Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman

Vengeance Road

by Erin Bowman

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.

Reviewed by readingwithwrin on

4 of 5 stars

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“When I were first learning to shoot a rifle, Pa told me that nearly every battle people face is in their heads.”

See reviews first on my blog


When Kate’s father is killed by a group of men she decides to go and avenge his death, and learn why they killed him, and why it looks like they didn’t take anything before they destroyed the house.
Before she can go ride after the killers, though she has to keep a promise she’s made to her father since she was little, that if anything ever happened to him she would go and find Abe.
But when she gets to Abe’s house she learns that he is no longer there, instead his children are including two sons. Who decide to tag along with her until she reaches a certain destination where they say they’ll separate.
Except that doesn’t happen, instead the boys help Kate along the way including almost getting themselves killed multiple times. Kate also eventually gets a guide after she helps a Indian girl working in the saloon escape. But this ends up getting rather complicated thanks to the boys, being rude and prejudice of her.

I really liked this book. It does contain curse words though so if you don’t like that then I don’t think you’ll like this book. I loved the interaction between Kate and the other people in her group. While she was stand-offish it was for good reasons, and when she did start opening up and talking you could tell that that meant she really trusted them and liked them as well. I was not expecting that about her parents. At times I did wonder what exactly happened to her mom, but after a while I just thought it was me being suspicious for no reason.
This was exactly what I was looking for in a YA western though and I really hope more like it come out.


While I am glad Kate and Jesse ended up together, I would have also been completely okay if that hadn’t. Yes they had been through a lot together, but I also felt like maybe they weren’t the best for each other at times. Did anyone else feel that way or is it just me?

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 22 April, 2016: Finished reading
  • 22 April, 2016: Reviewed