The Vengeance by Emma Newman - Book Review

 

The Vengeance by Emma Newman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If she had known that it was the last hour of her mother’s life, Morgane would have done things differently. But that was the thing about a life at sea such as they had; there was no way to tell where death would come from.

The aptly named The Vengeance follows Morgane after the death of her mother (the captain of her pirate ship) as she leaves her life at sea and everything she knows to go to France hoping for vengeance. Dealing with several surprises coming up during her quest - chief of which is that she uncovers letters from her birth mother pleading for rescue, and a father who has been searching for her, she finds France and life on land very different from the life she led until then.

Morgane felt horribly awkward. Why did everyone care about being a man or a woman so much in France? On The Vengeance, the only thing that mattered was skill. But perhaps her aunt’s ship really had been an exception.

The interesting plot, action based but event driven, is the foundation of this book, and held my attention. Morgane is a great character, her strengths and weaknesses outcomes of growing up on a ship in a late medieval world. The overall duration of the book doesn't see a lot of change in Morgane's character, but she is pretty strong and street smart to start with.

“Nah.” Morgane sheathed the knife. “Any problem involving a man can always be solved with violence. Violence or gold, to be fair.”

A few good themes like gender-based expectations and rule of aristocracy came up, and meshed well with the other lead and secondary characters. The world-building contains some supernatural entities in addition to the medieval descriptions (as can be seen from the name of the series), but this wasn't explored as much as I'd like. Another quibble was that the plot progression didn't actually allow Morgane to spend much time with each of her parents, except for the mother who raised her, or actually see them in each other's company - which could have added to her character arc.

On the whole, The Vengeance is a fun read, and I'll keep an eye out for the sequel and more books by Emma Newman.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Rebellion publishers for an ARC, the review is entirely honest.

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[3/4 star for the premise and the whole book; Half a star for the characters; 3/4 star for the plot and themes; Half a star for the world-building; Half a star for the writing - 3 stars in total.]

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