I really enjoyed the Bargainer series, but I wasn't a fan of this one! The whole plot is the FMC essentially riding around the world with Pestilence as he kills all the humans except for her - and I got a little bored. Their relationship was entertaining (definitely enemies to lovers, heavy on the enemies), and I did like that he was so un-human, but then slowly gains more human-like qualities. Though I expected more spice, the scenes that were there were great! I'd give it a 2/5 peppers. The writing was fine, the characters were alright, so it may just be me? Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

⭐️🐎👑 5 DIVINE STARS 👑🐎⭐️

Laura Thalassa has done it again. Last year I was flabbergasted by Rhapsodic, and now I've had the same experience but at least 100 times better.

I came to this book expecting a basic smutty romance to entertain my evening, I stumbled upon one of the most beautiful romance books featuring deeply complex, nuanced and humane characters, an enthralling prose, morality and religious beliefs being questioned, sweet and sensual love scenes, and most important of all: two lovers set apart by the philosophical challenges human nature has stated: is humanity redeemable? Upon an apocalypse, can the world be worth healing? Is there anything valuable in the human experience?

All this food for thought, laced with some charming classical poems by Poe and phrases by Shakespeare, has turned this book into a diamond level masterpiece I absolutely devoured, leaving no crumbs and rereading several parts, in less than a day. Seriously, I tabbed and highlighted it like a million times.

Some tropes and themes in this book:

🐎Enemies to lovers (but for real, they despise each other, they are enemies in the face of humanity, they torture and try to kill each other)

🐎 Slow-burn forbidden love (the wait is worth it)

🐎 Lots of angst (it is also worth it)

🐎 Deep questioning of human morals and the meaning of existence

🐎Lots of action and gore

🐎the protagonists can be funny at times

🐎 Emotional, plenty of hurt, fluff and comfort

One of the best works of Laura and one of my all time fav books so far. I literally can't mention a single problem with it. It shouldn't be ignored by readers who seek a profound and passionate love in a dark but bewitching story about the end of times.

Can't wait to read all of the books in the series!

This book was good. I love enemies to lovers and forced proximity. The mythological/fantasy aspect really drew me in but I felt like there were world building/story building aspects that were missing. I wish there was more to the plot than the characters just traveling.

An amazing book & a must have series! I’d give it more than 5 stars if I could…….
Year Five of the Horseman: Sara is selected to stay behind in her town and try to stop Pestilence the first of the horseman to arrive.
Pestilence is able to capture Sara and intends to make her suffer for her treachery.
I loved this book (& series)!
Sara is fierce, courageous and I adored her sassiness!
What can I say? Pestilence is the ultimate broody, angsty bad boy and I was totally here for him!
Will Sara be able to spark change in Pestilence, help him find his own humanity and therefor save the world?
Or will Pestilence with his determination to punish Sara and have her witness the annihilation of her world destroy her first?
Cliffhanger ending.
I received an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review but honestly I bought the series anyway, it’s that good!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me a copy of this book in return for my honest opinions.

The book is full, absolutely full of action. I just love, love, live this book!

I devoured it! I seriously devoured it. I have no more words to say.

I highly encourage everyone to read this book with an open mind. When I read the description I thought, this one isn't for me, but I loved it. I want to read ever single one of Laura Thalassa's books!

Highly, highly recommend!!!

Five stars plus!!!

Pestilence by Laura Thalassa is a unique take on post-apocalyptic romance. Thalassa's writing is raw and emotional, with characters that are both flawed and relatable.

Thalassa has crafted a terrifying world where the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse arrive, leaving death and destruction in their wake. The way she portrays the aftermath of Pestilence's arrival is both haunting and beautifully written.

Thalassa doesn't shy away from the fact that Pestilence is a brutal and unfeeling creature, yet she manages to create a believable and compelling love story between him and Sara. Their relationship is slow-burning and fraught with tension, and the transition from enemies to lovers was built and timed just right.

