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.

It’s safe to say I was highly disappointed by this book. I had seen it around the book community for a while and even chose it as the pick for my book club. With the rerelease of this series coming up I received an ARC through NetGalley.

This book has an interesting concept. I haven’t read many apocalyptic books. I honestly thought this would take place in the past and was surprised that it took place in modern day. I did really like what it added to the concept and again made it feel more apocalyptic. I was very excited for the enemies to lovers and forced proximity aspect of the book but unfortunately everything fell flat for me.

I felt it was hard to relate to Sara and I didn’t feel any chemistry with her and Pestilence. The story is quite repetitive, they travel, stop at a house, she begs him to stop the plague, he doesn’t, they continue on and are ambushed every now and then. The ending was very bland.. I expected to know more about their world but instead it was relationship focused.

I honestly did not understand Sara & Pestilence’s relationship in the slightest.. I felt that they needed a better dynamic and perhaps had more banter. Instead they went from nothing to randomly hinting at something to not getting along to suddenly being all in. Sara’s stance on caring for Pestilence but wanting him to stop the plague was confusing. She never really took the time to understand him and the same goes for him. Spoiler warning: what really got me was the fact at 90%, yes 90%, she tried to leave him and he locks her up and forces her to stay with him against her will. It felt like any progress was gone and just made me not want them to be together in the slightest. That is quickly ignored because he stopped the plague and now she can be with him. We don’t get any details of the effect of stopping the plague, what her family thinks of her being with him, or anything like that.

Overall I am just disappointed for this book especially for it being a rerelease. I would have hoped that time and effort would have gone into this book to improve the story but it doesn’t seem that was the case.

Thank you for providing me with an ARC for NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love this concept of the four horseman and this book has been one of my favorites so far!! The story is very realistic, but with that being said the book has some pretty violent moments, but that's the point of the story. The emotions of the characters are super well done by Laura Thalassa and the story develops very nicely. I really loved how this was such a character driven story and that both main characters help each other through their respective struggles. The story was never one-sided, which I loved.

Overall, I love the four horseman books and I can't wait to read the remaining two. Thank you NetGalley and Bloom Books for this free arc in exchange for my honest review.

TW; gore, death, plague, torture and imprisonment - this is set in an apocalyptic world.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloom Books for an e-ARC copy. All thoughts are my own.

I had heard great things about The Four Horsemen series, so when I noticed that Pestilence was being rereleased this year, I decided to apply for the ARC to see what it was all about. Whilst I found the concept to be interesting, I feel this story failed to deliver for me.

The biggest compliment I have for this book is the world-building. With Sara's descriptions and experiences along her journey with Pestilence, as well as through a lot of the dialogue, the world is built well enough to imagine the desperately grim apocalyptic place that it's become. Thalassa doesn't waste time in setting the reader up for what's to come, which I appreciated. It felt very on par with other dystopian/apocalyptic media I have consumed over the years, and was easy to imagine.

I knew coming into this that the relationship between Sara and Pestilence would be one of toxic forced proximity, but there were several moments where it all just felt a bit too much for me. The romance that builds makes sense but it also had a lot of loopholes and questions unanswered along the way. I liked that the further they are together that you get to see both Sara's turmoil and Pestilence's opinions shift, which better aids their connection. However, I struggled to get on board with it. The intimate scenes are well written, and I liked the physical side of their relationship, even when I was morally torn, just like Sara was on numerous occasions.

I also didn't connect well with Thalassa's characterisation and writing of dialogue - both inwardly and conversational. It felt very immature at times, and more telling than showing at a lot of the bigger story points.

Overall, this was an easy read - I consumed it in two sessions, and I enjoyed it enough. Unfortunately, it just failed to capture me into the world fully, and I don't think I'll be continuing with the series. But I can see how this would be a good read for people who enjoy romance in darker fantasy scenarios. Perhaps, I'm not the right reader for this world.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bloom books for giving me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a lot better than I expected it to be. It definitely falls under stockholm syndrome, but I enjoyed it.

I love this book so much. Pestilence is my first ever Horseman. I will be rereading this whole series 🤚🏽

If you like watching characters suffer and love the caretaker trope, this may be a book for you.

I was intrigued by the concept, and though it was a compelling book, the story itself wasn’t amazing. The plot can get repetitive. Lots of death and dying (obviously, cause he’s one of the four horseman). And Stockholm syndrome seemed to be the theme—but in a romantic way, I guess.

Did I start this when I was supposed to be going to sleep, and then proceeded to stay up til 4 am to finish it? Yes.

