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When her father is killed by the notorious Rose Riders for a mysterious journal that reveals the secret location of a gold mine, eighteen year-old Kate Thompson d9Yisguises herself as a boy and takes to the gritty plains looking for answers--and justice.
I was so excited to read this book, I loved the map inside and the cover got me excited. Overall I enjoyed this book. It gave you a realistic view of the west, no sugar coating in this book, however as it got closer to the end, I felt the it started to get a bit sugar coated and the rawness that I enjoyed it the beginning seemed to loose it's steam.
Kate was a great MC, I loved how determined she was to avenge her father but I also felt that she was holding back a lot. Jesse and Will were great characters however, I was having a hard time getting them to mesh together. Like, I felt the character build was missing something. I am not sure what was missing but I didn't connect with them as much as I wanted. I did enjoy them and the story was pretty good. It took a slow pace but as it got closer to the end I started to enjoy it a lot more. I sort of was disappointed with the romance, I sort of wanted it more in the background, I like how the story was going but felt that a little romance would have been fine but somewhere in the middle it sort of switched directions.
Vengeance Road wasn't a bad book, I actually enjoyed it but it sort of fell flat for me. I think I was looking for a lot more grit and vengeance but I didn't feel like I got that. I wanted less romance and more old west. If you like romance and gritty westerns you will LOVE this book. :)
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This review was originally posted on Because reading is better than real life
I absolutely adored the atmosphere of this book: The history of the old southwest, the ruggedness of both the land and the people, and just the overall hardships that people faced in the late nineteenth century frontier territory. The feeling of authenticity was incredible. From the incorporation of the climate, to the infusion of the slang in the dialogue and narration, it was very clear that the author did her homework for this book.
After Kate's father is killed at their small homestead in the northern part of the Arizona territory, Kate has nothing left to lose and isn't going to accept her father's murder. She knows full well that this journey of revenge could end up with her facing the same fate, but she flat out does not care. Kate was such a badass heroine, but it was authentic. It wasn't just for the sake of convenience, it made sense why Kate would be as tough as she was. She was raised almost exclusively by her father, and lived in a very rough place during a very rough time. This quote pretty much nailed Kate's thoughts:
"So long as they go down, I don't much care if I go with 'em"
Kate, as "Nate", finds the kin of her father's friend, and they insist on traveling with her, and thus begins the crazy adventure. First, you know when gold is involved, things are going to get dicey really fast. Clearly, the guys who killed Kate's dad aren't going to be steeped in morality, so Kate and the boys will encounter a ton of violence along the way. There's action in the fighting, and there's action in just surviving in the southwestern desert. Vengeance Road is anything but dull!
There were other characters that they encounter along the way, some of whom I positively adored, but this was certainly Kate's journey. I liked that while she was tough and rugged, and willing to go to hell and back to avenge her father, she still had a femininity about her. She wasn't some kind of one dimensional caricature, she had many sides to her. She also had a lot of time to figure out who she was and who she wanted to become in her father's absence, and that was quite lovely to watch. I also was completely fascinated by the way groups of people treated each other. For example, Kate had to pretend to be male for anyone to take her seriously, as women were definitely regarded as second-class citizens at that time. Also, the tensions between the Native Americans and the newcomers to the territory were palpable. Overall, the characterization was well done, and I liked that Kate's views were expanded upon by the people she met along the way.
I did have a few minor problems. Well, two, one being more minor than the other:
**Quote taken from uncorrected proof, subject to change**