The characters in this book are incredibly well-developed, particularly Sara. She's a strong and capable heroine who never loses sight of her own humanity, even as she tries to understand and connect with Pestilence.

Overall, Pestilence is a beautifully written, engaging, and unique book --- and enemies to lovers is always a yes for me!

Let me start by admitting I am a huge fan of the enemy to lovers trope. Add in some forced proximity, a healthy dose of mythology and some "sculpted shoulders" and I am all over it. Even though Pestilence has all of these and more, it hides a toxicity that was hard to ignore.

For starters, I could not get myself to like the character of Sara. Sure she's kind and compassionate to people as they die, but that's sort of the only good thing about her. She's not very likable. How God decides in their infinite wisdom to have her be the harbinger of mercy to Pestilence is a bit hard to believe. I also had a really hard time ignoring the Stockholm Syndrome. Holy cannoli was it blatant and serious. There wasn't any huge shift in either of the MCs which would have allayed the syndrome. No great changes in Sara's character and Pestilence's came only too late and at the end and because of........what? Nothing really. Also, I found it a bit sexist that Pestilence's appearance was described multiple times at length, but the only thing we know about Sara is she's got brown hair and eyes.

I also had trouble with the style of this story. Sara uses modern terms and profanities which I think are supposed to be cute juxtaposed against Pestilence's more austere, ancient vocabulary but GOD did she have to say "bump uglies"? If that phrase disappeared from the human lexicon tomorrow it would not be soon enough.

This story is fine. It's engaging, it's sexy, it's fun. It's definitely got problems, but it's well worth the read.

I received an ARC of this book and am leaving this review of my own volition.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks/Bloom Books for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pestilence is the first book of the The Four Horsemen series by Laura Thalassa, first published in 2018. These books have been around for a while and have been super popular with fantasy/dark romance readers, but this was my first time reading anything by this author (also known for The Bargainer series, which has been on my TBR for ages).

The premise is pretty dope: the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse gallop down to earth to unleash God’s wrath and lay waste to humankind, but (surprise surprise) they fall in love with a few sexy ladies who undermine all their plans for Armageddon. Pestilence, the first of the four brothers, is riding across North America to spread a lethal plague throughout the population. Sara Burns is a young firefighter tasked with killing the horseman as he rides through her small Canadian town. But when the horseman survives her deadly assault, Pestilence takes Sara prisoner and decides to make an example of her as they journey across the rest of the continent. It soon becomes clear that there is more to Pestilence than meets the eye, and they must discover whether their feelings for one another are enough to redeem—or doom—all mankind.

I wanted to like this. I really did. It started out mysterious and bleak and delightfully sinister. I love me some fire and brimstone, and at the outset this seemed like the start of a thrilling enemies-to-lovers romance with a compelling moral quandary at the center. But things quickly went off the rails, and I found most of the book really frustrating.

There wasn’t much in the way of worldbuilding, and the extent of Pestilence’s powers were never explained super clearly. There was also basically no plot; the characters spend 95% of the book on the road, in and out of abandoned houses (or busting in on families doomed to die in a matter of days, which is a dick move). And the ending of the story is anticlimactic and feebly resolved.

The protagonists were both unappealing for their own reasons, and they had basically zero chemistry whatsoever. He says he’d burn down the world to save her, but… why? Sara was annoying and immature, a caricature of a “tough chick” who only thinks she’s tough because she swears constantly and has no filter (like, there is a lot—A LOT—of bathroom talk) and she happens to know how to fire a gun. She’s a first responder and is no stranger to death, but for some reason her biggest gripe with Pestilence is his… unabashed nudity? He tortures and abuses her, has no qualms about killing mankind, and still she sort of goes along with it because, despite all his violence, he’s kind of hot.

Which leads to my next point, which is that Pestilence is no catch either. Even disregarding the aforementioned atrocities he’s committed, and despite him being, you know, PESTILENCE, dudebro’s not that bright. He’s got no brains and no personality, just some sexy glow-in-the-dark tattoos and and a hot body and an eagerness to experience the joys of the flesh. He comes off as a guy playing at being superhuman, nothing close to an actual deity.

