✨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.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

To be quite frank, I struggled to finish this book. Wanted to give up more often than I wanted to keep going.

The pacing is all over the place — extremely slow in the first 40%, then practically rushing through the ending. I didn’t find the character of Morgane likeable, and the multiple times throughout the book when she contradicted something she’d JUST stated irritated me greatly.

This, paired with the stiff dialogue and strange characterisation lowered my enjoyment of the book significantly, which is disappointing as the premise (vampires and pirates, hello?) promised SO much.

I can only hope that the remainder of the series delivers upon these expectations, for readers that are it’s target audience — I most certainly am not.

Atmospheric and well-written, I enjoyed this one.

(I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)

Oh my goodness - this was such a fun read! This story gives you vampires and werewolves, the Caribbean, and 18th-century France - what's not to love?! Morgane is setting out to find out who she is, and all she learns along the way. It's truly a swashbuckling tale and not one to be missed!

I really, really wanted to like this book.

Even in hindsight, having finished it, I will admit that though somewhat basic, I actually liked the plot and the premise. The problem arose, for me, in the writing. The characters come off as disappointingly flat, every emotion expressed overwhelmingly basic and every action telegraphed pages in advance. I will admit that I didn't expect for the main couple to be a sapphic one, and that was a very pleasant surprise, but they had so little chemistry it was nearly painful. This book just did not have the writing you'd expect from something within this genre- it read like a middle grade book, complete with the tiresome overuse of exclamation marks. My main takeaway is, unfortunately, just disappointment.

I loved this one. My only real complaint is that the ending could have been less rushed. I would have enjoyed it ending where the main climax happened about her finding her mother and there being a second book and make it a duology. Like there could have been such a more wild sequel involving the supernatural parts of the book that were barely there in this book. Either that or if this book had been longer and added a lot more depth to the time where this took place. A more fleshed out love interest and seeing them maybe change stuff for the better before the end. But I am happy where Emma Newman took us and it really makes me want to read more pirate books.

The Vengeance is a really enjoyable romp, taking us the Caribbean and to 18th century France and throwing vampires and werewolves into the mix. The story follows Morgane, a young woman who's grown up at sea as a pirate, believing herself to be the daughter of Anne Marie, fearsome captain of the Vengeance. Anne Marie has a particular hatred for the French "Four Chains Trading Company", whose vessels she hunts down without mercy - and one day that leads Morgane to surprising knowledge, and danger.

Basically a "fish out of water" story as Morgane is forced to travel to France to discover who she really is, The Vengeance is at its very best showing the young pirate absorbing the ways of the land, discovering love, and trying to learn about her own origins. Her determination and courage are never in doubt, though her wisdom and self-restraint may be, as she stirs up enemies she never dreamed of. (You know, don't you, that when Anne Marie warns Morgane never to try and find her family, that the warning will be ignored, and that there will be Consequences?)

By telling a story from an outsider's viewpoint, Newman is able to show up many injustices and wrongs in her imagined France and the complacency and resignation of those involved. It's not only wrongs and tyrannies we will be familiar with from history, but a whole layer of the supernatural too. This sets up formidable obstacles for Morgane, but they don't overshadow the story, rather at its centre is a complex and tender portrayal of someone who is still a very young protagonist and who has to find her way as an adult in the world. That theme is given room to breathe, with due space too to a comedic subplot where Morgane, as a notorious pirate, thinks herself much more adult, much more experienced and much more capable than she really is. Witnessing this sea dog offered the services of a governess when her father eventually catches up with her is hilarious, but Newman doesn't only play it for laughs, the relationship with Lisette will be important to Morgane in future.

(Indeed it will I think be a strained relationship in some ways - Morgane, as a pirate born and bred, is clearly relaxed with the idea of a life driven by theft and murder. While this is something Newman perhaps chooses not to emphasise, Lisette is alive to it and will not, I think, tolerate it for long. I expect sparks to fly...)

Introducing and setting up many threads that will I'm sure be important in future stories, The Vengeance is a fun read with the sense of moral and psychological complexity I always expect from this author and I expect it to be a highlight of 2025's reading for many.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review an advanced copy of this novel. I highly enjoyed it and will be recommending it to others.

The Vengeance is a book with teeth, dripping with dare and filled with twists that keep you perpetually on your toes. It sets sail in the high seas, where Morgane discovers that her mother, captain of the ship, is in fact not her mother at all. Thus begins Morgane's turbulent journey or running around France in search for answers-- who really is her mother, and more importantly, can Morgane trust her?

I went into this bohttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6908269708ok with so much excitement because it's my first time reading a pirate fantasy, and a supernatural one at that. I loved how intricate the world building was, detailing the period down to the clothing, food, and customs. Morgane is a charming protagonist, and I enjoyed discovering France right along with her.

The Vengeance has all the potential to become one of my favorite books, but unfortunately, I think it's let down by the pacing. Since this is the first book in a series, it feels as though it focuses too much on contextualizing backstories and characters, so I never got as immersed in the story as I would have hoped.

Overall, the book is a gem for historical fiction lovers, but I was left wanting more than I got.