Review: Vengeance Road

VENGEANCE ROAD
Erin Bowman
Young Adult/Historical
336 pages
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Available Now
Source: BEA

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Revenge is worth its weight in gold.

When hers father is murdered for a journal revealing the location of a hidden gold mine, eighteen-year-old Kate Thompson disguises herself as a boy and takes to the gritty plains looking for answers—and justice. What she finds are untrustworthy strangers, endless dust and heat, and a surprising band of allies, among them a young Apache girl and a pair of stubborn brothers who refuse to quit riding in her shadow. But as Kate gets closer to the secrets about her family, a startling truth becomes clear: some men will stop at nothing to get their hands on gold, and Kate’s quest for revenge may prove fatal.

MY THOUGHTS
Vengeance Road is gripping from first page to last, sucking us immediately into Kate’s story as her world burns down and revenge rises from its ashes. From the moment she finds her father’s body we’re taken on a darkly beautiful journey, the richness of the setting and the authenticity of the dialect drawing us even deeper into Kate’s life as she seeks to return the brutal favor bestowed upon her father.

Kate is a young woman who could have made it exceedingly difficult to really like her, revenge having a way of casting a character in so many shadows and shades of gray that it becomes nearly impossible to find the real person they mask. Instead, what we find is a girl who sets out with dark purpose but who isn’t so blinded by her need for vengeance that she literally rides in with guns blazing without the benefit of any kind of plan or forethought. While she might have done just that without the Colton boys there to intervene, she listens to them and allows their logic to filter through the haze of her anger until she sees reason.

The romance between Kate and Jesse is woven beautifully into this story, the two of them at odds for majority of the book (due in large part to the fact that both Jesse and his brother Will believe Kate to be a boy when they first meet her), but while they take verbal swings at one another on a daily basis, their relationship never comes across as frustrating. Rather than drama for the sake of drama or a couple that runs hot one day and cold the next, Kate and Jesse feel utterly genuine, caught up in a number of emotional and physical conflicts that never once act as a reminder that we’re reading a piece of fiction thanks to the over the top nature of what unfolds.

Overall, Ms. Bowman delights with Vengeance Road, giving us a heroine to root for with every fiber of our being, a villain to hate with gleeful intensity, and a subtle romance to keep a dopey grin plastered to our faces just when we need it most.

Rating: 4.5/5
 

Find Erin:

Website • Tumblr • Twitter • Goodreads • Amazon

This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: Taken

TAKEN
Taken #1
Erin Bowman
Young Adult/Dystopian
352 pages
HarperTeen
Available now
Received from publisher via Edelweiss

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
There are no men in Claysoot. There are boys—but every one of them vanishes at midnight on his eighteenth birthday. The ground shakes, the wind howls, a blinding light descends…and he’s gone.

They call it the Heist.

Gray Weathersby’s eighteenth birthday is mere months away, and he’s prepared to meet his fate–until he finds a strange note from his mother and starts to question everything he’s been raised to accept: the Council leaders and their obvious secrets. The Heist itself. And what lies beyond the Wall that surrounds Claysoot–a structure that no one can cross and survive.

Climbing the Wall is suicide, but what comes after the Heist could be worse. Should he sit back and wait to be taken–or risk everything on the hope of the other side?

MY THOUGHTS
There are times when a strikingly beautiful cover can be both a blessing and a curse; a gorgeous design encouraging readers to pick it up, yet at the same time instantly creating high expectations as we can’t help but hope the story lives up to its packaging. While Taken has a deeply intriguing premise–one that will likely have our interest increasing as we learn more about Gray’s world rather than lessening as the series continues–our lack of connection with the characters themselves keeps us from glorying in the grit and guts we know must exist beneath this book’s pretty face.

Gray draws us into his world immediately with a haunting opening line, and we easily come to care for him more and more as soon as he starts to question the emotionally stunted and brutal way of life in his small town. We fully support his curiosities and his decision to find the soft spots the elder women in the village are protecting and give them a much-needed poke, but we are never quite provided the opening we so desperately want to be able to crawl into his heart and mind and make ourselves at home. Our time with him is captivating and his various exploits practically have the pages turning themselves we flip them so quickly, but that extra spark that would elevate him from an enjoyable character to a memorable one remains elusive.

Part of the troublesome connection with Gray stems in part from his romantic relationship with Emma. The love he’s had for her since he was a child (a setup we can’t help but like and much prefer to any sort of instant connection) exists only in word form, never quite transcending the black and white ink to become truly heartfelt sentiments we feel ricocheting back and forth between his fiction and our reality. About halfway through a new romantic player enters the picture, and while thankfully a triangle doesn't fully form, there is one event in particular that ensures that formation doesn’t take place and effectively kinks the straight path we thought existed between Gray and Emma. Based on the lack of resolution for their romance in this first installment, it’s probable a triangle will be forthcoming in future books, but those who fear or loathe them should take comfort in the absence of one in Taken.

Overall, Taken introduces us to a very complex and deeply fascinating world, new facets of it revealed and new questions raised every chapter to keep us interested throughout. The reasoning behind the Heist itself when it’s finally brought to light, however, feels a bit thin and grossly impractical given the end result those in charge are looking for, but it’s easy to overlook that factor in favor of trying to decipher which characters are black, which are white, and which exist in shades of gray. Hopefully book two will explore a few more emotional subtleties to help deepen our investment in Gray and his journey, but it’s a journey I’m interested in continuing.

Rating: 3.5/5
 

More information on Erin and Taken can be found here:

Website • Twitter • Goodreads • Amazon