(Also, they share their first kiss literally seconds after she vomits. Which… what. But it’s also kind of indicative of the tone of the rest of this book, which is both dark and ridiculous.)

I didn’t necessarily have a problem with the author’s humor or sarcastic voice in itself, just that it was so jarringly out of place that it undermined any sort of gravity in the story. The tone constantly flip-flopped between something tragic and mysterious and something almost laughably informal. I couldn’t tell what it was trying to be, whether it was meant to be funny or dark or creepy or what.

But as frustrating as I found this book, I will say this: I was never bored. It was definitely unique, to say the least, and it flew by quickly. I’ll still likely check out the next book in the series, if only in the hopes the protagonists have more going on upstairs than these two knuckleheads.

Also, just FYI: if you go into this expecting a lot of spice, you may want to manage your expectations. There are a few steamy scenes, but they’re not particularly imaginative or explicit—not a criticism in and of itself, but since this is sometimes promoted as a “spicy romance,” more avid smut readers might be disappointed.

This was alllmost a 5 star read for me, it would’ve got there had it been a little spicier and not quite such a slow burn. Now that may just be that I went into this with my smuttier expectations than I received but I still loved this book. I’m all about an apocalyptic drama and I’m all about a romance so throw those two genres together and I’m very much here for it.

I loved Sara. She’s the best of humanity in its complicated realness. Pestilence is simultaneously this badass conqueror and like a newborn baby who knows nothing about the world. I loved watching them interact and shape and mold each other into better versions of themselves. Like I said, I wish there had been more spice but the glimpses into the best (the old couple def made me cry) and the worst (that awful gang) of humanity in its descent to destruction (or maybe hope) kept me engaged throughout.

This is def more than just your average romance. This is a commentary on humanity and God in all its forms. It was so much more (and less lol) than I was expecting. Can’t wait to read the rest of the series.

Pestilence is the first book in a quartet by Laura Thalassa. It is a dark romance that follows the first of the four horsemen, Pestilence, who brings with him an infectious and a deadly epidemic. Pestilence has returned to the world to wreak havoc on humanity, and our main character, Sara Burn, wants to stop him. Sara takes one for the team and goes after Pestilence herself, only to find out that he is unkillable. Pissed off and with plenty of time on his hands, Pestilence decides to make Sara suffer for her attempt on his life.
This book is a lot gorier than I thought it would be and is definitely fairly dark. I highly suggest looking up trigger warnings before diving in. As expected, Pestilence brings forth disease and therefore death, but it is front in center on almost every page throughout the book so the book feels quite heavy.
I found the prose to be well done and the writing itself was overall enjoyable, but I unfortunately did not enjoy the story. Other than the main character being attracted to the horseman, I do not understand their romance in the slightest. In their first conversation, he literally says “Oh, how I will make you suffer.” and he really follows through. The torture he puts her through is unforgivable in my eyes, I have no idea how you could ever be intimate with someone who willingly, and gladly, put you through such horrible things. It all screamed Stockholm Syndrome to me.
She slowly becomes concerned for his wellbeing, despite the fact that he is literally unkillable, and stops fearing him, despite him constantly murdering people with his plague, right in front of her eyes. When it came to them getting together, I was also surprised to find out that it is not very smutty. I had the idea in my head that this book what thoroughly smutty, but it was not at all. It was only about 2 chili peppers out of 5.
I also found this book to be extremely repetitive. They seemed to have the same conversations over and over again. Then when they would stay somewhere, it would play out the same each time. And when they were on the move, the same plot point would often happen. It got very tiresome very quickly.
This book is filled with the dichotomy of Sara’s kindness and Pestilence’s wrath. It dives into deeper conversations with humans and dissects what humanity really is. It explores a “forbidden” romance and truly is “enemies to lovers”. If these are things that you like, you don’t mind a lot of gore, and you’re a fan of dark romances, this will absolutely be for you. Unfortunately, it was not at all for me.

