Vengeance Road
Author: Erin Bowman
Genre: YA/Western
Grade: A
Come for the cover stay for the story!
Kate is on the vengeance road out for blood after the Rose Riders string up her father. She chases them down come hell or high water and is totally willing to pay the ultimate price because she feels she has nothing left to live for. Will and Jesse, who join up with her chasing the gold map the Rose Riders stole from her father are less enthused and Lil the Apache guide is trying to get her to see her better self before a showdown no one thinks she can win.
Westerns are one of those things I can take or leave but it had been so long since I’d read or watched a good one I was excited for this and it didn’t let me down. I liked all the characters. The Rose Riders, when they were front and center were suitably awful. The descriptions of some of the show downs and the area over all are well-done and really made me feel like I was traipsing through the desert and the canyon with them.
I wasn’t overly thrilled with one twist concerning Kate’s family at the end but it wasn’t really enough for me to grade the book down.
Yes, I’m fan casting this. Mostly it was just nice to read about someone who wasn’t royal and didn’t have special problems. I liked to that Kate could be hurt in this. She wasn’t infallible and as a matter of fact prepare yourselves because like all the best westerns no one gets out of this without some serious scars both mental and physical.
Recommend: Yes. Westerns are always an iffy genre but I thought Bowman really wrote this story well and it was nice to read something of a different flavor.
Weirdly I seem incapable of spelling vengeance without a spell checker even when it’s right there in front of me.