sassy. If you have the tendency to be a nit impatient, the trip to France (where her family lives) takes a while, but understandably as they are on a ship. I did wish it would pick up a bit in this area. Otherwise, this has the starting of a great series!

This book is definitely YA fantasy, and the promise of the book was great - pirates meet vampires, what’s not to love?
The supernatural elements are alluded to from the time Morgane arrives in France but don’t actually appear until very close to the end of the book. Which means the book subtitle is somewhat misleading.
However, what the book is about is about a young woman finding out who she is and her place in the world.
Things I liked:
The pirate elements and Morganes relationship with Jacques;
The tentative but sweet relationship Morgane has with Lisette

It could have been a GREAT book, but as it was it was just a ok book, however I did find it quite predictable but interesting enough to keep reading.

3.5/5 🌟

This book seemed very interesting at first, vampires and pirates? How does that work? Let’s find out.

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.

I did like these characters though, and found myself invested in unraveling the mystery of Morgane’s lineage. I found myself invested in the journey. And I very much liked the action in this book.

I would have liked to see the story fleshed out some more though. 3.5 stars.