This book was really something and I mean that in every way possible.
Let’s start with the things I liked: the relationship between Sara (female main character) and Pestilence (male main character) was really wholesome once they realised their attraction to one another. Additionally Pestilence character development was amazing to read about. The way that he slowly feels human emotions and learns to appreciate them was exceptional.
But there comes the things that confused me/ I was not prepared for: I had no idea that Pestilence would not be human and sent by God, though this may very well be my own fault because I completely forgot the description by the time I read it. English is also not my mother tongue, therefore I did not understand the word „pestilence“ or the meaning of the four horsemen (I googled it later because I was so confused as to why they often mentioned God and the bible). Because I was so unprepared I was really shocked by the beginning of this book and the fact that Sara tried to kill Pestilence a the very beginning.
But all in all I really enjoyed this book, even if I would not have expected this at the beginning!

Pestilence has come to Earth on a mission to destroy humankind with a plague that is 100% fatal. He detests humans and will show them no mercy. Sara Burns is the only one left in her town. She has orders to kill Pestilence and save humanity. She can’t show mercy even though it goes against her nature.

Overall, this is an enjoyable book. The writing flows easily and the plot moves along smoothly. The plot is engaging although I would have liked more detail on how the plague affected day-to-day life to better envision the setting. The setting was kind of like an apocalypse it not really, perhaps apocalypse light?

The biggest issue I had was with the character of Sara. Not only is Pestilence on a mission to kill everyone on Earth, but he also does some horrible things to Sara and yet she seems to easily overlook at she falls in love with Pestilence. She does struggle a bit with her feeling s towards Pestilence, but it just seems to fast for me.

I would recommend this book, especially to a romance reader who wants to read something a little different. It is an interesting concept and is certainly different from your typical romance.

I really didn’t know what to accept when reading this story, but I enjoyed it. Stockholm syndrome - check. One horse (who is also a badass) - check. Forced proximity enemies to lovers - check and check. I cried in this book, some of the side characters I got really attached to. I loved Sara, Pestilence said a few things that I didn’t love. I can’t wait to continue the series.

I just want to say that the cover to this book is absolutely stunning. That really captured me and really brought me into the story. Overall, I think the story how hold it’s on. I had a good time. There were a bit a predictable parts, but overall it was an exciting.

“This is misery, Sara,” he repeats. “But it is the sweetest misery I have ever felt. I don’t want it to stop.”
....

I LOVE a good enemies to lovers storyline, especially when one of them is hell-bent (heaven-bent?) on killing off humanity. All of humanity except one.

Pestilence has a divine task: spread plague throughout the world until all of humanity has died. And yet after Sara attempts to kill him, he finds himself with a second goal: make her suffer.

Once I started reading, I could not stop. I absolutely LOVED this book. Pestilence was oddly adorable as he learned about humanity and experienced human emotions for the first time, and Sara with her humor and conpassion was the perfect person to show him humanity's better side.

This book had delicious angst, spicy scenes, cute moments, and interesting worldbuilding in this apocalyptic romance from Laura Thalassa. Also, I love the new cover??

Thank you to the author and publisher for providing me with a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review :)

This is one of the best books/series Ive ever read. Honestly, I dont think anyone writes fantasy/dystopian romance like Laura Thalassa. This was also the very first enemies-to-lovers romance I read, years and years ago. And I loved it so much that I found myself having to email the author and thank her for writing this book.

Yes, the hero treats the heroine deplorably at the start, but in my opinion, he had his reasons and it made their relationship work even better. Their care for each other came about organically, and set the tone for the entire rest of the series. The way Laura goes about the end of the world was engaging and such a page-turner. The spice is *cheffs kiss.* Ive purchased special editions of this series and will absolutely be re-reading again. The story is phenomenal and the spice is FANTASTIC and the ending just makes you want to immediately move onto the next book in the series.

