Yeah I liked this book but I didn't really mesh with the characters at all. I'm probably not even going to finish this series. Apparently she's re-releasing these books under a new publisher. ok.

DNF

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

Laura Thalassa’s Pestilence has been on my TBR for a while & initially the story was pretty mesmerizing, if gruesome.

When I say gruesome I mean gruesome. The protagonists meet when she’s trying to kill him, a horseman of the apocalypse. Then he tries to make her suffer.

So it was pretty dark & I knew that.

Still, I was engaged & really enjoyed the smartass heroine who seemed like someone I could meet IRL.

But then the hero just goes too far for me, & skip if you don’t want to know…




he busts into a house where there are kids, and stays there, ensuring that they will die of the plague.

Those passages are horrible to read & for me, it was so unsettling that I couldn’t see a way for him to be redeemed.

I know a lot of people really like these books & I like the author’s writing style. While I knew this was going to be dark, this book ultimately goes in a direction I can’t get past so I am not finishing.

This book was so hard to get through. The beginning started off so well, but then tanked.. The dialogue was bad,, terrible MC’s, no plot, no chemistry.. The premise and idea of this book was so promising. The author could have done so much with her idea, but this was not it.

The 4 Horseman of the apocalypse ushering the world into a dystopian society. But all it was was the female MC Sara lusting after the evil horseman Pestilence, because he was just so HOT! I mean forget that he’s riding around causing a plague that kills everyone and possibly her own family, but he’s just too beautiful! Pestilence isn’t any better and falls obsessively in “love” with her. Then there was the world itself. All the world’s great innovations ceased to be yet there was cold beer in the refrigerator, running water, a working TV, etc. Then there was the sexual content…I just couldn’t, skipped all of that cuz it was just not for me. The characters just did the same thing over and over again.

I really wanted to like this, but I just did not.

To begin, thank you to NetGalley and SourceBooks Bloom Books for allowing me to read an ARC of Pestilence.

Okay, WOW did I have a roller coaster of emotions with this book, so I will keep the summary short. Our main POV, Sara, draws the short straw and stays behind to attempt to kill Pestilence, one of the four horsemen who has awoken on earth and spread his plague as he travels around the world on his horse. After her attempt to kill him fails, he takes her prisoner, giving them both a first-hand look at the lives each of them lives, each of them fighting the attraction they have to one another, and learning what it all means.

Okay, to be perfectly honest, I may have started to read but certainly would have DNF'd this book had I not received it as an ARC. That being said, I am honestly SO glad I kept reading. I had SUCH an interesting relationship and journey with this book. It really pushed me to examine how I felt about the characters and where those feelings were coming from, and how that related to other books and characters I have read in the past. Minor spoilers ahead.

I immediately began to struggle because from the start, despite the fact that Pestilence was walking around killing humanity, Sara is all, woh look how hot he is, which while is valid, I am someone whose looks are a small part of my attraction to people, personality makes up a huge portion of it (yes, even in books), so I really struggled to relate to how she could experience both genuine hate for an individual doing objectively horrible things to people all over the world while also experiencing immediate attraction to him. For me, that is not how it would happen, I neeeed that glimpse of humanity and compassion, so from the get-go, it challenged me to read through the perspective of someone who attraction works differently for. What gave me the biggest internal debate and struggle though, was the growth of their relationship, but I say this in a genuinely positive way. This book made me really take the time to examine the idea of morally grey characters and what it was about characters in past books that I had found myself having endless compassion for despite the things that they have done, and what was making it harder for me (for a long time) with Pestilence. I read a lot of fantasy, so I am no stranger to the morally grey, handsome love interest. I spent a lot of time while I was reading this book reflecting on why I was feeling such a strong feeling of annoyance at Sara's attraction and leniency to Pestilence after the things he did to her while she was his prisoner and the things he was doing to humanity, in comparison to other characters I have loved like Dara from the Daevabad Trilogy, Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows duology, Hades from a Touch of Darkness, amongst others. I really had to push myself to not measure the horseman against human morals, and remind myself that he simply was not and it is understandable for that type of emotional growth to take time. I loved the experience of how I did genuinely get to a point where I was rooting for his empathy and compassion and learning to continue to grow. I also spent a lot of time really considering the violent actions the humans were taking against Pestilence (including at one point Sara) and the morality behind those choices and how they can be justified. I feel like I could go on and on about everything that swirled through my head while reading this book, but honestly, I don't think it would make sense outside of my brain. So in summary, I LOVED how much this fantastical romance with a member of the four horsemen of the apocalypse made me spend time thinking about past books and characters and morals and humanity, like what an amazing thing for a book to do!

