Is it wierd i wanted more pestilence...
I think the story is unique where pestilence aquires a woman and they navigate the world spreading pestilence, kindness and romance.
the book is more apocolypse than fantasy and really not as morbid as I assumed based on the synapsis. I loved that Pestilence stayed true to his character for almost all of it which was a tale of duty and task and not one of free will and kindness.
I think the installation of the romance should have been set up a little later in the book and it ended quite unlike the whole of the book so it felt wierd and awkward.
I will continue the series
“Last night I could not decide which you were—a tonic or a toxin,” he says. “Today I’ve discovered you’re both.”

This book had me hooked from the beginning!
It was a fast read for me! There were multiple times I just COULDN'T put this book down!

I really enjoyed Pestilence & Sara. They had many challenges to overcome. They had tension, banter, & spice. Enemies to lovers!

I laughed out loud, felt sadness, & could feel the love coming off the pages.

Check your triggers, there is a lot of death.

I will be continuing the series. I did find myself wanting to know more about Pestilence & Sara so maybe there will be some mention of how they are in one of the next ones!

I absolutely love the concept of the 4 horsemen! I can't wait where Laura Thalassa takes me on the next 3!

This was an ARC from Net Gallery! I want to say THANK YOU Sourcebooks Bloom Books & Laura Thalassa for this opportunity! 🖤

Words cannot describe my love for this book!

“Pestilence” follow Sara Burns, a firefighter who sacrifices everything to shoot down one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Eager to make her suffer, he takes her prisoner, but the longer they’re together, the more uncertain their feelings for each other grow.

What drew me in right away was Thalassa’s unique undertaking of writing a romance novel for each of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. This was not something I had seen done before and I was immediately intrigued by the idea of the four beings abandoning their tasks only for the women that help them find their own humanity. In this book specifically, Thalassa characterizes Pestilence so well, personifying the plague he represents. She also goes to great lengths to demonstrate how unfamiliar he is with mankind’s way of life. Some of the most comedic moments sprung from Pestilence not knowing how to respond to Sara’s basic needs when he holds her captive.

The dystopian, post-apocalyptic world Thalassa creates after the arrival of the four horsemen was interesting in and of itself. Her world resembles our own, but with the horsemen’s destruction of technology, she cleverly avoids dating her book. Without technology, the population reverts to a more primitive way of life and more often than not resorts to violence when it comes to the existence of the horsemen, giving Thalassa a way to showcase the worst of humanity.

Sara is the only one to convince Pestilence that mankind is worth saving, sparking a romance that set my soul on fire. What I love most about this book is that it actually has the enemies to lovers trope woven into the plot. Sara’s hatred for Pestilence is real. Because he is holding her as his prisoner and his one true goal is to conquer humans, thereby ending the world, he can’t be anything more than her enemy. Yet, the two still manage to fall in love with each other after being forced to spend time together. Their dark, twisted, and forbidden love story is definitely not for the faint of heart, but I loved every page of it!

3.5 ⭐️
The Four Horseman series has been on my TBR for a while therefore when they came onto NetGalley as they were being traditionally published, it was the perfect opportunity to binge all four books. Pestilence, one of the Four Horseman. After their arrival on Earth some years before, people were anticipating the possible return. Pestilence, who is responsible for the distribution of a plague, The Fever, that kills everyone in its path. He was tasked with travelling all over the world to spread this disease but his arrival in a small town is anticipated by a small group of humans where whoever draws the short straw is tasked with killing the Horseman and this turns out to be Sara Burns an ex firefighter turned survivor in the face of the dooming apocalypse. Things so slightly awry when she realises he cannot be killed and regenerates. Now his prisoner, Sara sees first hand the devastation his victims face and just what the world becomes when all humans are destined to die.
I definitely did not expect this book to be just so dark. It was very graphic at times and I struggled to continue at the more raw and emotional parts. I think trigger warnings should 100% be added at any point but at the from before the book begins would be better. I had no idea what was ahead of me when I read this so seeing it first hand was a shock. Here are some trigger warnings I noted throughout:
- Slow death on page
- Worsening sickness on page
- Physical injury, vividly described
- Torture
- Animal cruelty on page
- Death of a child on page

There were probably more but these were the main one’s I noted.
In terms of the romance between Sara and Pestilence, at first it was hard to bridge their enormous differences into a successful relationship. Of course they had chemistry. Nothing accelerates attraction like the end of the world. Pestilence was so certain of his actions and Sara did everything in her power to stop it but it wasn’t until the last minute her words affected him and put a stop to it all. As soon as I would read a glimmer of hope in Pestilence’s actions and behaviour, he would revert to his violent and world-ending ways. Laura Thalassa has a way of writing a gripping story that keeps you interested the entire way through, I just did not expect such gore a graphic scenes. I would recommend this book but only if a reader was aware of what was ahead. Immediately I began War, the second instalment which I will also review shortly.
Thank you!

The Facts: enemies to lovers, forced proximity, end of the world, morally grey MMC, dark romance.