A solidly okay book.

This book left me with far too many questions, but Sara and Pestilence's relationship dynamic was really well developed. Part of me is holding out hope that my questions are answered in subsequent books but I wish some more details were explained. I want to know more about how bad humanity got for the horsemen to step in and stuff like that.


As I said above, the dynamic between Sara and Pestilence was really well written, it is the thing that kept me reading. Both of them struggled to deny their feelings and that tension was so good. I did not however enjoy the slut shaming bits from Pestilence. He's been around for a long time and seen a lot, surely he would be above something like that.

The plot and worldbuilding were lacking for me. There really wasn't much description of the places they went or how we got to this point. The plot consisted of them somewhat aimlessly travelling with no real timeline/deadline or purpose beyond spreading the plague. Him spreading the plague isn't even explained much beyond he just spreads it as if he is the plague. This all feels lacklustre. There aren't really any stakes here. Yeah, humanity may die at some point once he finally spreads it everywhere. There's no timeline to it or urgency though.

I honestly got bored reading this and only stuck through the entire book to see their relationship slowly develop. The development felt natural but there was really no plot beyond that.

I would recommend this to anyone wanting a simple romance book about a godlike person and a human. This is more of a dystopian paranormal romance. I would not call this a fantasy, adventure or sci-fi book though. It is strictly a romance book with a minimal plot beyond that.



Thank you to NetGalley and Bloom Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I read Pestilence after an intense Rom-Com binge, so it took me a bit to make the switch from laugh-out-loud funny to apocalyptic misery. Once I did, though, I was able to jump right into the flow of the story.

Sara is a strange character. I liked her, but the way she spoke sometimes seemed off. She's a brave, courageous woman who draws the short straw to stay behind in her village to try to kill Pestilence, the first horseman of the apocalypse. And she would have succeeded had it not been for that whole pesky immortality bit.

Pestilence is of course not pleased with being shot and burned alive. Rather than kill Sara (and yes, we find out why later), he keeps her as his prisoner. As they travel, the line between captor and captive blurs, and a strangely sweet dark romance blooms.

Pestilence will test your views on mankind. It showcases both the best and worst attributes of our species, especially in a high-stakes situation like the apocalypse. It also shows how love can be a huge driving force in change.

I'm not gonna lie - I questioned whether this book would be a romance for over 50% of it. Pestilence and Sara do some terrible things to each other and they witness some terrible things in their travels. The switch from apocalyptic journey to romance happens suddenly but smoothly. It's breadcrumbed here and there, and watching a being who's only wearing the skin of mankind learn to feel love and lust was my favorite part of the story. His love is a pure love, and watching him tie himself so completely to Sara will tug at your heart strings.

Favorite quotes:

"I cannot decide if you are a toxin or a tonic," he says, lifting a hand to my cheek. "Only that you plague my thoughts and fill my veins."

"This is not lust I feel, dear Sara. And I hope you are half as frightened of it as I am."

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This is so different to anything I've read before and I felt like I was slightly out of my comfort zone. It is quite dark and not a fluffy love story by any means. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it - it intrigued me and I most definitely want to go on and read the next book in the series.

I love paranormal reads, so I had hope that this would be a good read for me. This book exceeded all my expectations because I loved it! I enjoyed everything about this story even though there were times where I had hoped that Pestilence would reconsider the decisions he had to make. I loved Sara's character from beginning to end. There were times that I wanted to grab and shake her, but I enjoyed her character. This story made me smile, laugh and cry. There were parts that were devastating and heartbreaking. It definitely played with my heart strings especially, when it came to the older sweet couple, my heart broke for them. Pestilence and Sara both had to learn things along the way but what mattered most was each other. I loved the ending of the book and that cliffhanger ending just left me wanting more. I'm excited to read the next book to see how things turn play out. I'm just hoping that the next book is just as good, if not better than this one.