Black Widow Red Vengeance is another story featuring Natasha Romanoff and Ava Orlova. The two Widows are out looking for what remains of the Red Room and seeking revenge for the death of Alexei, Natasha's brother and Ava's boyfriend. Both are still struggling with their grief, Ava to the point of seeing and talking to what can only be described as Alexei's ghost who gives her advice and makes her feel better about her loss. Natasha and Ava stumble onto an operation involving six experimental nuclear missiles. The race is on to discover who owns the missiles and what their intentions are. In the meantime, Ava uses her newfound abilities to exact the revenge that she has been looking for.
Several of the characters from the Avengers appear in this story. Tony Stark and Phil Coulson play important roles as well as Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel.
This is a good addition to the Black Widow story. We learn more about her past as well as developing the character of the Red Widow. The beginning of the story is a little hard to follow because of the flash-fast banter between Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff, but overall this is a good story with lots of action, adventure, and emotion. I hope there will be another book in this series.

( )

I enjoyed Stohl’s first Marvel YA novel, Forever Red, so I didn’t hesitate to order the sequel. This one was also entertaining, with some improvements over the first and a few issues.

The first book was told was the POV of Ava, a young woman saved by Black Widow while on a mission. The events of that book left the two of them with a “quantum” connection. Here, Ava has been training at SHIELD Academy to hone her powers and skills. The story opens with her and Natasha in South America when they become embroiled in a new conspiracy originating from Russia’s infamous Red Room.

One of the things I liked so much about this book is that is alternates POV between the two Widows (rather than just Ava). This provided for more suspense and tension as readers see events from both perspectives. Ava is now the Red Widow, but she’s still a trainee struggling with PTSD and the death of Alexei. I love that the author doesn’t shy away from her making mistakes – like an actual rookie – but even better that she learns from them. I also liked that Tony Stark takes a more active role in the mystery when the events go global. And Captain Marvel and Maria Hill also make appearances. This was more than just a spy mission.

A couple things didn’t work. The SHIELD debriefings, that opened each chapter in the first book, are continued here. They worked great in “Forever Red” because most of the book was Ava’s POV and they let readers in on SHIELD’s perspective. They didn’t work as well here. They still fit the theme, but too often they interrupted the flow of the story, which became frustrating. Another problem was the sudden jump to Dante’s POV at the end of the novel. This didn’t just slow the story, it was like a screeching halt. It felt like a contrived effort to suddenly show readers things happening with the villain.

Overall, this was another well-done novel set in the Marvel Universe. I love the blended nature of these books – characters from the comics and films mingle seamlessly and the characterizations of those that appear in both mediums are a good mix. It’s the best of both worlds. The ending had a nice hook for a potential third book, without leaving readers hanging. ( )

I know a lot of people don't like this series, but I enjoy it. In comparison to the first book, this one was much better.

The plot was relatively simple which I liked. We got a lot more Natasha which is always nice. Plus we also got Captain Marvel!

Overall, I enjoyed it and thought it was a lot of fun. I hope the series continues because the end sets up a sequel. ( )

I keep trying to love these Black Widow novels, and instead I sorta wind up liking it but not loving them. Which is annoying because I did like the new Iron Man prose novel very much.

This is the second in the Black Widow novel series. Ava and Natasha are out in the field, trying to go after the thin threads and leads to find those who killed Alexei.

Of course, that's only where this book starts. And this novel is anything but straightforward. It's a sort of thrilling race towards the finish, and I was never bored when I was reading the book. Although, I did get itchy. The descriptions towards the beginning of the biting insects in the jungle. Yep, definitely itchy.

Unfortunately the Inquiry reports kept throwing me off. I will say that sometimes they helped the story along a little, but, on the whole almost every time one of them appeared in the text I was thrown out of the flow of the story. Although, I did like the Coulson banter. Heh.

Ooh, and there was even a bit of Captain Marvel, which is never ever a bad thing. Not to mention. Heh, Captain Balloon. (So when do we get an Alpha Flight Prose Novel?? :))

It was a fun read that I definitely never wanted to put down and here and there even surprised me.

I was given this galley through Netgalley on behalf of .Disney Book Group/Marvel Press. ( )