Blog Tour: Revenge And The Wild

Revenge And The Wild

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Revenge and the Wild hosted by Rock Star Book Tours.

I received this galley in consideration for an honest review.

Blog Tour: Revenge And The WildRevenge And The Wild by Michelle Modesto
Published by Harper Collins on February 2, 2016
Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal, Steampunk
Amazon,  - B&N
Goodreads
four-stars

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 perfect for seventeen-year-old Westie, the notorious adopted daughter of local inventor Nigel Butler.

Westie was only a child when she lost her arm and her family to cannibals on the wagon trail. Nine years later, Westie may seem fearsome with her foul-mouthed tough exterior and the powerful mechanical arm built for her by Nigel, but the memory of her past still haunts her. She’s determined to make the killers pay for their crimes—and there’s nothing to stop her except her own reckless ways.

But Westie’s search ceases when a wealthy family comes to town looking to invest in Nigel’s latest invention, a machine that can harvest magic from gold—which Rogue City desperately needs as the magic wards that surround the city start to fail. There’s only one problem: the investors look exactly like the family who murdered Westie’s kin. With the help of Nigel’s handsome but scarred young assistant, Alistair, Westie sets out to prove their guilt. But if she’s not careful, her desire for revenge could cost her the family she has now.

 

I love a good Western, but Revenge and the Wild was not what I was expecting at all!  It was a sort of steampunk/paranormal/Western mash-up and it worked really well.  Rogue City is your typical lawless Wild West town, except this is a world where magical creature exists.  The magic of the local Native American tribe keeps order as every type of creature you can imagine lives their life under a protective magical dome.  Trolls, vampires – you name it – they are all in Rogue City.  Westie’s mechanical arm sets her apart from other people outside her family, and I got the impression that there is a big part of her that likes that.  The pain from her family’s murder has not really gone away and, as the title implies, revenge is an idea that has chased her since she was old enough to start looking for the cannibals that murdered her parents and brother.  It consumes her to the point of making people doubt her when she truly finds the cannibals, and she has to do a lot of soul searching about what her quest for revenge has cost her.  The man who took her in when she was a child, Nigel, was an interesting character.   His need to finish the machine that will save the dwindling magic blinds him to Westie’s suspicions about the cannibals, much as Westie’s revenge has clouded her judgement in the past. Their relationship was not exactly parent and child, but nor was it best buds. Whatever it is, it is clear that he cares about Westie very much.  In the middle of it all is Alistair, who was one of my favorite characters.  His steadfastness holds some mystery and I loved learning more about his story as the book progressed.

Westie won’t be everyone’s favorite. She is headstrong and lacks good judgement a lot of the time, but I found myself really rooting for her.  She is driven by her pain, and I think there is something really relatable in her desire to find closure and avenge her family.  Although her parents are gone, the sense of family is very strong in this book.  She has people who care deeply for her, and I thought that a part of Westie’s journey in this story was realizing that it is not just biology that makes a family or a tribe.  Revenge and the Wild was also really fun to read.  I loved the world building and the steampunk elements.  While it it set in the Old West, the paranormal element made is more of an alternate history, a sort of “what if”, which I loved.  The action was amazing, as well.  Westie could shoot, ride, hunt, and do just about anything she needed to to survive. (And, wow, did she survive a lot of crazy stuff!) There was also a great twist at the end that surprised me. I read this book almost in one sitting because it sucked me into its story so completely.  Westie’s lifelong friendship with Alistair, who has his own demons, was sweet and provided a wonderful subplot that did not overpower the rest of the story.  Over all, it was a fabulous read.  I greatly enjoyed Revenge and the Wild and I am very much looking forward to more books from this author!

 

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

1/25/2016- IceyBooks– Interview
1/26/2016- Book Briefs– Review
1/27/2016- Two Chicks on Books– Guest Post
1/28/2016- Novel Novice– Review
1/29/2016- Good Choice Reading Interview

Week Two:

2/1/2016- Brooke-Reports– Review
2/2/2016- The Irish Banana Review– Guest Post
2/3/2016- Bookish Lifestyle– Review + Interview
2/4/2016- Supernatural Snark– Interview
2/5/2016- Ex Libris– Review

 

10 winners will receive a finished copy of REVENGE AND THE WILD, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

four-stars

About Michelle Modesto

Michelle Modesto is a writer, hockey fanatic, lover of most art forms, terrible cook and her social skills aren’t that great either. Her debut YA novel, REVENGE AND THE WILD comes out from Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins, early 2016. She lives in Northern California in a double-wide mobile asylum with two mastiffs who don’t listen to her and two teenagers who also don’t listen to her.

Michelle Modesto is represented by John Cusick at The Greenhouse Literary Agency.

Kate


5 responses to “Blog Tour: Revenge And The Wild

  1. I really enjoyed the genre-mashup here – it made for a rather oddball, unique story! And I enjoyed it despite Westie’s impulsive decision-making and single-mindedness.

Leave a Reply

(Enter your URL then click here to include a link to one of your blog posts.)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.