The Vengeance by Emma Newman

Timy reviews The Vengeance, the first book in Emma Newman‘s fantasy series, The Vampires of Dumas.

An ARC was received by the author in exchange for an honest review.

This review is posted as part of the Wyrd & Wonder Month 2025 hosted by some amazing ladies. Check out all content on Instagram, and BlueSky!

Possible fit for The Sound of Madness Reading Challenge 2025 prompts:

Joker prompt that goes with anything: Freed from Desire

Morgane grew up at sea, daughter of the fierce pirate captain of the Vengeance, raised to follow in her footsteps as scourge of the Four Chains Trading Company. But when Anna-Marie is mortally wounded in battle, she confesses to Morgane that she is not her mother.

The captain of the enemy ship reveals he was paid to kill Anna-Marie and bring Morgane home to France and her real family. Desperate to learn the truth about her lineage, Morgane spares him, leaving the Vengeance and everything she knows behind.

Her quest reveals a world of decadence and darkness, in which monsters vie for control of royal courts and destinies of nations. She discovers the bloody secrets of the Four Chains Trading Company, and the truth about her real mother’s death, nearly twenty years before…

“Somene should stop them,” Morgane muttered, and Celeste laughed and kissed her cheek.
“My friend, you need to learn which battles can be fought and which cannot. Otherwise, all your anger will twist your heart and sour your soul. Besides” – she picked up her needle once more – “I’ve found that more good gets done when we look at how to love better, rather than how to fight harder.”

Calypso by Sail North was just released when I started reading the book, and it’s just such a perfect fit – well, for the first part of the book anyway.

Ever since I heard about The Vengeance, I’ve been on the fence about whether I wanted to read it or not. On the one hand, I was curious about Emma Newman‘s work for a while now, on the other hand, I’m not particularly into nautical fantasy. Or F/F romance. Or vampires. But I’ve been proved wrong before when I took a chance on things, and when I got my hands on a paperback ARC (I don’t often get those!!), I eventually decided to give it a go. Doing a buddy read during Wyrd & Wonder Month was just the cherry on top. That, and one of my childhood favorite reads was The Three Musketeers so I was looking forward to read something inspired by Dumas‘ work. However, after finishing the book, I’m just as conflicted with it as I was before, although for different reasons.

The Vengeance follows the story of Morgane, who grew up on a pirate ship under the strong leadership of her mother, whom, she soon learns, is actually her aunt. Leaving behind the Carribeans, Morgane sets out to France in search of the truth and her real mother, whom she believes needs her help. But France is unlike anything she ever knew, and the truth is sometimes not what you would expect.

The Vengeance starts out strong. I got sucked into the story of this pirate ship under Anna-Marie’s grip, the way the crew worked, the law they lived by. I was unsure about Morgane, but thought she might grow on me by the end – unfortunately, that never happened. She is strong headed and does what she thinks is right, despite the fact that literally everyone warns her what a stupid idea it is. But she rather trusts the words of a random letter from her mother than the person who actually raised her – and yes, I understood her anger and resentment toward Anna-Marie upon learning some truths, and wanting to know more, but running headlong into a world you know literally nothing about is not very smart. On the plus side, her personality remains consistent over the book, and despite her friends best efforts, she can never really leave her pirate persona, which really was refreshing, especially when she meets pretentious men who have no idea what to make of her.

I also appreciated how we see France and its society in general from an outsider’s POV. Morgane does have some valid criticism seeing how the hierarchy works – or rather, doesn’t work. She might be uncivilised in the eyes of the nobility, but she does have a good heart. Unfortunately, that wasn’t quite enough to make her an MC I’d want to root for. I really would have liked her to have some more depth. Sadly, I also didn’t buy into the romance plot, but that could be my personal opinion.

Morgane aside, I had a few more issues with The Vengeance. For one thing, there are a lot of very handy coincidences working in favor of the plot (*cough* Blue Rose *cough*), making them quite unbelieveable and a bit too easy. While Morgane’s motivation in the beginning was plausible, as the story went ahead and we learned more, it started to become very flimsy leading to a very predictable ending. And for a seeries that’s called The Vampires of Dumas, it takes a LONG time for them to even show up, and even then they feel more like an afterthought to spice things up a bit, and I’m not sure it worked in the book’s favor.

Overall, I think I expected a very different book than the one we’ve got. The book takes places mostly in France rather than on the sea, and it’s more of a family drama with some additional fantasy elements. It’s a weird thing to complain about for me, especially I’m having a fantasy burnout as we speak, but to me The Vengeance lacked some substance. I wanted more of everything – the characters who didn’t feel as fleshed out as I’d liked, the plot (more swashbuckling!!), the motivations. While at the same time I can see what Newman was aiming at with portraying generational trauma, cultural and societal differences. It’s also very easy to read, although I admit the book kind of lost me for the last quarter or so.

Throughout reading The Vengeance, I felt like it was a set up for the later books to come in the series, that didn’t sit well wtih me. I honestly much rather would have read Anna-Marie’s story of becoming the feared legendal pirate than Morgan’s bumbling in a world she doesn’t fit into. I really want to say I loved this book, but sadly that wasn’t mean to happen. Whether I’ll pick up the second book remains to be seen, but in the meantime, I hope The Vengeance will find its audience.