It's the end of the world. There's a sickness running rampant, killing people, and Pestilence is to be blamed a literal one of the Four Horsemen. Sara is the one who stays in town while everyone flees to stop this guy... who turns out to be unkillable and is pretty pissed, so he keeps her as a prisoner.

This one was great! The concept of the Four Horsemen is very interesting, and as a romance lover, I loved how Laura included a love story. I also really liked the discussion of whether or not humanity should be saved. Sara teaching this grumpy horseman, Pestilence, how to be human just gave me the awwweeees.

Overall, I highly recommend this one.

2.5⭐️

Thank you to Bloom Books and Netgalley for providing an advanced copy of this. All thoughts and opinions are still my own.

I have such mixed feeling about this book. On one hand, I found the premise, setup, and world extremely intriguing. I loved this post apocalyptic world, and seeing how humanity struggled and crumbled with the impending end.

But at the end of the books I was left thinking - "but I didn't actually LIKE this".

Which is odd since at no point while reading did I feel bored, annoyed, or like I wanted to put the audiobook down.

I think what hindered my enjoyment, and left me feeling unsatisfied, was the absolutely inability to root for either character.

The heroine makes poor decision after frustratingly poor decision. And explains every single one of them away under the guise of "but Pestilence is SUPER hot". And Pestilence, despite moment of care, is awful.

Throughout the book he tortures the heroine, brutally murders millions and millions of people, make the heroine watch as they slowly suffer and die, insults and demeans her, and even locks her in a room for days at one point.

But again... he's like REALLY hot.

And the big redemption at the end was - he stops mass murdering and stalks her all the way back to her home in Canada.

How is that sexy? How is that the redemption arc you're looking for?

I don't know, I just couldn't get on board with either character or their romance. In my head both were unbearable and unredeemable.

I can definitely see why this has been so popular. The love for villain romances is definitely a not something that will go anywhere. This one in particular just wasn't for me.

But if you like morally grey (evil) heroes, this is definitely one worth trying. It's a highly compulsive read, just like Laura Thalassa's other works. I think I'll stick to her new series though.

I adore this book and the entire series. It’s such a unique way to bring out a love story. Book two is my favourite in the series. I can’t wait to reread the entire thing again!!

This was a reread for me, and honestly, it holds up so well.

The world is ending for the first time in this series, and Pestilence is the first brother to make his way to Earth, only for Sara to try to kill him and him tying her and making her his prisoner and companion in his journey.

I love the complexity of both sides of this series because some humans deserve the ending they got but not all do. On the other hand, Pestilence is only doing his duty and ends up falling in love with a strong and unique woman. Sara is definitely one of my favorite heroines and I can't wait to finish the series in this new version.

This book was ok. Just ok. The story lacks world building and is for the most part, kind of pointless. We aren't told why things are happening and we aren't really given any indication of where we might end up. The two main characters are pretty unlikeable, and their banging while children are dying from the plague he brought leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Don't get me wrong, I love a good dark romance but I don't really feel the need to root for these two. I wanted to love this book, but nothing really happens and I struggled to stay focused.

Thank you to the publisher for the eARC

What an incredible world Laura Thalassa has created. I don’t really know what to call it. Urban Fantasy? Dystopian apocalypse? Paranormal? In any case, this incredible story is crafted around Pestilence, one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and Sara Burns, a firefighter, who pulls the short straw, (burnt match) and is the chosen one from her town to try and kill him. Normally I would write something like ‘I devoured this book’, but in truth, I think this story devoured me. I was absolutely held captive, much life FMC Sara, by the post-apocalyptic world that Thalassa creates, the insurmountable choices Sara must make, and the character of Pestilence, himself, whose depths were seemingly boundless.

I believed the world she describes in this book. She does an incredible job bringing this world to life, and placing both Sara and the reader within it. And I immediately loved Sara: her prose-loving, compassionate and incredibly conflicted self. Sara is the the perfect mix of fierce, good and vulnerable as she tries to reconcile Pestilence the being with Pestilence and his deeds. And what a presence he is as well. He is both old as time and as naive as a child. The scene where she teaches him to eat spaghetti was especially tender, and of course, the scenes where he learns other things…well those were unforgettable too. But he brings a whole new conversation to morally grey, and this, too, is deftly and expertly rendered in this story.

The first book in the series, Pestilence is heartfelt, captivating, exciting, funny, incredibly hot and absolutely worth it. I’m looking forward to the next book in this series.

I adore this author and really wanted to check out her other series.

I really enjoy the premise of this book and the main characters. The only thing I had some issues with was the relationship. I need it a bit more for me to believe that they could develop feelings for each other.

I guess this falls under "bully romance", something I hadn't realized before since I'm not a fan of it.

Overall, I enjoyed it and will probably read the others in the series at some point.

I was expecting full on smut, not feelings. Now I need to read the whole series.

I was going through a bit of a rough patch while I was reading this so I was glad about this being fast-paced and a quick read.

