ARC Review: Vengeance Road - Erin Bowman

Title:Vengeance Road
Author: Erin Bowman
Pub Date: September 1st, 2015
Publisher: HMH Books For Young Readers
Page Count: 336

When Kate Thompson’s father is killed by the notorious Rose Riders for a mysterious journal that reveals the secret location of a gold mine, the eighteen-year-old disguises herself as a boy and takes to the gritty plains looking for answers and justice. What she finds are devious strangers, dust storms, and a pair of brothers who refuse to quit riding in her shadow. But as Kate gets closer to the secrets about her family, she gets closer to the truth about herself and must decide if there's room for love in a heart so full of hate.

In the spirit of True Grit, the cutthroat days of the Wild West come to life for a new generation.

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This book is worth its weight in gold. [Alright, that isn't a lot so correction: This book is worth the weight of the number of copies printed, in gold.] - Nova @ Out of Time

I wasn't for sure about this book when I first heard of it. I've never read a book from the author and I've never read a Western before. Now that I've accomplished both things, I'd say that I'm open to doing them again in the future. This book was really well done and I was sucked into Kate's story the entire time.

Seeing as my knowledge of the West is Back To The Future #3, I was a little overwhelmed by the world building in this story. It does not mess around. From the first page, you can sense the difference in writing style, the way the characters speak and how everything is described so perfectly. To be fair, the way Kate used double negatives and outdated contractions were a little off-putting in the beginning but as I read, I grew to appreciate the detail. When a book has world building, it's good. When a book's world building shows up in other aspects like behavior and speech patterns, it matters so much. That seemed unique to me which is something that will make this story so unforgettable.

In terms of the characters, I had no idea what I was in for. Every character is morally gray and since I'm morally gray, how could I not love this book? Let's pretend like I didn't just admit to being morally gray... ookey then.
Our main character, Kate, is on a quest of revenge. It makes her a very "heart of stone" type. She does show kindness but her defining quality is her determination for revenge against the people who killed her father. Something that I hated, then loved was the way she treated another character of Aboriginal descent. Kate basically refused to call Liluye her name, despite Liluye going, "That isn't my name" the entire time. What showed development was that nearing the end, Kate and Liluye reached a mutual respect with Kate realizing that she was wrong.

There is also romance, which I loved to pieces! The male lead, Jesse, balanced Kate so well. Like her, he is also morally gray and I was like, "WHY DID YOU DO THAT?" on multiple occasions. However, despite all of it, I felt like the two were perfect for each other. There was some witty banter on a few accounts that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I've also been punched in the feels by this novel. Send help.

My emotions basically went like this: surprise at how Western this book is, respect for Kate, surprise at something else, *smirking emoji face*, extreme horror and being hurt in the feels, worry, relief, *smirking emoji face*, "WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?", sadness, happiness, END OF NOVEL.

So yes, if any book, any book at all, causes you to have all of these feels, you go rate that book the big 5.0 right now. Do it. Right now. I'm watching.

Something I loved to pieces about this book is that it shows the good, bad and ugly sides of people, rather than branding one the "hero" and one the "villain." No one is innocent, especially when everyone carries a gun and are out for violence. The point I got while reading is that gold turns men into monsters because of greed. Then those people start to forget they ever had morals because of their greed. I think it's a pretty good lesson to get out of the whole thing, especially since the book itself was so fantastic.

Do you even need a summary paragraph? Go read this!

Erin's Goodreads | Twitter | Website

Erin grew up in rural Connecticut, where she spent most of her childhood telling stories. It is rumored that her first words were not "Mama" or "Dada," but "Once upon a time." In middle school, when kids were going off to sleep-away camp for the summer, Erin was attending writing camp and penning short stories.

She studied web design (and minored in Creative Writing because she couldn’t stay away from stories) at the Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate New York. After several years working in advertising and designing websites for various brands, she moved from Boston to New Hampshire, where she now lives with her family and writes full-time.
When not writing, Erin can often be found hiking, geeking out over good typography, and obsessing over all things Harry Potter. She drinks a lot of coffee, buys far too many books, and is not terribly skilled at writing about herself in the third person.
She is represented by Sara Crowe of Harvey Klinger, and is the author of the Taken Trilogy (available from HarperTeen) and Vengeance Road (HMH Books for Young Readers).