So all and all, if you are someone who feels like you would negatively judge this book and the characters in it, I genuinely recommend pushing through those judgments and taking the time to embrace all of the ideas that these characters and their love push you to consider! It was an unexpected and very welcome experience reading this book.

Another great book by one of my favorite authors her world building and ten connection she builds between you and the main characters are impeccable. I can’t wait to see where she takes the rest of the series.

This book explores morality a lot and the things we are willing to look past in the name of love. There’s a lot of hate, fear and anger from the citizens throughout this novel but there’s a lot of compassion as well. It really looks at both ends of the spectrum and some of the stuff in between. I truly loved Rob and Beth’s characters who had a brief appearance in the book, a sweet old couple who adored each other. But moving onto the main love story, Sara and Pestilence are not an obvious match - especially considering how they met. It was interesting to see Sara’s battle with her guilt and morals while she slowly fell in love with the being determined to destroy everyone in the world. Alongside that, watching Pestilence discover humanity, not as a witness but as a part of it, was completely adorable and I’m obsessed with his attempts to understand his emotions, food, language and intimacy. It’s easy to see how Sara got drawn in by him. Their relationship was definitely unconventional and almost never smooth but I loved every second of it and what it says about love and choices. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series!

I received a free copy of this book. All views are my own.

Pestilence is based on an unusual premise. The four horsemen of the apocalypse have arrived and Pestilence is the first to begin affecting humanity, spreading plague wherever he goes. In an attempt to stop him, firefighter Sara attempts to kill him, only to learn that it is impossible when he takes her prisoner. Over time, she begins to find the humanity in him even as she begins to teach him that not all of humanity is evil and deserving of horrible death.

I won't lie, during romantic scenes it is disturbing to have Sara call Pestilence by his name. But overall this was an easy read and I plan to read the rest of the series.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book.
I am not a religious person so the theme had potential for me to dislike before I even started but I really enjoyed it.
Sara and Pestilence both were flawed and at first you didn't think they would both also have redeeming qualities. I enjoyed Sara's quick mouth and refusal to believe that Pestilence could be more than what he was designed to to be. Watching Pestilence learn and grow into "human" thoughts, feelings and desires was quite unexpected. You could see and feel all the strangeness he was experiencing and I couldn't help but sympathize with how strange everything was to him and the fear that came with it.
It isn't a story of good and evil, right and wrong but of mercy and acceptance. True enemies to lovers and fate.
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily

So Pestilence, one of the four horseman of the apocolypse, is going round giving people horrendoes boils and the plague. What better way to end it than to kill him, easy right?

I loved the dual ascpect of the slow burn romance alongside the apololyptic/dystopian feel and the world building. Enemies to lovers is one my favourite tropes and I loved it so much in this as at the start it was genuine hate. The forced proximity of Sara being Pestilence's prisoner and him slowly seeing some of the true meaning of humanity through her and that building into something between them was so good.

My only gripe was the ending was a bit quick with things and it felt it was part of the grovelling and not through realising humanity was worth it, but still has a HEA and I loved the epilogue and hint of the next books to come!

Thoroughly enjoyed it, loved that I'd not really read anything with this theme before and can't wait to continue reading this series to see how it plays out!

I enjoyed reading this and got through it pretty quickly, but it kind of felt like it was missing something.

I did like Pestilence and his character arc, but I had a hard time believing that Sara was really that *different* then anyone else. Sure she was compassionate, but I would envision someone to make such a change in him to be someone more.

I am Canadian and live on the west coast so I did love the nod to my home province and enjoyed how I know all the areas they traveled through.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bloom Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Ok, I was not expecting this to be such an emotional read. I cried like a baby multiple times reading this book. One particular scene just gutted me. I'm shocked with how much this book played on my emotions. The author did a fantastic job of making you really feel for these characters. And my emotions went from one spectrum to another. To make me hate a character, then love them, then feel sorry for them, then love them even more...I'm just blown away by that.

