Review: Retribution Rails by Erin Bowman

I'm so thrilled to have been able to read this book so early. It isn't out until November, and oh, I have waited so long to read it. This book was an exciting one. And I enjoyed it a whole lot. But sadly, I didn't love it, and so I'm giving it three stars. I have reasons for this, and also a lot of reasons for why you should read this book.

I enjoyed Vengeance Road a whole bunch when I read it, close to two years ago now. And I wanted a second book a whole lot. Retribution Rails is not a sequel; but a companion book set in the same place as the first. This one takes place ten years later, with some very different characters. Which were pretty exciting, tbh.

I enjoyed reading about Reece and Charlotte. While I didn't fully love either of them, aw, I liked reading about them both a whole lot. This book is told from both point of views, and I liked that a lot. I preferred reading about Reece, but I adored Charlotte too. And getting to know them was all kinds of awesome. Reece is eighteen years old; he have been riding with the Rose Riders for three years now. Well, he has been forced to ride with them. And getting to know his story was pretty heartbreaking. Even though I didn't fully connect, aw, I still enjoyed reading about it so much. Reece was an amazing character and I loved getting to know him. Really wish Charlotte had treated him better, but I couldn't blame her either, to be honest. He had a bad reputation.

Charlotte is sixteen, and wants to be a journalist. Her father just died, and she and her mom are having issues with her uncle. Which reminded me a bit too much of another western series I love, so that was a bit annoying, yet it was different too. But oh, still, a bit too much the same. But even so, I did like reading about it. Charlotte is pretty strong, and she gets even stronger as the story goes on. I suppose her mom was strong too, but I didn't care for her at all. Aw. But their issues were pretty sad though, I must admit.

This story is about Reece and Charlotte ending up together, and having to work together too. And that was pretty interesting to read about. Reece is with the Rose Riders, whom are the very worst men in this territory. They murder and steal and worse. Reece isn't fully like them, but he too has done murder. So he's not the best kind of boy. Yet he's kind and gentle too, and I was pretty curious about him. Wish there had been a bit more details about him, though. I wish I had gotten to know him even more. Wanted more.

Reece is a criminal, Charlotte is a lady. And I loved reading about them meeting each other. He's robbing her train, and her, she's about to shoot him. It was all kinds of exciting and interesting. I really enjoyed reading about everything that happened after that too. I just didn't feel that strongly about the characters. Aw. Probably because they pretty much hate each other for a long time. And I didn't like how they treated each other at times. But I did like reading about them, even so, and they had an interesting relationship.

There is so much happening in this book. And I'm not going to talk about all of it. Have mentioned some parts, but there is still tons more going on. This book is set in such an awesome time period, and I loved reading about that. The setting was amazing. I liked the characters, despite not loving them. And reading about the Rose Riders was pretty horrible yet so fascinating too. I really enjoyed reading about how they were going to take them down. And how so much went wrong. Lots of surprises included in this book too.

One thing that I enjoyed a whole bunch about this book was that we get to see a lot of old characters too, from book one. They are now older, yet still so awesome. Not going to mention that much more, just that I loved reading about them again, and that their part in this story was pretty good. I loved how things had changed in these ten years. Sigh. I didn't remember all the details from book one, but remember enough, and getting these small reminders of the book made me so happy. And might wish to read it again. Hmph.

I think that one of the biggest reasons for why I didn't love this book was because there was no romance. Reece and Charlotte are not friends at all for most of the book. But they slowly get to know each other a little bit, but because of how fast this book is moving, there isn't time for anything else. And so there is no kissing. And there is no feelings between them. There are hints near the ending that there might be small feelings between them, but nothing shown, and that just disappointed me a bit. Aw. I wanted a romance.

I liked the ending of the book, but one thing bothered me a little. Oh, well. While I didn't love this one, I liked it a lot. And I think that Retribution Rails is a book worth reading. It's exciting and brutal with such interesting characters. It's a fast read, and I found it to be pretty interesting. I'm just a bit sad that I didn't love it more. But I did like it, and I'm happy with that. This book is gorgeous, and I can't wait to own the finished copy too. Huge, huge thank you to the publisher, HMH Books, for the most gorgeous ARC copy.

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