Me on Retribution Rails

Title: Retribution Rails
Author: Erin Bowman
Release Date: November 7, 2017
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt imprint)

When Reece Murphy is forcibly dragged into the Rose Riders gang because of a mysterious gold coin in his possession, he vows to find the man who gave him the piece and turn him over to the gang in exchange for freedom. Never does he expect a lead to come from an aspiring female journalist. But when Reece's path crosses with Charlotte Vaughn after a botched train robbery and she mentions a promising rumor about a gunslinger from Prescott, it becomes apparent that she will be his ticket to freedom—or a noose. As the two manipulate each other for their own ends, past secrets are unearthed, reviving a decade-old quest for revenge that may be impossible to settle.

Retribution Rails is all about investigation and redemption, a story about two people willing to use each other to get free of terrible situations and the truths they discover along the way.

Reece was once lost but now part of a group. Which at least means safety, even if they are a gang of bandits and thieves. Murderers. Robbing trains and carriages, stealing. Taking in order to survive. Not the Reece necessarily wants to be there, but he has no choice. Not until he finds the man who gave him a strange gold coin. Then he'll be free. Then he'll be able to forget about all the things he's done, all the people he's hurt. But you can't run from the past.

Charlotte is intelligent and persistent. She'll stop at nothing to uncover the truth, to tell the story as it is. The truth is absolute, no matter who it'll hurt. Who she'll manipulate in order to get her story. Especially if she wants to survive a train robbery and an accidental kidnapping. Even if she stumbles across the best story she's ever heard. But there's the truth as it happened and the truth people want to believe, and sometimes the latter needs to be told instead of the former.

This definitely holds up as a companion to Vengeance Road, but I think you can read this without reading the first. Reading the first certainly provides some backstory to some somewhat important characters but not the main ones of Reece and Charlotte. They're like oil and water when they come together, ready to use each other in order to stay free or alive. The western setting is harsh and unforgiving, cold and painful, where consequences often lead to being on the wrong end of a gun barrel. This is very much a story about two people willing to do anything they can to be free f their circumstances, and the harsh reality that their actions have real consequences for both them and others they never meant to hurt. For readers who enjoyed the first book and readers looking for more western-set YA, I would suggest this.

(I received an advance copy of this title to review from Raincoast Books.)

Me on Vengeance Road

Title: Vengeance Road
Author: Erin Bowman
Release Date: September 1, 2015
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt imprint)

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.

Vengeance Road is a dangerous journey, a story of revenge and justice, of secrets and painful truths. A story about what drives us to take revenge and who we become along the way.

Kate is hard and tough, crafted from years on a homestead with her father. She's rough around the edges, practical, and passionate. After the grisly death of her father, she vows to kill the men who killed him. Revenge pushes her across Arizona, it fuels her. But is it all she is? Is she nothing but a hunter of cowardly men and justice? No. Kate wants her revenge, but there's more to her than that. There's a lonely girl under that Stetson, a girl who suddenly lost her father and is looking for closure, for answers. And she does get them, in the end. They just might not be the ones she was hoping for.

This takes place in a rather bleak and desolate setting. It's a hard journey for Kate and the Colton brothers, the trek across Arizona towards the Superstition Mountains. The dust and the rocks and the grime. The relentless summer heat. The lack of protection beyond some pistols and a rifle. The canteen that seem to feel lighter and lighter as they go on. The bullets that come at them seemingly from nowhere. It's a dangerous place, the Wild West, a setting not often seen in YA.

I found this to be an intriguing story led by a head-strong and stubborn heroine. This is a story about revenge, about doing whatever it takes and travelling as far away from home as it takes, but it's also about more than that. Kate has to learn to trust people, to let people in. Which isn't easy, considering how the story starts. I would recommend this to those desperate for a western YA and those looking for a strong, determined heroine.

(I received an e-galley of this title to review from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt through NetGalley.)