Pestilence is one of my favorite types of heroes. He's indestructible, fierce and determined. He also didn't know human emotions. To see him slowly learn what it's like to feel was fascinating to see unfold. And then his fierce protection of Sara...oh man, that had me.

Sara was just as fascinating to me. You could see the struggle she went through with her feelings of Pestilence. And rightly so. He's threatening everyone she loves. He's the enemy. Until he isn't. That struggle had me riveted.

This is one of those books where I feel anything I say in my review can not do it justice. There are 3 other books in this series and I can't wait to read them. I'm also bracing myself for more of these torturous emotions.

I'm usually not a fan of immortal beings or deities as love interests (unless the heroine is on the same level as the H), just because they are described as so ancient, and beyond human comprehension. I have a hard time believing that a man that old and powerful would ever care about some random girl, who's quite frankly not even that special.

Overall, I found myself sadly disappointed by this book because so many people were giving it high ratings and I really wanted to enjoy it too. I can't help but feel that they read a different book than I did, as seems to be the case for a lot of these YA/NA new releases lately.

My first Laura Thalassa book, but it won't be my last. Really unique concept for a series. Looking forward to the other books. Pestilence's character and growth was well developed. Very slow burn, but then the ending felt a bit abrupt. Definitely one we will be stocking for our store's spicy section!

3.5! i enjoyed this a lot more than i expected to! a very unique concept with satisfying execution!!!!

Holy moly, this is the first book I’ve read by Laura Thalassa and I can’t wait to read more.

The story follows Sara Burns, a well written strong willed FMC, and Pestilence after she is taken captive trying to end the horseman. What could go wrong?

The story is enemies to lovers. The only reason it doesn’t get 5 stars is how rushed the ending felt.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloom books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

This was very interesting.
I liked the approach to the 4 horsemen and that it wasn't cliche.
Pestilence won me over almost right away. I like and understood his way of see humans and his logic on why they were doing what they're doing.
The romance, it took me a little bit to get to it but by the end I liked it.
Our heroine was fun to read.
Overall this was a great start and now I can't wait to read more.

I have read a lot in my life, see all of the Barbarian books that I continue to read for who knows what reason. But in the year of 2023 I have now read a romance novel about a Horseman of the Apocalypse who causes plagues, and maybe, just maybe, I need to reconsider my choices.

Maybe.

Laura Thalassa can NEVER write a bad book. I lover her and her stories, the way she makes her readers feel as if they are actually in that setting, feeling the same feelings the characters are feeling. GOSH I freakin love this book and I can not wait to read the rest of the series.

Pestilence is a thought invoking romance between two very unlikely entities. A human and a literal divine interpretation of the Horseman.

You see the ideology of how something just is purpose driven with no other motive. The way humanity can change a person’s perspective and outlook on the world.

This book while had its moments of morality questioned, worked out much in the author’s favor.

7.5/10

“Four horsemen came to earth and made a mess of the world.”

No one knows where the Four Horsemen came from, only that one day they appeared on their steeds, Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death, riding through town after town, human technology broke like waves upon the rocks. No one knew what it meant.

"The Age of Man is over, and the Age of the Horsemen has begun. They came to earth, and they came to end us all."

This was the best ridiculously hot romantic fantasy I ever read.

Sara Burns, a 21-year-old firefighter with a passion for English literature, decided to end a first horseman.

"You foolish human. In all the time I’ve existed, had you really thought another hadn’t already attempted what you failed at?"

Yes, you foolish human, did you really think that no one has ever tried to kill an inhuman horserider before?

"I’m not letting you die. Too quick. Suffering is made for the living. And, oh, how I will make you suffer."

Yes, you clever horserider, take her with you everywhere, every home, kill the residents and take care of this foolish human and she takes care of going-to-die residents, gets mad, sad, and attracted to you, and cries for the lost people you killed, and the next day she enjoys her moment with you and makes jokes. Good right?!

As I said, this was a perfectly watery forbidden love story and I'm going to give the second book, War, a shot. It seems these 4 books in the series have an individual story, centered around one of the four hot horsemen!

Many thanks to SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books via NetGalley for giving me a chance to read Pestilence, the first book of The Four Horsemen by Laura Thalassa, I have given my honest review.