Revenge and the Wild

by Michelle Modesto

The two-bit town of Rogue City is a lawless place, full of dark magic and saloon brawls, monsters and six-shooters. But it s just perfect for seventeen-year-old Westie, the notorious adopted daughter of local inventor Nigel Butler.

• ISBN10: 0062366157
• ISBN13: 9780062366153
• Publish Date: 2 February 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amanda]

Any book that can make me exclaim, "Oh mah gawd" out loud (and in a good way) is an excellent book.

Revenge and the Wild was fun, in a young adult, western, fantastical way.

But Revenge and the Wild isn't your typical young adult book, at least in the sense that Westie, the main character, has a foul-mouth and a drinking problem. Both are very real things, just not situations you find in many books, adult included. (Well, more so the drinking problems.)

Add in cannibals and magic and the wild West, and well... this book is pretty damn unique. And I liked that. I liked that a lot. Even though the writing style wasn't exactly my favorite, the story itself shines through. From the men in Westie's life (um, more Alistair and his mask and mysterious ways, please) to her search for her family to her MECHANICAL ARM, there's a lot to love about Revenge and the Wild.

As a break from historical romances, this book was perfect. (Not that I was even looking for a break from historical romances, but it came into the library and I took the opportunity to read it and it was beautiful.) I'm a little sad this doesn't seem to be part of a series, but it doesn't need to be---the story is fully contained.

If you're looking for something a little different and a lot of fun, Revenge and the Wild might be your book. I wouldn't mind immersing myself in this world again.

[limabean74]

My Review:

This is a book that belongs on a book shelf, one that I plan to purchase when it comes out just to have it. I loved the heck out of the book. I can’t even express in a review how much I love this book. It has EVERYTHING in it, I mean EVERYTHING, from Vampires, Trolls, Steampunk, Western, Werewolfs,  it’s like the kitchen sink of books. If this is Michelle Modestos first book I have a new author I need to follow because this was fantastic.

This story was amazing and the characters are beyond wonderful. Westie is a great MC, strong-headed, independent and hilarious. The story has paranormal, magic, mystery and a thriller. When I say it packs so much in one book it really does and never once did anything get all mushed together that it became confusing. It was beautifully written and each point was done perfectly.

Westie’s family was killed by cannibals and she was found by the Wintu people and adopted by Nigel and extraordinary inventor. When investors come to town to purchase one of Nigels inventions Westie realizes she knows them and will stop at anything to expose who they really are. With the help of Alistair, Nigels assistant the two get into some crazy situations, a lot of them had me on the edge of my seat. I really enjoyed the world this book took place in and the characters, one of my favorites is Costin, a vampire that owns a blood brothel. He is a gentle vamp who seems to love Westie and a dedicated friend.

Here is the one thing about this book that I thought was interesting, I want to say that you might feel it’s predictable and maybe the build was a little slow at times but when it is all said and done and you get the twist that is thrown at you closer to the end it knocks you over. I really didn’t see that coming. I was never bothered by the slow parts only because I was so worried and eager to find out what happened next. This book has so many laugh out loud parts and I just really adored the chemistry between Alistair and Westie.

I can’t recommend this book enough and I am pretty sure this review make no sense at all to how amazing this was. It’s been a very long time since I read a book with so much going on that it worked perfectly. This book has some adult situations but nothing graphic at all so younger teens should read with cautions however it’s really not that bad just implications of what is going on rather than graphic detail.

The year isn’t over yet but this is by far one of my favorites, looking forward to reading more from Michelle Modesto, think I found a new favorite author.

Thank you so much for stopping by to check out my review

Hope you have a great day and Happy Reading!

This review was originally posted on Because reading is better than real life

[shannonmiz]

This review was originally posted on It Starts at Midnight
I have some mixed feelings about this one. I will fully admit that the cover will go firmly into the "good" section, because look at it. But alas, we aren't here for that. I'd say that I liked this more than I didn't like it, but I did have some pretty sizable issues.

The Good Stuff

So, the characters in the book were pretty fabulous. They'd all suffered a lot, because this world basically sucked. Westie, the main character, had a mechanical arm because people tried to freaking eat her. Yeah, and succeed in eating her arm. And oh yes, her family. Messed up as that is, it was intriguing for sure and is a positive. Now, not only did I love Westie, but I loved the entire cast of supporting characters. Or hated them with a fiery passion, depending on the character in question. At any rate, I was definitely invested in their stories!

There's also a lot of adventurous plot happening as Westie plans her revenge (in the wild, no less, how about that?). Well, plan is maybe not the right word, because Westie just basically reacts to stuff without thinking anything through, so most of the time she's either trying to prove herself, or trying not to die. Or be eaten. Again.

The Not as Good Stuff

See, cannibals aren't the only creatures roaming the west. No, there are vampires, and magical Native Americans, and trolls, and a bunch of others that I am probably not remembering perfectly at all. I just don't know that they were all necessary? I mean, sure, the cannibals, because they are what threw the whole story into motion. But vampires and trolls (and elves, I think, maybe)? I just didn't really get why they were all involved. There wasn't really a good enough explanation for me to buy it. And there's a lot of different plot stuff happening too. There's political stuff, there's some issues with alcohol abuse, and survival, and wagon trails which makes me think of like, The Oregon Trail circa 1848. Which maybe it was supposed to, but I didn't really know, which brings me to the next issue.

I didn't really understand the world. I guess it was supposed to be historical, technically? But since there were mechanical arms and vampires and no real clues on what the actual time period was, I just kind of surmised the historical part from tags on Goodreads, so that's super professional.

I feel like maybe it all could have worked if there was time to build the world and the backstory and really introduce all the subplots and characters, but it just felt like a very brief overview of a lot of topics, and took away from the main story.

Bottom Line: It was entertaining and I enjoyed the characters, but some of the potential fizzled with plot and character overload and not enough pages to flesh it all out. Still, I was definitely invested enough to want to know how the story ended.

*Copy provided by publisher for review