Laura Thalassa had done it again! Taking the four horsemen of the apocalypse and turning them in today the villain that gets the girl. Sara and Pestilence go through literal hell together, and it’s their journey is not for the faint of heart.
But damn if it isn’t entertaining!
If you’re one for dark fantasy this is definitely a series worth checking out!

Thank you to Netgalley, Sourcebooks, and Ms. Thalassa for the opportunity to read the rereleased version of Pestilence. An honest opinion was requested but not required.

My original thoughts haven’t particularly changed. Here’s what I thought in 2020:
I was actually surprised that I enjoyed this. I really wasn't sure what to expect. I mean, how do you redeem one of the four horseman, a being whose sole task is to exterminate humanity?
The emotional depth of the regret, grief and sorrow experienced by both main characters was well done. The violence was a little extreme but I suppose realistic to the story - I can completely envision humans repeatedly attempting to kill Pestilence (or any horseman) by whatever means they could.

Yes, you have to completely suspend your disbelief and doubts and skepticism for this type of story, but, that's what fantasy's all about, right?
For pure entertainment value, this was a great story.

… in 2023, I will add the following: this is definitely a character driven story. There is a plot, certainly, but the focus is strongly on Sara and Pestilence, and their respective beliefs about morality, religion, and humanity. I can see the argument that what Sara felt was Stockholm syndrome, and the frequent of Pestilence’s body don’t help, but Ruth correctly pointed out that Sara was learning from Pestilence just as he was learning from her. The grimness of the apocalyptic landscape was more poignant the second time around, too. The only thing I really would have changed is, if Pestilence had the ability to retract the sickness, then he probably also had the ability to speed it up so his victims wouldn’t suffer. And I wish he would have spared the children their suffering. Those were some tough pages.
I wasn’t really sure what (if anything) was altered from the original version of the story but I enjoyed it just as much and would give it the same 4 star rating as before. Looking forward to the other three in the series - War, which I have read, and Famine and Death, which I have not.

This book was so much fun and I can’t wait to continue this series. When this book starts and Sara is kidnapped by Pestilence, he treats her so badly and I wasn’t sure how I would come to root for them as a couple. But I really liked how this relationship progressed, and was really falling for them as the story went on. Watching pestilence learn more about humans was really sweet. I really enjoyed this and am definitely going to be picking up more from Laura Thalassa.

thank you to bloom, netgalley, and the author for the chance to arc read for the bloom rerelease!

i have… no idea how to rate this book. i’m gonna stick with a 3 star rating bc it’s the most middle of the road you can get. but we need to talk about pestilence

sara is a firefighter who draws the short straw when the plague is coming to town. the four horsemen of the apocalypse have descended onto the earth and phase 1 of their mass destruction has come in the form of Pestilence (yes that is his name) and his horse that he rides over the world spreading the plague to all.

once pestilence makes his way to sara’s town, she’s tasked with killing him only to find that he is immortal and cannot be killed. of course this attempted murder pisses the man off and he decides to take sara as his prisoner and force her to suffer as he did when she burned him alive.

sara is forced to do the weirdest ride-along of all ride-alongs while he pursues his “task” of infecting all of humanity. but sara is a big ol softy and feels bad for Pestilence bc he’s big sad about having to kill all these people and he hates watching them die.

i’ll skip over some stuff and get to the romance. i… don’t understand. he tied u up by ur wrists and dragged u by horse to the point your back looked more like ground beef than human skin but you’re still thinking about how pretty he is? i mean okay yeah a hot guy can definitely make you a lil crazy but i think you need more than a little therapy.

basically the entire book is centered around sara being an “i can change him!” girly and Pestilence being like “lol no u can’t but actually can u quote me some more Edgar Allen Poe bc maybe humanity IS beautiful.” then he discovers that “making love” is actually all it takes to get married (apparently) and one taste of that sweet sweet… nvm. is enough to end the plague? maybe? he can’t really decide and he’s not happy about it.

this is a crazy case of stockholm syndrome all made okay by the fact that he’s just REALLY pretty.

but…. this book was fun. the majority of my interest came from me wondering how we go from him DRAGGING U FROM HIS HORSE to getting down and dirty together.

the writing style is RIDICULOUSLY unserious, which i do think that the cover is slightly misleading. but don’t judge a book by it’s cover ig. sometimes thalassa’s writing was pretty profound & sometimes it was… very weird and quirky? i don’t know man.

oddly enough, i would recommend this book to people who say they need something fun, quick, but not your typical everyday romance book.

I would have never thought a romance with the Apocalypse Horseman Pestilence would be so enthralling, but clearly, I was wrong. Laura Thalassa's Pestilence is the perfect true enemy to lovers highlighting that true love brings only the best out of both people. I can't wait to pick up the next book and see how love affects Pestilence's brothers.