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A review by theamyleblanc
The Vengeance by Emma Newman
Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.
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 ZERO 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.
Many thanks to NetGalley, Solaris, and the author for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.
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 ZERO 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.
Many thanks to NetGalley, Solaris, and the author for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.