Well I never thought that I’d empathize and be able to identify in any way with a horseman of the apocalypse, but yet here we are and Laura Thalassa and Pestilence have accomplished it.
This reimagining of what the world would look like if the four horsemen ever did show up was so well done.
The development that Sara and Pestilence took from enemies, to friends(ish), to lovers, to actually being in love felt natural and reflected the journey they went on across Canada and down the coast of the Pacific Northwest spreading the plague.
Overall this was an excellent book and I can’t wait to see the journeys of the other three horsemen.

I throughly enjoyed this book! I do not know if the The Four Horsemen of the apocalypse has been done in romance before, this is new to me. This felt new and was a true enemies to lovers story. Pestilence was not a nice character when you first meet him but then you grow fond of him as the main character does as well. This was a fun fantasy and wasn’t heavy on world building, a simple read that I very much enjoyed!

2/5 Stars

This isn’t gonna be a long review because I truly don’t have much to say.

Thank you To Bloom Books and Netgalley for providing me with an arc.

I enjoyed Rhapsodic and I still want to read more from Laura Thalassa but this was not good. I have no better way of saying that. I can’t explain why I finished this book because while I love a good either morally gray or just antihero love interest, I need them to care about something and the Love interest in this book cared about literally nothing until like the last chapter, he sometimes cared for the FMC but not consistently and just I hated him.

I liked the sass the main character had and kept even through horrible situations but that didn’t make up for anything else that happened in this book.

“𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴.”  
  
𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★★★     
𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 🌶️    
 
I’ve read this book before, but I had to give it another read before posting this review. You know when they tell you not to judge a book by it cover? Well, when it comes to the Four Horseman series, YOU TOTALLY SHOULD. 
 
 
As someone who is a fan of darker books and morally grey men, it didn’t bother me that the FMC fell in love with one of the men responsible for ending mankind. I did like how Pestilence believed in what he was doing, and as the story continued he started to have doubts. It reminds me of when children are taught to believe one thing, then they grow up, experience life, then form their own opinions. I think the author does a good job of explaining WHY the MMC is following these orders and incorporates just enough suffering for mankind into it for us to understand how horrible it is, but not enough to make us hate Pestilence.

The pacing was a little weird for me. One minute they are trying to kill or harm one another the next they are in love. Pestilence was funny, I enjoyed him when he wasn’t being a giant ass. Overall it’s an enjoyable enough read.

I haven't been pulled into a story like I was for this book in SOOO long. This was everything I love in a good fantasy romance and so much more. The writing was superb, the emotions were all over the place. It was like dystopian gold. I don't have enough words to say how good this was. This book drew me from the 1st page and I could not put it down. I needed to know what was going to happen.
I loved that whole world where the Horseman are real and Pestilence has come to Earth. I love that Sara is such a bad ass female. I love her compassion, her sharp tongue and her amazing perseverance. Pestilence story was amazing. I never thought I would be fall in love with a harbinger of death but his otherworldliness was so perfectly done. I loved his strength, his curiosity of human kind and his love of Sara. My absolute favorite scenes are with Ruth and Rob. I don't think I have cried as hard as I did sense the old people scene in Titanic.
I really love this world and I love the two characters and I can't wait to dive into the next one.
I would recommend to anyone that like romance, dystopian stories, books with a unique and great world building.

Thank you to Sourcebooks/Bloom Books and Net Galley for the chance to read this. This series is going to become one of my favorites, I can just tell!!!

Sara Burns never had any intention of making it out of her town alive. After standing up as the brave soul willing to attempt to kill Pestilence, the first of the four horsemen that appeared on earth five years ago to kickstart the apocalypse, she knew her life was forfeit as she went up against a deity of destruction. What she wasn't expecting was to be taken prisoner by the very deity she tried to kill, nor to begin influencing him in very human ways. However, he has a strong influence on her as well, despite his seemingly merciless actions, and Sara feels torn in half, between the world she once knew and the man who she knows nothing about.

At no point when planning to read this book did I think that I would be left emotionally damaged, but I cried a total of eleven times during this story and holy shit it was devastatingly painful at points. I genuinely thought this was going to be inconsequential smut and I was gravely mistaken. My main critique is that this book needs a clear content warning for violence against animals, not just violence against humans. This was bloody, gory, violent, disgusting at points, and there's a lot of unlikeable characters propped up by either the plot or their good looks. If you're not a fan of the "I can fix him, bad-boy-becomes-baby, forced-lovers" tropes, don't pick this one up. Trixie Skillz is by far the best character in the whole book and I can't wait to meet his siblings(?) in the next three installments. This is a single-sitting read, if you stop halfway through you will not have gotten to any spice yet. The ending was jarring but wrapped things up moderately well.

Spice rating, with one being vanilla and five being the head explosion emoji, this was a two.
Overall a 4/5 stars and I am interested in continuing the series.

3.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Pestilence despite his very obvious flaws is actually a true romantic. Some of the things he says could have been lifted out of Shakespeare’s work. There’s plenty of yearning and angst, when he said “the sweetest misery I have ever felt” I was swooning. Alongside this there is plenty of banter. The fact that the FMC is a captive isn’t really my thing but I did enjoy it. The read is quick and fun.
Read this is if you like a morally grey main man and slow burn romance.
Thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books for an E-ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.